Guitar Building: The Silky Oak Tele Is A Stunner!
The body is the star on this guitar! Not that the other parts aren’t great, but this Australian timber, called silky oak, is gorgeous stuff, and sounds good, too. The finish is just a few coats of Tru-Oil, with no grain filling or stain. We used Duncan vintage stack pickups, which do a very nice job of delivering Tele tone without the single-coil noise. You’re also looking at a Joe Barden bridge, always a good choice for the twang, and a flipped bridge plate for easy access to the volume control.
It’s another cool guitar, to be followed shortly by a Tasmanian blackwood Strat. These woods are new to me. This body is about five pounds, and I always feel I hear a different sound with a bit of extra weight. The tone is a little more pointed, and holds together really well with a lot of gain from the pedals and amp.