Building a Replica of a Famous Artists Signature Guitar - the "BMT"

Disclaimer:

All company names, brands, logos and product names mentioned in this instructable belong to their rightful owners and are mentioned for informational purposes only. The author has no legal relationship with the owners and has no commercial intentions with this tutorial. References to the construction template (the special model of the guitar that can be purchased from the manufacturer) are also for information purposes only and are not part of a business relationship.

Why this guitar? My path to building this special model:

1. I am a musician and a maker, but so far I have pursued both passions in parallel. As a singer and occasionally also as a guitarist, I have gained a lot of experience over the years, solo and with many different bands. As a maker, I have been having fun creating creative construction projects in the areas of e-mobility, electronics and crafts using, among other things, laser cutters and 3D printers for about ten years. With the replica of the “Prusacaster”, I directly combined my two passions for the first time by building a musical instrument.

2. When producing my own songs in my home studio, I use the current version of the “Band in a box®” software. The core of this software are instrumental phrases recorded by studio musicians, which the user can combine with their song idea to create a professional-sounding multi-track for mixdown. In the genre I prefer, “Rock, Blues, Country”, I always noticed a brilliant guitarist whose recorded phrases enriched each of my songs enormously.

It turns out that he is one of the world's best studio musicians and owns a very special, heavily modified '67 Telecaster, which was released in 2022 as a signature special model by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. He wanted a guitar that could reproduce all the sounds required in the recording studio from the three most popular basic types (Telecaster®, Stratocaster® and Gibson LesPaul®). So it’s a “jack of all trades”. Thanks to the ingenious conception of its luthier Joe Glaser, this guitar can really replace these three different types of guitars. It has seven settings to choose and combine your pickups. The standard Telecaster and Gibson only have three (with two pickups each) and the Stratocaster only has five (with three pickups). And so I became a fan of Brent Mason and his very special Fender Telecaster®, which has its own story. Here he tells it: Brent Mason Telecaster Story

3. Now I had the desire to own such a guitar. But simply ordering them wasn't an option for me, not only because of the steep price. “By chance” there was still a wooden body left over from the construction of the “Prusacaster” in the form of a “Telecaster®”... So for a maker (and guitarist) a DIY version of this guitar was a very obvious challenge...

My goal:

I intended to build this “BMT” as close to the original as possible, but only use a fraction of the purchase price as the project budget. My limit was about 20% of the regular trading price of about $3,000. The budget should be used in these three areas:

   a) Sound / electronics = 100% original

   b) Guitar look / similarity = 90-95% original

c) Mechanical parts = subject to availability + budget friendly

   a) Sound: Since it makes no sense to copy a guitar sound with inferior components, this is where my biggest investment took place. The three original pickups come from Seymour Duncan and are called:

Bridge pickup → Seymour Duncan® Vintage Stack® Tele® SD-STK-T3b

Middle pickup → Seymour Duncan® Hot Stack® Strat® STK-S2

Neck pickup → Seymour Duncan® Vintage Mini HB

Attention: The model of the neck pickup is correctly called: SD Antiquity II Mini® (SD-ATQ2-MH-n) and should not be confused with the other (more modern) SD Mini Humbucker versions 1 / 2 / 3! (Information from Seymour Duncan Sales Manager)

I ordered the pickups from a dealer in California. It was worth it for me even with import duties and shipping costs to Germany. But you can order them from any retailer that offers them (or directly from Seymour Duncan).

Special feature: The middle pickup is no longer sold individually with the original cover (dark red with SD logo), but is only manufactured exclusively for the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to build the “BMT”. As an alternative, I replaced the white cover of the Hot Stack STK-S2 (or black, depending on the dealer stock) with a red replacement cover from SD (points deducted for the look-alike...) ;-) But the 3D printer can also be used here later Help with wine-red filament (or alternatively spray paint).

I ordered the other components for the electronics directly from my music wholesaler. The three potentiometers from Allparts, the capacitor from TAD (Cap Orange Drop 47nF 100V) and the jack socket for the signal output.

All parts of the guitar that are largely responsible for the tone signal / sound are therefore completely original: strings → pickups → potentiometer / capacitor → out

2) Appearance of the guitar:

By modifying the '67 original, the guitar has a very unique look: instead of a varnish, it only has a gray primer. Brent Mason himself explains why this is the case in the linked video.

Instead of the usual Telecaster® with just one bridge pickup and one neck pickup, another middle pickup was installed and the usual “lipstick” single coil PU in the neck position was replaced by a humbucker. Each of the three Seymour Duncan pickups used has a very distinctive sound and look. From this alone you can immediately see that the work was only based on the sound result and that visual aesthetics played no role.

The control plate with the toggle switch is also optically and electrically unique (brass/gold colored with three instead of two potentiometers). I wanted to implement these features completely.

The pickguard is also a modified unique piece so that both pickups (neck and middle) fit in size and position.

I still had a white pickguard left over from building the “Prusacaster” for a “T-model” (Telecaster® replica). I reworked this so that it fits the BMT project. Black foil was used to get the right color.

3) Mechanical parts / all other guitar parts:

This is where I made the most compromises for cost reasons. I bought the bridge and neck used on Ebay including the tuning machines. I ordered most of the small parts such as sleeves, screws, spacers, knobs, etc. from my music dealer or on trading platforms. I completely omitted the “B-Bender” from the original. I don't need this feature for my guitar playing, so I saved the effort of converting and the cost of this device. A completely own replica of this mechanism would have gone beyond the scope of this DIY project. But if you have this ambition, go ahead!

Building a DIY replica of the Brent Mason Telecaster® electric guitar

Step 1: Gather information: plans, measurements, parts lists

Step 2: Collect components/materials/tools

Step 3: Editing the Components:

   a) Body and neck

   b) Pickguard

   c) Control plate

Step 4: Assembling the Components

Step 5: Wiring the electronics

Step 6: Final Assembly and Testing

1. router
2. laser cutter
3. files and sandpaper
4. primer for wood in light gray.
5. drill (preferably a pillar drill) and metal drill
6. metal files
7. soldering iron, solder, and a few pieces of wire

Fortunately, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has all the information you need about the Brent Mason Telecaster® available on its website.

Here you will find technical drawings, a complete list of components, the circuit diagram of the electronics and instructions for the functions of the guitar: 

Fender Brent Mason Telecaster Switch Control Function

Glaser Bender Use and Adjustments (I didn't need it, but it's interesting)

Guitar manual

Service Manual

Now you have all the basic information together and can start getting the parts. I don't link any specific sources from which I got my components. Use the parts list and find the parts from your preferred dealers. Maybe you already have a few components in your collection.

Required tools and modifications to the components:

a) Corpus

You will need body woodworking tools to make the pockets for the pickups. If you have a Telecaster® body as a base, the pocket for the neck pickup must be enlarged and a new pocket for the middle pickup must be milled into the wood. This is best done with a router. See how I did it in the pictures here. To help with the router (edge ​​guide), I created a template out of 8mm MDF with the laser cutter. I took the image template from the technical drawings in the downloads. Alternatively, you can of course also work with a CNC milling machine and generate the required milling file from the drawings. If you have the opportunity, you can of course mill the entire body from the wood of your choice. But that's professional class...

Other hand tools: Files and sandpaper for smoothing the milled edges and fine-sanding the entire body for priming. This is done with primer for wood in light gray.

b) Pickguard

There are several options for the pickguard: There are replacement pickguards for Telecaster® that already have a milling for a neck humbucker. It is uncertain whether this milling fits in size and position and whether the drill holes for the screws also fit the body. It would be better to modify a standard pickguard that matches the body. I did this with the laser cutter. To do this, I first lasered some stencils out of cardboard to check that my image files from the instructions correspond to the body.

It took several iterations of changing the size and position of the pickup recesses, as well as the positions of the eight screw holes, to get everything to match.

c) Control plate

To process the control plate: drill (preferably a pillar drill) and metal drill. The drill size depends on the thread diameter of your potentiometers (varies depending on the continent and manufacturer!) as well as metal files.

For the electronics you need a soldering iron, solder and a few pieces of wire to connect the components according to the circuit diagram. The sheath color of the stranded wire does not matter. But to avoid confusion (also with the pickup connections), create your own color system for signal and ground and get the pieces ready.

a) body and neck

As I said, I had kept a blank of the guitar body from another project. You can also get a kit for a guitar in the form of the Telecaster® or a replica as a complete guitar. Maybe you can also find a defective guitar on Ebay. I got the neck there too.

b) pickguard

I modified the existing "T-model" pickguard with a laser cutter as described.

c) control plate

On Amazon I got a brass-colored Contol Plate for a Telecaster replica. Here the center hole for the third potentiometer was still missing. However, the two existing holes were not big enough. Therefore, I had to drill it open. Unfortunately, I got a bit out of the center line when drilling the center hole. The hole (and thus the potentiometer button) are now slightly offset from the other two... okay, a one-of-a-kind! ;-)

Assembling the BMT is relatively simple and self-explanatory. The bridge pickup is installed in the bridge plate, which in turn is screwed to the body at the intended location. There are different models of the Telecaster® Bridge. Check out the pictures of my replica and those of the original by Brent Mason to find the right version. The middle pickup is attached to the pickguard with the screws. The mini humbucker on the neck is screwed to the bottom of the milled pocket in the body with the adaptor plate. All cables of the three pickups are routed through the designated channels in the body to the pocket for the control plate and soldered to the components there as indicated in the drawing.

Please be particularly precise here in order to avoid incorrect connections or short circuits from the signal to the ground!

Here you have to stick exactly to the template of the original BMT and wire the components (3-way switch, Volume 1 Poti, Volume 2 Poti and Tone / Push-Pull Poti) exactly as shown in the diagram. Not to forget the capacitor (TAD Cap Orange Drop 47nF 100V).

Since the pieces I had collected didn't originally belong together, some adjustment was needed here and there. Screw holes were not always exactly in the desired place, some parts were a little too big, others a little too small. But with a little patience and tact, I got all these small problems under control and made everything fit. A cutter knife, a file and a little paint here and there have corrected the blemishes.

At the first test I was a bit disillusioned: No sound! What was wrong?

I checked all cable connections again and covered bare metal parts with insulating tape. It is quite tight in the pocket for the control plate and the cables are squeezed. In particular, the shielding hose of the Mini Humbucker is made of wire mesh and can easily short-circuit other cables unintentionally!

But my problem was different: My connection cable for the guitar had a loose contact. Different cable, problem solved!

The BMT then made its debut at the Makerfaire Hannover, where it was admired by many thousands of visitors. She stood right next to her "sister", the Prusacaster, from whom she had gotten the wooden bodysuit. A great duo that had received a lot of attention!

Conclusion on the construction of the “Brent Mason Telecaster®”

First: I had a lot of fun building the "BMT" and maybe also luck finding the components and working on the guitar. A lot could have gone wrong and the result would not have been satisfactory. But my mistakes in the construction were only marginal and I didn't have to replace any parts. I'm very proud of the result and I really enjoy playing the guitar.

And now the most important thing: How does it sound now???

Even if the BMT is not yet perfectly adjusted, it already sounds really good! With the appropriate equipment (amplifiers, effects), the sound of Brent Mason can be recreated very well with this DIY copy of his Telecaster®. Well, none of us will be able to play as well as he did, but nobody expected that, right?? ;-)

Here I have another video where a young man plays a few riffs on the guitar. Yes, she also convinces with metal numbers. My brother-in-law is a metal guitarist, tested it extensively and was very impressed by the sound. But her real strengths lie in country, rock and blues, of course, where her master is at home...

Finally, the explanation why this guitar has seven different basic sounds, even if Fender® only writes about six sounds:

The original Telecaster® can produce three sound variants with its two pickups:

1. Bridge Pickup alone

2. Neck Pickup alone

3. both together

The Fender Stratocaster® has three pickups and is wired in such a way that its 5-way switch provides these combinations:

1. Neck PU alone

2. Neck PU with Middle PU

3. All three PU

4. Middle PU with Bridge PU

5. Bridge PU alone

The BMT is designed with its circuit in such a way that these seven combinations are possible:

1. Neck PU alone

2. Neck PU and Bridge PU

3. Bridge PU alone

Here the middle PU is deactivated (Push-Pull-Poti off) = Telecaster® mode

4. Neck PU and Middle PU

5. All three PU

6. Middle PU with Bridge PU

Here the Middle PU is activated (Push-Pull-Poti on) = Stratocaster® mode

But: If volume 1 is turned all the way down and volume 2 is turned up while the push-pull poti is "on", then only the middle PU alone sounds:

And that's sound number 7 !

No other guitar can do that!

And the Seymour Duncan pickups sound just awesome and have a lot of "steam" (high output) !

I hope you liked my Instructables and got in the mood to build a guitar!

Have fun if you want to build this model too