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3rd March 2014, 08:48 PM #1Member
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First electric guitar build - QLD Maple Tele
Hi all,
As promised in my "G'day" post (https://www.woodworkforums.com/f175/beginner-melbourne-178825), I've been working towards my first guitar / telecaster build and have come far enough to make a post about it.
I started off by buying a long piece of QLD maple last year from Thumbsucker via the Market Place on these forums. After some sanding it revealed a nice reddish colour with good tight and straight grain at one end and a bit of a crazy but cracked grain at the other where a there was a crotch on the timber.
20131121_201330.jpg
Then through a thicknesser. There was a slight twist in the length and buy the time I got it out with some hand sanding, etc, and back through the thicknesser I had lost quite a bit of thickness and was down to 40mm rather than the 45mm I was hoping. Ohwell, live and learn, and I decided to just push on.
After assessing the cleanest body halves I proceeded to cut and join.
IMG_2958.jpg
Time for stencil building. After waiting too long for my A1 drawings to arrive from Officeworks I went ahead with multiple A4 + sticky tape. Not ideal
Cut with a bandsaw and sanded to final shape with a drum on the drill press and a belt sander clamped sideways on the bench.
IMG_2951.jpg
Then traced on to the maple and back to the bandsaw.
IMG_20140111_165422.jpg
Stencil fastened to body through the pickup locations, and off to the router. I didn't have a router table at the time (have since fixed that!) so went hand held with the router using an inverted flush trim bit for the first pass then flipped it over and finished with a regular flush trim bit. My first try using a router - I was a little shaky at first but took my time and got used to it eventually. I found the tight curves either side of the neck the hardest, with the router wanting to tip. A couple of blemishes there but nothing a couldn't sand out.
IMG_2987.jpg
Then a tight radius bit around the edges, both sides. Old bit, a bit of burn...
Back to stenciling for the neck pocket and other cavities. Particular care with the neck pocket to fit tightly on the neck (I bought the neck). Neck pocket cut. Neck trial fit. Nice and reasonably tight. String through holes drilled on the drill press. Quick assembly for the end of the day. Tunes and seems playable - relieved.
IMG_3004.jpgIMG_20140112_133409.jpg
Next build day. Cut pickup and control cavities from MDF stencils. Pickups and pots arrived. Pickups are Dragonfire Tex Blues. Hardware fitted and wired temporarily. Re-string, tuned, plugged it in - all working. Some setup to do, but it plays and sounds surprisingly well.
IMG_20140204_215114.jpgIMG_20140303_194219.jpgIMG_20140303_194204.jpg
TODO: Next up is stain + poly clear coat. I've got some reading to do here before proceeding.
Soon after, I'm hoping to have a go at making a neck from some QLD maple.
It's not a very interesting build log, but I can say that I've thought of nothing but woodworking since that first day in the workshop... and not just guitars. I've since been on a mission to setup my own workshop and the wife hasn't seen much of me...
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3rd March 2014 08:48 PM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
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3rd March 2014, 08:59 PM #2
Snap,
This one was Norfolk Island Pine Body.
Maple neck, plays ok.
I did go to the fender site and look at the color for the original tele's (olympic white I think it wwas), was tempted to get bunnies to make the colour up if the timber looked bad and I painted it.
I should try a neck as well at some point.
When you do the next one we want more WIP bits and piccies
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3rd March 2014, 09:09 PM #3Member
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Nice one. I'd like to do a pine body too at some stage. I've heard its a good material and popular for tele bodies.
I was going to go a solid colour on it too. Surf or seafoam green. But after working with the wood, sanding, etc for so long I couldn't cover it up, even if it isn't pretty. The cracks are pretty crazy in the top half, plenty of wood filler was required.
I have more pictures but didn't want to make the post too long and loose interest It's hard to remember to stop and take pictures during the build.
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7th March 2014, 09:41 AM #4GOLD MEMBER
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Really good work. Everything looks nice and clean. I'm working on a thinline tele for a customer at the moment. Teles and strats are my favourite builds at the moment
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7th March 2014, 11:52 AM #5
I filled the cracks in the knots with black tinted epoxy.
comes out good, nice and shiny, sanded etc well.
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7th March 2014, 04:20 PM #6Member
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Thank you, a bit rough but I wasn't expecting it to be a Fender on my first attempt. I'm planning to do a Thinline next too, twice the amount of routing joy in a single guitar
Can you give me more info on the tinted epoxy? I just used some hardwood timbermate wood filler but am not thrilled with the result.
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8th March 2014, 02:34 PM #7SENIOR MEMBER
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11th March 2014, 07:30 AM #8Member
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Yeah the 40mm worked OK. The remaining body thickness at the neck pocket is a little thin compared to my Fenders but still feels solid enough, and I went a little shy on full depth for the control cavity pocket because I felt like I was going to make a through hole!
I did buy this neck but with a plan to make one for this or the next build. There are some good 1:1 drawings for the body but not so many for the neck. I've seen some good plans for router jigs to cut the curved truss rod slot.
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11th March 2014, 09:34 AM #9
Good on ya, the parts for mine are sitting in a box in a container 'cos several other projects got in the way.
Cliff.
If you find a post of mine that is missing a pic that you'd like to see, let me know & I'll see if I can find a copy.
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28th June 2014, 10:43 AM #10
a little telecaster history
leo fenders first electric production "spanish" guitar [1949] as opposed to the lap steels they made were built from two slabs of machined one inch pine glued together
the finished thickness was around 38 - 40mm these had the ashtray bridge, single pickup and headstock still seen today on the modern vintage repro teles
this model was painted black and known as the "esquire"
the original proto telecaster came fairly soon after when the sales guys at fender suggested that leo put a second pickup on the design
this model was called the broadcaster, then the nocaster and finally in late 51 the telecaster -
the colour of this model was known as blonde and faded to a yellow mustard colour - think of keith richards micawber or springsteens tele
the olympic white tele was released in the 60's when fender began using auto paint to produce the "custom color" models
the broadcaster / nocaster story is an interesting one if you care to go garglingray c
dunno what's more fun, buyin' the tools or usin' em'
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30th June 2014, 11:02 PM #11Novice
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Binary01, that's a sweet looking guitar. Really nice.
I'm still stuck finishing a kit for my son, before I will move on to a couple of guitars for myself, all stained wood. One will be a Tele with Bigsby, the other an LP style. For time purposes, I may go kit again though ( Making my own from scratch will likely have to wait a few years.
Congrats on your work.
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30th June 2014, 11:40 PM #12SENIOR MEMBER
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1st July 2014, 10:26 PM #13Member
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Thanks DRMS. Making the templates and body was great fun, so I'd thoroughly recommend trying it. Still haven't had a chance to try making a neck. I did stain the body and put what feels like a million coats of clear poly and it's getting there.
In the process of selling / buying a house but will post update pics as soon as I get a chance.
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