Why Build a Relic?

Two events inspired the construction of the TC-10. I stopped by my local music store, swampdog music and I played an angry angus tele. This guitar knocked my socks off, it was a new guitar but it looked felt and sounded old, with a gorgeous checked nitrocellulose finish and heavily worn edges. The only down side was the $1500 price tag. I believe that it’s worth every penny I just can’t find room in the budget.

I’d recently read an article about Eddie Van Halen and the process he’s gone through modifying his equipment over the years. I really like the concept of playing a role in the creation of the instrument you play. The Angry Angus experience and the EVH article spun into the idea of building a guitar and an amplifier.

What Type of Guitar?

My taste in guitars goes back to 1985 when I saved lawn mowing money for a summer and bought a well used 74 tele custom from Williams music in Worthington, Ohio. At the time neon color guitars and big hair were all the rage and the tele was a steal at around $350 with case. This was my first real guitar. I spent countless hours studying the battle scars on the old guitar and even adding some of my own. A relic tele was an easy choice.

Side note: Premiere Guitar recently featured a fender custom shop “telemaster” Jazzmaster body with a tele neck and tele style electronics. That is a cool guitar, but I decided the first venture should be low budget.

I priced parts on warmoth.com and I decided that I wanted to start with a less expensive option. I wanted to develop technique with something cheap where I could experiment a little. Google lead me to guitar attack and I found the TC-10 kit from Saga. I bought it now on eBay for $120 shipped and I’ve been continuing the research waiting for it to arrive.