Prairie Custom Guitars

Well this guitar has been a major experiment.I first tried tinting  my grain filler  with amber dye to  give it the aged look.I was originally  going to do this natural but  it turned out too yellow for my liking.After major sanding I started over.

  I wanted to try some other methods on applying dye so I mixed up some red with some alcohol and went with that.It worked quite well.Only problem was because of the filling,sanding etc,the edges didn't stain very even.It was then I decided to go with the black edges.From there I decided that since it was all kind of an experiment,I would try to do some binding laminating

      I took 5 different layers of binding and laminated it and applied it.It turned out pretty good.It is now in the finishing stages getting coats of Nitro and wetsanding

 Here are some pics from the build

Now comes the decisions on hardware 

OK

A Couple new pics after a few more coats of Nitro

Man the more coats I put on the better I like it

Well we give it a wetsand today to see how it would level out.Looks pretty good

Just a couple more coats and we should be good

Well this has been curing for just about a month

Time to start planning on what is going to go on it

You can see the neck I am using has a black finish on it

It is off a mid 80's Contemporary Telecaster

It is actually a really nice neck,12 radius and fairly thin profile

Just to be truthful,the Fender logo has to go

 I will put on one of my own.It is only right.Even though this is a Telecaster

it is not a true Fender so off it comes 

This neck has Fender Japan Gotoh style tuners

 I am going to be putting chrome hardware on this and I have one of

these to put on it 

The screw holes are pretty bad so I am going to fill

them and re-drill them.Out with some tooth picks

 After they dried,I cut them off and sanded them down flush

 This neck had a locking nut thing on it at one time.I deciced

to plug them holes too 

After they have dried,I will sand them flush too

I am thinking matching headstock maybe

Some red dye might do it,it's worth a try 

This neck is actually almost to for a re-fret

I will give it a light level and crown the frets to see

if I can get some of the grooves out

Well I used some red dye to try to match the body

Not real happy with it but it's for me so it will do

I'm thinking this one will be my main gigging guitar for a while

After the dye set I put on a couple coats of spray poly,let it dry

and then put on a logo 

Looks much better than it does in the picture

A few more coats of poly and the neck is ready

Just waiting for this to cure

I think 1 more week and I can wetsand and buff this puppy out

IT is time

Got some new sanding pads today.These things worked great

Started at 360 grit and worked up to 4000 grit

Them some rubbing compound

Then some polish and WOW

I like it,now just have to wait for the neck to finish curing

Well Lets get this thing together

I want to use it tonight.Since I have changed the Fircaster II into an

Esquire,I have my set of Kinman Broadcaster pickups to go in here

These are the best noiseless pickups on the market(my opinion)

Give you that nice Telecaster® sound without the 60cycle hum

Now we just have to decide on guard color

Tried it without a guard 

Looks pretty plain

Ahh,this is better

 Hmmm,need to do some neck pocket work

Don't want to have to use a shim.Better get to work on it with

my scraper.Need to make it just a hair deeper at the heel  

Well guess I should show some pics of the finished guitar

All setup and ready

Used it last Sat night

Sounds great with the Kinmans