Two Teles, Part 8
It’s all about ash here. Swamp ash, to be exact, weighing in at a mere four pounds. My pine Esquire has already convinced me of the many virtues of a lightweight, thinly finished guitar. I expect a little harder edge to the tone here, compared to the pine, but we will see. Harder isn’t a bad thing, just different.
The wood itself is less yellow than the pine, and I suppose the grain is denser as well, so the Tru-Oil doesn’t color it as deeply. Getting a nice gloss after only two coats (rubbing out each one with 0000 steel wool). I went to five coats finally, to build the color a little. Not much protection from wear and tear, though; I left the body sitting on the living room sofa once and discovered later that one or more of our cats had walked over it, and maybe even tried it out as a scratching post. The Tru-Oil has no grain- or scratch-filling properties (which is why I sanded so carefully to begin with), so I was only able to disguise them a bit. Oh well, they’re made to be played, ya know…
On to gathering and installing parts. Once again Allparts is making me crazy by being backordered and slooooow on a few of the things I need. I need a neck, and tuners, and control and neck plates before I can move ahead. HATING the wait!