Fender '52 Telecaster Build

Greetings all and welcome to the first post on my Telecaster build. This one is pretty much my baby, and what I'm hoping will be one of my last guitars. Man, I can hear my wife laughing now. Anyway, I have recently gotten back into Telecasters thanks mostly to the Squier 51, and the fact that I just couldn't get what I wanted out of a Stratocaster. I've discovered I'm more of a two pickup kind of guy. With that being said, I've always thought Telecasters were beautiful guitars, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to afford what I wanted, until now. Since I've been modding guitars, I've learned how to install various parts and pickups which put me in the unique position to build exactly what I wanted. I live in an apartment, so building one from scratch is out of the question. I also wanted it to be a "genuine Fender". In order to do that, I had to buy all Fender parts, with a few minor exceptions.

The Body: $170 off eBay

I've always liked the butterscotch 52 Telecasters, but the color that really did it for me was Honey Blonde. I also really like the transparent white blonde, which the 50s Classic comes in, but I thought I could get a better deal by building my own. So I found a Honey Blonde Fender Nashville Telecaster body on ebay for $150 plus $20.00 shipping. Nashville Teles have a "swimming pool" route because they have three pickups instead of the traditional two. This worked out great for me because I may want to put a humbucker in the neck postion later on down the road.

The Neck: $220 from a member @ tdpri.com

The neck is from a 50s Classic Telecaster and I got a great deal on it. The reason I went with this one is two fold. 1) The 50s Classic Telecaster is a great guitar, and I haven't played a bad one. 2) The finish is the same as an American 52 Telecaster Reissue, and played better. Plus I saved a lot of money. This is actually the second neck I bought for this project. The first was also from a tdpri.com member, but it was an Esquire neck. No difference really, other than the decal. I only payed $185 for the Esquire neck, but if this build goes well, it will go on the next build.

Pickups: $130 from guitarpartsresource.com

Aside from the neck and body, this is where I spent the most money. I decided to go with Fender Custom Shop NoCaster pickups. Based on a lot of recommendations, these are great for blues and classic rock. Keep in mind, I'm also going for all Fender parts on this one. I've never played Nocaster pickups, but I have played some that are similar. I really liked the ones I played, so I went for it.

Hardware: $85

The remaining hardware includes, pots, control plate, bridge, saddles, knobs, and pickguard. I got the pots off eBay and they are pre-wired. They are from a Highway 1 Texas Telecaster with the new Greasebucket wiring. I saved myself some time on this one since all I have to do is wire the pickups and input jack. If I don't like the "greasebucket", I'll wire it differently. I ordered a "vintage" control plate, bridge plate, and brass saddles from Muscian's Friend. I spent hours looking for a "vintage" 3-saddle bridge on eBay/other retailers, but they were all $40 or more. I ordered the bridge plate and saddles seperately from MF for a total of $25. Why anyone would go the other route is beyond me. I already had the input jack, and I'm using a 1-ply Allparts pickguard. Everyone was out of the OEM 52 pickguard. The input jack and pickguard are the only parts on the guitar that were not made by Fender.

Total: $605

That's right. Total was $605 and I couldn't be happier with the way it came out. She plays great, but still needs a little tweaking. The Custom Shop '51 Nocaster pickups are amazing. They're a little quieter volume wise that I expected, but thats what volume knobs are for. I can't remember the last time I was this excited about a guitar. It plays like a dream, and it simply gorgeous. Here are the pics to prove it!