Whenever I get anything through the door there is always a thought, would I like to add this to my collection?  This was a real yes and no! Yes its really nice but no, its left handed.

What it needs is a little TLC, well a lot of TLC, a good clean and a fret dress.

Under the dirt is quite a nice US Telecaster…

There’s also a rather nasty cack in the head..First job then, inject some glue into the crack and clamp it tight.

While I’m at the neck the frets are rather worn, with some quite deep grooves.

Only ay to sort that is a fret dress.  They are a little uneven anyway.

With the neck levelled, all taped and marked up ready to start levelling the fret tops.

 With the tops even now it’s time to re-shape and polish each fret top.

With the head and frets done and the nut re-fitted it’s time to put the neck back and add some new strings.

Before I can fit the strings I also need to sort the bridge saddles, they’re all rusted solid.  Actually the intonation screws came out ok and cleaned up nicely but I had to fit a new set of height adjustment screws

With the strings at pitch I first adjusted the truss-rod.  Normally with a flat neck without strings it falls into place.  However this one needed a little more tension but with quick tweek it was fine.  Eyeballing the bridge saddle heights I wasn’t far off, just a little high though.

First set the outside E-strings..

With those done, match the other strings to the radius of the fretboard.

Next the action at the 1st fret, which was a little high…

so I cut the nut slots a little deeper.

With the action height sorted lastly reset the intonation.

Double check the pickup heights (I had to take out the neck pickup to clean the cover) and it’s right ready to rock.  All I need is a lefty to test drive it!

A word from the owner:

“Nice clean up and set up George, plays nicely,
Kevin.”