2012 TDPRI Tele Build Challenge - three days of work

Sanded the body through 220 grit. I still need to clean up the sides around the neck contours. The body is almost ready for finishing. 

Back to working on the neck. First I marked off the contours for the shaping of the back of the neck.

Cut off about 1/8" of excess wood.

Started the basic shaping of the profile at both the base of the neck and behind the 1st fret, used mainly the shredder and heavy rasp to take off most of the wood and get to a really rough shape. Followed that with a fine rasp. I tried using the scrapper at one point, but I quickly discovered that the figuring of the wood didn't care for this method. It was a little too jagged.

After I got the neck to the profile I wanted, I moved on to 120, 220 and finally 320 grit sand paper. The neck is now ready for finishing.

I cut the slot for the nut, just behind the zero fret.

I cut the slot for the 4-way pickup selector and drilled the hole for the 2-cap tone switch.

Used the Dremel with a 1.6mm grout cutter bit to cut my straight line. I had to practice on scrap wood a couple of times just to get use to using it.

Then I drilled the holes for the bolt on neck.

After bolting on the neck, it was time to position the bridge and the vibrato. I used a string attached to both E-strings and an old nut that I won't be using on this build to help line up the strings over the fretboard.

After getting the bridge and vibrato attached I couldn't resist attaching the E-strings, just to check the over-all height. 

I will need to do some adjustments after I install the frets and the nut. I'm a little concerned about the string height. It seems a little high with the thumb rollers at their lowest point and a little low with out them. But that shouldn't be a big deal in the end.

2012 TDPRI Tele Build Challenge - Routing neck pocket and pickup cavities

Yesterday I started work on the neck pocket. First I built a jig. Carefully lining up the neck withthe center line and then fastening two boards to either side. I cut a special board to fit at the base of the neck and drove a screw into the body of the guitar where the front pickup will be.

I made several passes with the plane parallel to the body. However, I still needed to route for the (what I thought should be) 3°- 4° angle. I place two smaller boards on either side of the neck pocket with a half inch board about 7 inches back. This gave me just under 4°. After I checked this with the bridge. I discovered that 4° was too much of angle. I then moved the half inch board back to about 14 inches, and re-routed the pocket. This gave me a 2° angle. Which turned out much better. (Although the neck is sitting about a 1/16 of an inch lower than I would have liked it - but I can live with that.) Once the nut is in I should be able to adjust the string height lower than in the photo below.

A note about geometry - had my high school geometry teacher back in 1984 used guitar building to teach us, I might have paid closer attention. The equation used to find the distance the half inch board need to be at was TanA = a/b. A=2°, a=.5inches, solve for b. I know the equation on the graph paper is for a 1.5° angle. I decided against going that far.














After I finally got the neck to the right height, I moved on to the pickups. First I routed the front pickup using a home made template. For the bridge pickup I needed to attache the neck and measure the distance of the saddle of the bridge from the zero fret, 25inches.

After routing the neck pocket and pickup cavities, I cut the body shape. Then I started sanding the sides. Here is the side view. I'm liking the mahogany veneer.

I then drilled the 7/8 of an inch hole for the output jack.

A note about the GFS Xtrem Vibrato - it's not a direct mount. The saddles sit about a 1/4 inch to close to the neck. In order to compensate for this I moved the neck about 1/8 of an inch out of the body and the bridge about 1/8 of an inch back. Also, the GFS website recommends angling the neck 2.5° - 3°. Actually 1.5° - 2° is probably better. I originally tried a 4°, because I thought the bridge would be identical to the locking roller bridge from Stew Mac. There is a difference in string height that I had not expected. Since this is a new build this wasn't much of an issue. As a replacement bridge this would likely require some modification to work.

2012 TDPRI Tele Build Challenge - cutting the shape

The top and the back glued up much better than I expected. I was surprised by how tight the seems turned out. So tonight I cut the blank to the shape of the Tele, with the exception of the top. I've decided to wait until I've routed the neck pocket. It seems like it will be easier to line the neck up that way.

The thin mahogany veneer has turned out just as I had hoped. It was difficult to deal with when gluing it to the edged of each piece. I was worried that I would end up with gaps.

Before I can route the neck I need to line up the position of the bridge. I'll measure this again before I do any routing. The scale is 25 inches and if I've measured the neck properly, I'll have 7 1/8 of an inch from the heel to the saddle of the high e-string. I'll go over this in my head again and again before I pick up the router in Wednesday morning. 

2012 TDPRI Tele Build Challenge - cat's eye sound hole and gluing the top

This weekend, I worked on the cat's eye sound hole (decided against the traditional f-hole), routed the top thinner for the electronics cavity and glued the curly maple top to the maple back.

To cut the sound hole, I started by using various sized drill bits. I then moved onto a coping saw for a rough cut. And followed that with a file and sand-paper to smooth out the edges.

The top is 3/8" thick. In order for the electronics to fit properly, I needed to route the top thinner. I will be using a single concentric volume and tone pot, however I haven't decided on the switch configuration yet. I'm leaning towards a four-way as well as two capacitor tone switch. We'll see what I can pull off.

Before gluing the top to the back, I thought it might be a good idea to add a signature visible through the sound hole.

I also thought it might be fun to put a note inside the top front cavity. Since there is no opening this not will hopefully never be read by anyone again. 

I also decided to add an homage to Woody Guthrie, written backwards under the sound hole. Now if anyone uses a dentist's mirror to inspect this chamber they will see this instrument's intended purpose.



















I glued the top onto the back, and let it sit over night.

I added the obligatory extra weights to help with the gluing process.

2012 TDPRI Tele Build Challenge - routing interior cavities

I started routing the interior cavities of the Tele today. First I created some Swiss Cheese, using three different drill bits on the drill press. I drilled dozens of holes to remove as much wood as possible.

Here's the finished Swiss Cheese.

After finishing the drilling and creating a great deal sawdust, I started freehand routing the interior. I did use a straight edge on the interior lines.

Next up, I'll route channels for the wiring between the pickups, and start working on the top - cutting an f-hole and drilling the holes for switches and pots.

2012 TDPRI Tele Build Challenge - body top and back

Today, I turned my attention to the body. First, I glued the mahogany veneer to the back of the curly maple top. I taped the veneer on both sides of the area to be cut in order to stop the veneer from crumbling and splitting. I then clamped the veneer between two pieces of wood before cutting it. I then covered the back of the curly maple top with a generous amount of Tite-Bond. I placed the veneer over the glue, then used a pipe to smooth out the bubbles. I placed several pieces of wood on top of the veneer, clamped them into place and then added weights.

I then turned my attention routing the body. I started by working on the electronics cavity. First I drilled holes all the way through the body. Then I routed out the excess wood.

I flipped the body over, clamped a jig for the cavity cover and routed for the cavity cover.

Next, I grabbed the piece of wood that was re-sawn off the original piece of maple. I lined up the location of the electronics cavity and cut out the cover. This way the grain lined up. As always I cut to just outside the lines. Then I slowly sanded the edges to the lines. Followed that by slightly beveling the edges.

I'm a little concerned about that the top has started to bow. I've run into this issue before on the Steinberger copy. In that case the Tite-Bond and clamping while glue helped secure the top evenly to the body. However, there was a lot more surface area glued to the top. On this build I will be routing out quite a bit of the interior before gluing. So, we'll see how this turns out...

2012 TDPRI Tele Build Challenge - Radiusing the Fretboard

Not much to report, just finished radiusing the fretboard to 14". I started with 80 grit sandpaper for the heavy sanding, then progressed through to 400 grit. Looking at the fretboard now, I'm back to believing that this is curly maple. And I'm leaning towards putting a shellac finish on it. Here are the photos of the progress.

One minor concern, it's looking like I will have to re-saw the fret slots just slightly deeper to accommodate the frets.

2012 TDPRI Tele Build Challenge - Joining the back of the body

I've started joining the three piece maple back. Between each piece there is a thin layer of mahogany veneer. 

I glued two of the maple pieces with one of the mahogany pieces together first. The glue caused the wood to shift slightly. I caught it while the glue was still soft. And I was able to force it into place using a couple of extra clamps. After the glue dried I moved on to the third piece. This time I taped off the wood next to the seem to help keep from making a mess with glue overflow. I also used clamps to hole the wood tight against the table. I then added weight to the top. This worked out much better.

The thin pieces of mahogany will look much better after the body is sanded.


I also took a moment to to check out the placement of my hardware and electronics. I picked up the bridge from Guitar Fetish. And I'll be using a single concentric volume and tone pot. I'll cut a cat's eye Rickenbacker style f-hole. I planning on gluing mahogany veneer to the back of the maple top. And the Area just behind the f-hole and the electronics area will need to be routed to about a 4 mm thickness. The top is currently 3/8" thick.