The second from last part! - Part three continues with routing in the form of pup pockets, goes on to the drilling of various holes and the test fit of all parts. It's getting there.
Click on the read more link to see the full post
So onto the pup routes - having marked out the neck and bridge positions in the previous part this allowed me to accurately locate the pockets.
After this a long drill bit was purchased and used to link up the various cavities for wiring, through the neck pocket all the way to the bridge pup route, and then diagonally for the control cavity. Subsequent holes that were drilled include the neck pocket holes, jack socket hole, bridge mounting holes and string through holes. Unfortunately I didn't think to take any pictures of this part of the process, so please excuse my laxity.
Once all this was done it was time to bolt and screw everything together to check everything fit properly before finishing. Below is the result:
Next step, finishing!
Wednesday, 19 September 2007
The Tele Build - Part 3
Wednesday, 12 September 2007
The Tele Build - Part 2
Having brought the body to its final shape in part 1, part 2 will cover the routing of various pockets, such as the neck and control cavity routes and also the alignment of the bridge and neck.
Click on the read more link to see the full post.
The first route to be done was the neck pocket, this is so that the pickup pockets and bridge mounting holes could then be located accurately from the neck alignment. Careful measuring means that this isn't actually necessary, however for the sake of caution I decided to do it this way.
After attaching the neck pocket template to the body using double sided tape the body was ready for routing.
This was achieved once again using a template bearing bit, and using several passes until the pocket was at the required depth. This process was made longer by slight splinter out on the treble side that required re-gluing and then subsequently re-routing more carefully, luckily this quick repair turned out great, and is not visible!
Above you can see the neck sitting in the pocket after I was done. Routing then continued with the control cavity pocket as this was located on the same template.
The next step was to locate the bridge, once the appropriate scale length had been marked out on the body, cotton thread was used in conjunction with the bridge to act as "outer strings" , this allows for easy visual alignment and ensures the the bridge is located dead on for the neck.
Once visual alignment was confirmed accurate by measuring the distances from the outside "strings" to the edge of the fingerboard the bridge mounting holes were then drilled.
Next up, pup routes and beyond!
Friday, 31 August 2007
The Tele Build - Part 1
This is the first in a series of posts detailing the building of the above guitar. The build started after hearing my brother talking about the specs of his ideal Telecaster style guitar, so being the nut (pun only half intended) that I am, I volunteered to do the build.
Click on the read more link below to see the first installment in this series
Spec and Parts:
A full set of Telecaster style guitar templates were purchased from Guitar Building Templates in order to make the build as accurate as possible.
So the build began:
First step was to prepare the ash body blank, after hours of going over the surfaces with a plane the blank was finally at the point where the body shape could be rough cut. The shape was drawn out on the body blank using the Tele template and then rough cut with a jigsaw.
The rough cut almost finished:
After the rough cut had been completed it was time to bring it to its final shape. The aformentioned Telecaster body template was stuck to the body using doublesided tape and a router with a bearing guide bit used to do the dirty work. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the initial passes, however once the shape had been routed deep enough the template was removed, and the bearing bit lowered so that the ready cut wood itself was used as a guide.
Here you can see the body half hewn from the rough cut:
The end result, a telecaster shaped piece of wood, just waiting to be turned into a guitar!
More coming in the next part.
