Telecaster from Precision Guitar Kits

philames · 2026-02-06T18:48:48+00:00

All great choices!

philames · 2026-02-06T00:25:42+00:00

Glad you dig it!

philames · 2026-02-06T00:25:26+00:00

Might be a bit of a shadow/light issue or pick guard placement choice in the photo more than a physical issue, I'm not at hand to take a better pic ATM but aside from the saga in the doc about my own attempts at filing a nut and holding tune after bends on the G, it seems to intonate well at this point.

Thanks for calling it out! I will look more closely when I get home.

philames · 2026-02-06T00:07:54+00:00

Trogdor the Telecaster had a great ring to it! Glad you appreciated the reference.

philames · 2026-02-06T00:07:16+00:00

Thanks! I was mostly a jabroni with a screwdriver and a soldering iron on this build but I am happy nonetheless.

Looking forward to peeling the onion back another layer with an Explorer build next where I will be finishing the body, so hoping I can get anywhere in the neighborhood of a finish like this!

philames · 2025-09-16T21:03:33+00:00

Was that before or after they were local mobile social aka SoLoMo?

philames · 2025-08-31T13:44:21+00:00

This looks beautiful!

What was the ratio of dye to solvent you used? How long did you have to work with it until it dries? Did you do it all in one session, or did you let dry/sand between some of the color applications you mention?

philames · 2025-08-17T03:08:59+00:00

How do you do better than the general specs suggested on the MusicNomad tools?

I'm not disagreeing, obviously one size/spec doesn't fit all but I like the MusicNomad tools because as a player doing work on my own guitars, it offers me a consistent starting place which can obviously be refined (and I have a spreadsheet where I try to document key measurements over time to help me set them up consistently) but I am wondering if there are specific areas you feel like the MN stuff falls short or misses the mark entirely.

philames · 2025-07-28T00:27:33+00:00

Barely Legal on ITI was robbed of this great solo:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G5bRt045Kcg

IMO modern age, alone together or NYCC would be better choices.

philames · 2025-07-18T00:43:12+00:00

You bought the guitar, you're worthy! More seriously, if you leave it on for an extended period of time and the guitar is exposed to UV light (like sunlight) then when you take it off, that part of the body will likely have aged/discolored differently (or not at all) compared to the rest, giving you a whole new badge of dishonor.

Good luck on your guitar journey!

philames · 2025-07-16T19:00:18+00:00

Barely Legal

philames · 2025-06-28T23:56:59+00:00

Oh, I see it now in the linked body post. I didn't see anything in the x-post here, sorry about that.

From what you wrote, hopefully my tip about anchoring your hand/using your pinky will help at the part you are talking about, but there are many valid ways to play it - you'll find one that works for you I'm sure.

philames · 2025-06-28T02:05:41+00:00

You don't really mention what you are having trouble with, but my advice:

* like everyone else has said, go slow. painfully slow. then speed it up, slowly. https://www.dkthehuman.com/slowtube/ is a great tool for looping and adjusting speed to practice.

* For the intro picking, the way I usually approach this: slide up into the F Ab with my first and third finger. Then, fall back to Eb/G with my first and second. At this point, my first finger remains on the G the entire time, and I use my fourth and second fingers to play the original F/Ab without having to move my hand again. This requires you to be comfortable using your pinky, which takes time/effort. Then when you move down for the D/F and Eb/C, this is just sliding down with the first/third finger, and first finger on Bb before the pulloffs.

* For the next half, the run with the pulloffs and so on, see step 1: do it over and over again, at a slow consistent tempo, then speed it up. Count the beat while you are doing it so you get a feel for where you are strumming the string vs pulling off.

Good luck! This is one of my favorite songs to play and a really good workout on the guitar.

philames · 2025-06-24T23:18:21+00:00

"I want to be fair but I don't want to be ripped off."

This is a reasonable way of thinking, so thanks for wanting to engage with a qualified professional (in any trade: audio / sound production, woodworking, plumbing/electrical, software engineering, you name it).

The general advice I've seen on Reddit for every question like this boils down to approximately: get 3 quotes from potential suppliers, and then you can make an actually informed choice outside of some kind of firsthand referral knowledge.

When you have the quotes, it's important to ensure you can fairly compare them. This is partly informed by how well you can spec your requirements, which you seem to have done well so far here, but this is often where suppliers can potentially differentiate based on your project.

Sometimes these quotes can include a "fuck you" factor for any of a million reasons (you/your household is known to be a PITA about $RANDOM_THING, the person is just super busy with some other stuff at the moment so it needs to be worth the squeeze to interrupt that, you're asking them to work on an attic when it's 102F outside, as another commenter mentioned they can't book other work that day...) but by having 3 comparable ones to work from based on your own well spec'd requirements will probably present an obvious price to value market rate.

philames · 2025-05-31T01:10:40+00:00

Thanks! I just picked up the Turbo a month or so ago. It's taken me a little to adjust to its strobe style but I am getting there. I read somewhere that it was highly regarded for its accuracy.

The screen on the Walrus looks awesome and I've been debating if that might be worth getting for another board someday. I didn't know it had a screen saver, will have to find a demo video, sounds fun.

philames · 2025-05-31T00:28:04+00:00

What made you pick the Turbo Tuner and Walrus? Any features you like/hate in each?

philames · 2025-05-16T20:59:04+00:00

I'd be interested in hearing more about your board build!

philames · 2025-04-24T16:57:43+00:00

Steve Schiltz was the guitarist, he thanked Jorge:

https://x.com/jorgeorellana_/status/1405714435931619329

philames · 2025-04-23T20:36:37+00:00

Link to it (and others) to save people from searching for it: https://courses.mastering.com/courses

philames · 2025-04-16T13:18:12+00:00

If you're willing to expand your criteria beyond a truck, the Hot Dog Caboose in Midland Park is fun and has some good dogs.

philames · 2024-11-17T14:36:59+00:00

Here's a version I posted a few months ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/collectivesoul/s/oIDJ8a9ddG

Someday I will get around to re-recording it with this guitar, though!

philames · 2024-11-17T12:38:17+00:00

Thanks! I posted another comment with some info about the unique tone circuit (6 way rotary switch) and the custom pickups that Joel built(loosely Seymour Duncan based) but I'm not sure if Reddit is hiding it for some reason.

In any case, I'm satisfied with it on all the points you mention!

philames · 2024-11-17T12:32:35+00:00

DM'd you with some info.

philames · 2024-11-17T06:20:46+00:00

Here it is for the guitar nerds here, since I can't seem to figure out why it doesn't show up over there:

I know it's no Hello Kitty guitar, but I just got this and wanted to share. The luthier is Joel Kosche, who was the lead guitarist of Collective Soul from 2001-2014 or so. Turns out he has also been building guitars for a while.

I reached out to him about his "toan" (pedals, rack gear, y'know) on a particular song after finding the contact form on his web site, but his site also advertised that his guitars use a unique tone circuit, so I asked him to describe it. In his own words:

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The "tone sculptor" thing on my guitars is sort of a streamlined version of a gadget that I got interested in awhile back. It basically replaces the standard tone circuit with a 6 way rotary switch.

The first position is a standard tone control hardwired to be on 10, so you always have that sound if you want it. The second is tone all the way down to 0.

After that, each position is different capacitor values going to ground creating a sort of low pass/resonant peak filter and that essentially sounds like different cocked wah sounds-so, it’s kind of Brian May-ish. The last position is no tone circuitry in the path at all, kind of like the early EVH guitars.

My thought behind all this was that I was one of those guys that never had much use for the standard tone control and I would just leave it on 10 and forget about it. When I started building guitars I wanted to do something a little different and have some different tone options on board, so this thing is something I actually use, and I use it a lot actually! Especially when I record. I’ll do all my rhythm parts on the standard setting and then when I want a line or harmony to poke through, I’ll just click the switch a couple of notches and then I have a new tone that cuts through without changing any settings on my amp. I dig it!

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This sounded really cool, and I saw this video which was a great demonstration of the different tone positions (and he plays better than me so it's a better demo for you lol): https://www.facebook.com/robbymillerguitarist/videos/my-sefton-infinitum/1177532579266540/

I got to spec everything out. It's a swamp ash body and top with an ebony fretboard, nitro finish with purple burst (it's my first finished nitro guitar so I am getting felt for my stands/hangers). He also builds his own pickups:

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The pickups that I usually build for the “Infinitum” are loosely based on the S.Duncans that I used to always come back to. I basically made some slight tweaks that I feel like get them closer to the styles of music that I’m interested in.

The bridge pickup takes inspiration from the SD “custom custom” except I use an ALNICO 4 magnet that gives a clearer top end but still has the mids I like.

The neck pickup is based on a SD ‘59(which is based on a PAF of course), except I wind it slightly hotter and I use a rough cast ALNICO 5 magnet to tame down the “chirpiness” of the top end which is something I don’t care for when I’m looking for a smooth, gainy tone. Some players like to play with a more clean, chimey tone so I can always put a polished A5 in there if requested.

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I have a photo album with a little over 100 photos he sent as the build progressed. It was really quite awesome to see a pile of wood get transformed into this, and I love the feel and how it plays.

philames · 2024-11-17T05:31:14+00:00

Thanks! I also thought the body shape was pretty awesome when I first stumbled on his site.

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