Making a custom Telecaster-style guitar from Harley Benton DIY Kit

In spring 2023 me and my good friend Max joined our forces to build a custom guitar. I am obviously a guitar enthusiast while Max is good on wood working and, most importantly, loves to do that. We bought a Harley Benton T-Style DIY Kit and some decent hardware to replace cheap one that comes out of the box. The building process is shown in this video.

A while after build was finished I did some fret levelling off the camera (for the first time in my life). It did not turn out perfectly, but at least my fingertips stopped bleeding ;)
I also re-soldered the control plate multiple times to make it work properly. You can see a photo of the final version of it at 10:45.

Soundtrack is written and performed by yours truly using the guitar shown on the video.


Time codes:

0:04 Unboxing
1:17 Kit assembled out of the box
1:27 Making a headstock
2:49 Making holes for strings
3:20 Making body contours
6:21 Applying wood protection liquid
6:53 Painting
8:35 Lacquering
8:49 Polishing
9:19 Applying shielding paint
9:40 Assembling the neck
10:17 Installing string ferrules
10:34 Soldering
10:49 Final assembling
11:39 Tuning
11:49 First sounds
11:57 Before/After


Parts List:

- Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit T-Style
- Pickups: Seymour Duncan Little 59 & Vintage Stack Set
- Bridge: Gotoh GTC 202 T-Style Bridge C
- Tuners: Gotoh SG381-07 MG-T Locking 6L C
- String Ferrules: Gotoh TLB-1 Chrome
- Strap Locks: Schaller S-Locks M CH
- Neck Plate: Fender Vintage Plain Chrom
- Knobs: 2x Göldo Dome Speed Knob Chrome KB00C
- Control Plate: Fender Control Plate Tele
- Potentiometers: 2x Allparts EP-5485-000 CTS 250K Mini Pot
- Capacitor: TAD Cap Orange Drop 22nF 100V


Materials:

- Colorless wood impregnation liquid (Altax)
- Blue and yellow spray paint (Dupli-Color Next Generation series)
- Clear satin lacquer (Jenolite)
- Shielding paint (Guitar Kings)
- Polishing cream (Jufisto Extra Fine)


#telecaster #partscaster #sugarcaster #guitar #diy #hobby