John Kingma's version of a Teisco Del Rey

[John Kingma]

I've always loved the look of the old Teisco Del Reys and for years have been watching ebay for a decent one to pop up. Well since that hasn't happened I decided to build my own version.

BODY - Hackberry
NECK - Maple
FRETBOARD - Chechen with Cherry dots
SCALE - 25.5 inches
NUT - White Corian
PICKUPS - 4 Lipstick Tube Pickups each with it's own on/off toggle switch
BRIDGE - Roller bridge with Vintage style tremolo
FINISH - Krylon Brilliant Blue and clearcoat

You will have to excuse the orange peel. I am not actually finished the finish yet. This guitar is going to be the Project of the Month in the next issue of Canadian Woodworking Magazine and my deadline to get them some photos is today. So I had to assemble it to make it appear done. Now I have to take it apart and finish the finish. I need 4 or 5 more coats of clear and then level sand and buff.

I did have it plugged in for a few minutes and I really love the feel and sound.

[Hans Bezemer]

John, that's a very nice guitar!
I would love to see some pictures from the "guts" of the guitar.

[John Kingma]

Thanks Hans.

Here is a photo of the under side of the pickguard. Nothing special. If my math is correct, with the 4 pickups and switches, I can get 15 different tone options.

If my math is correct.

As far as the bridge ground is concerned... I have a "pressure connection" under one of the pickguard screws. That way all the electronics are mounted to the pickguard and if I decide to make a second pickguard with a totally different pickup combination then it will be a quick and easy switch whenever the strings are changed.

[David King]

Where did you get the pickups and the On/Off switches? Very lovely color and great looking guitar in spite of any orange peel that might be there.

[Jason Rodgers]

Rock on, with rockers!

I like that the pickguard can be totally removed, with no wires hanging on to the body.

Ok, so now that you have a fresh paint job with the rattle cans, tell me how you did it! Krylon glossy blue, but what clear coats over it?

Cool project, John!

[John Kingma]

Where did you get the pickups and the On/Off switches? Very lovely color and great looking guitar in spite of any orange peel that might be there.

David - the pickups came from a Canadian ebay seller called "bezdez". They are pretty much equal to the pickups that GFS sells. The switches came from DigiKey.ca I like them because they mount in a round hole instead of a square hole like a lot of other similar rocker switches do.

[John Kingma]

Rock on, with rockers!

I like that the pickguard can be totally removed, with no wires hanging on to the body.

Ok, so now that you have a fresh paint job with the rattle cans, tell me how you did it! Krylon glossy blue, but what clear coats over it?

Cool project, John!

Since I found out the hard way that Krylon clear is not compatible with Krylon colour, I did some testing and found that Minwax worked on top of the Krylon just fine, so that is what I'm using.

[Henrique Schneiter]

Cool retro feel! And clever bridge ground too.

Did you have the time to test drive that vintage tremolo? I'm building a guitar with the same unit right now, and I don't know exactly what to expect.

Cheers!

[John Kingma]

No I haven't really tried it that much but I'm guessing the range is pretty limited.

But at least it looks cool.

[Jason Rodgers]

Since I found out the hard way that Krylon clear is not compatible with Krylon colour, I did some testing and found that Minwax worked on top of the Krylon just fine, so that is what I'm using.

Would that be Minwax wipe on poly? I've seen that mentioned elsewhere (probably by you!).

[John Kingma]

Jason - the Minwax was from a rattle can but the label is the same as on the can of wipe on poly so it's probably the same stuff.

I do use wipe on poly a lot, but not this time.

[Hans Bezemer]

Thanks for the pictures John, great project!

[Perry Underwood]

Diggin' the '60s vibe.

One question: Do rocker switches need to be grounded? I ask because I plan to use some, and I see no where to make a connection.

[John Kingma]

These rockers have an all plastic body and no ground lug, so that's a NO on these ones. I'm sure there are other rocker switches out there that do need to be grounded.

[John Kingma]

Here's a photo of Page 6 of the latest issue of Canadian Woodworking Magazine.

[Jason Rodgers]

Congratulations! That's cool! How'd you get your name in there?

[Jim Bonnell]

Nice job John. Very well executed. I really like the overall look, but don't you think you could have fit in one more pickup?<g> Congratulation on the magazine picture.

[John Kingma]

Congratulations! That's cool! How'd you get your name in there?

Thanks Jason.

The magazine has a forum with a sections dedicated to projects. I couldn't find any guitar projects on it so I posted this build. The magazine editor picks one project ever couple months to put in an upcoming issue and I was lucky enough to get picked.

[John Kingma]

Nice job John. Very well executed. I really like the overall look, but don't you think you could have fit in one more pickup?<g>

Thanks Jim.

I'll fit 5 into the next one...

Now that I look at it, I could probably get 7 in there... I'll just need to find some smaller switches