Guitar Complete

The Mistake

First build — Tele bridge, Gibson scale. Unplayable above 5.

My first original guitar. Leftover parts from upgrades and repairs — a pine smuggler-style Tele body I routed myself, an entry-level Epiphone Les Paul neck, lower-quality everything. Same general techniques that later became The Izzy, which came out much better. Critical error: standard Tele bridge placement with a Gibson-scale neck, so the saddles can’t intonate past about the 5th fret. Sounds fine below that; above it, fretted notes go sharp. Tried to fix it; the pine cavity ledges broke out. Body’s basically firewood now. Schaller strap locks and the upgraded pots and switch made it onto The Izzy — everything else in these photos is in a spare-parts box.

Front of The Mistake: pine Tele-style body with a washed blue and red finish, black pickguard, engraved hardware, and an Epiphone-style neck.

Back of The Mistake: the same blue and red pine body, four-bolt neck plate, no back routing visible.

Build details

First original guitar. You go to school on the first one. The same techniques later became The Izzy.

Pine Tele body

A smuggler-style pine body, routed in the shop. The cavity ledges did not survive the repair.

Gibson-scale neck

An entry-level Epiphone Les Paul neck on a standard Tele bridge. The saddles can’t intonate past about the 5th fret.

Unplayable above 5

Sounds fine below that. Above it, fretted notes go sharp.

Parts that mattered

Schaller strap locks, pots, and switch went onto The Izzy. The rest is in a spare-parts box.

Current status

Built March 2023; no longer playable (body failed repair).