A Black Swamp Ash HB Tele!
This is the second guitar I’ve built for this customer. The first was a rosewood board Tele with an obeche body and Duncan Vintage Stack pickups. This time he had the black-and-white color scheme, a maple neck, and humbuckers on his list. Further, he requested a black gloss finish that let the ash grain show, and a stained neck color with a satin finish.
The body is from Clearfork, and the neck is from Allparts. I had to rout the body for humbuckers, so I used the Gotoh humbucker bridge with individual brass saddles. Most of the other parts are Fender. There’s an electrosocket holding the jack, and two 500K CTS solid shaft pots. I flipped the plate as I generally do. As always, I made a bone nut with his preferred string spacing.
I stained the body black with Behlen stain, and used TransTint vintage maple for the neck. The finish is Tru-Oil, also as usual, with a final wax coat for the body. The neck was rubbed out with 0000 steel wool, and has a great dry feel as a result.
The pickups are from Electric City, and are the Electric Flag set with an F-spaced bridge, and short-leg bridge plates on both pickups. At this writing, Electric City seems to have gone out of business, and I’m very sorry to hear it. Bill Megela, the owner and maker of these amazing pickups, is a great guy. I don’t have any details, but hope he is well. My customer was lucky to get these!
I can report the new owner is very happy with this guitar. It sounds and plays great! Excellent parts and careful work will get you there every time.