1955 Fender Esquire Telecaster and string ferrule hole restoration

This week in the shop we finished this beautiful 1955 Fender Esquire with 100% original parts down to every last screw. This is a wonderful guitar that is currently for sale:



Also we want to show you how we deal with Tele string ferrule holes. Often when a body is sanded the height changes on the ferrules and when we refinish the body, the ferrule holes fill with lacquer such that the ferrules don't seat flush with the body. We developed this tool to redrill the step in the ferrule hole so everything sits flush after the refin:



First we redrill the holes with the specially designed drill to stop depth


Here the holes are done. You can see the special copper guide on the step drill.



Finally the ferrules are pressed in flush with the body.

1965 Precision Bass Restoration and Refinish...update!

Simon's '65 P-Bass is done now and it came out great. Follow the restoration process with captions, including before shots, and the final steps in the Flickr Photo Set. Note that although the color looks a little greenish in the photo due to digital capture, it's true Sonic Blue.



Also, this week in the shop we finished the '55 Esquire body. The complete guitar that is 100% original except for the finish will be for sale after it cures and is reassembled.

And in process are the guitars you see below. L to R are '58 P-Bass, Olympic White, '64 P-Bass, Olympic White, '66 Tele, original black custom color restored, and another '66 Tele in blonde. The '58 and '64 P-Basses are customer instruments, the two '66 Teles will be for sale.