nialldabass' 2012 Challenge Build Thread -- COMPLETED

[nialldabass]

As I live in Ireland, there is no money and I'll be using whats available to me woodwise in my very meagre wood stash. Got a few available parts and some new stuff on the way.

I think I'm gonna call it a FATLINE, or maybe it sould be PHATLINE, to try and keep in with the 'kids', but I'm probably already 10 years out of date

Should get a start at the weekend. With pics to follow

Oh! I've never built a tele before or a bolt on neck, so I got alot to learn over the next few weeks, but being a non conformist, there will be no plans no templates and a large dose of 'winging it', So if your into car crashes this could be fun to watch.

Best of luck to everyone and may the best guitar win.


Niall

[crazydave911]

Welcome and good luck!

Dave

[Ryden]

Ádh mór oraibh!

[RogerC]

Nice. Consider me a rubbernecker

And Good Luck!

[Picton]

Plans and templates are overrated, anyway. I keep waiting for somebody to simply whittle a guitar one of these years with a pocketknife, or something.

Good luck!

[Satch]

Every journey begins with the first step. As the old saying goes," Come on in, the waters fine!". We were all beginners once. Glad to see you're in.....Good luck!

[nialldabass]

Right lets get this show on the road

Well it was Paddys day here Satuarday and Mothers day sunday, so I did not get as much done as I'd hoped
First up wood shot

All my math is metric I'm afraid

Poplar 230mm by 36mm, couple a bits of flat sawn maple 24mm, some sapele and some 30 year old oak kitchen cabinet doors with 8mm thick panels

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Poplar body blank glued up

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Sapele neck, gonna be a three aside angled headstock, so I needed to do a little scarf at the very end of the headstock should miss the tuners so should me no strength issues

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I'm gonna put a maple fretboard on this as I do not own a guitar with a maple board, however I'm using a gibson scale with 22 frets just to be different
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Next up the body, placed inch squares on it and drew out the tele shape

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Marked and scored out the fretboard

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Here is the inside of the back made from the oak, I think i may need to plane down a little it might be a bit heavy

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and here it is with the body partially cut out with a jigsaw, need some cleaning up

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And I got these parts from a company in England called Axesrus, a great company to deal with and seem to be the same pickups as the GFS fro what i can find out, great pickups not tried these mini hums but i bet they are great. I skimpt a bit on the electronics but they had this ready made assembly for £15 mini pots and a three way switch, but if i fall in love with this git, its an easy upgrade

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More to follw and thanks for looking

[emoney]

Well...thanks for sharing. I think those mini-hums will be super cool. Can't wait to see it finished.
Good luck!

[nialldabass]

Just a quick update got more done but that will have to wait till tomorrow

Here is my Ahem! 'Ross' sander, ok its a belt sander clamped on its side and a hand drill in a press, but it works surprisingly well, although I do worry about burning the drill out, I also had to cut away part of the housing on the belt sander at the front end, and it was only the the very sides of the neck pocket that i needed the drill for, it came in very handy cleaning out the inside cavity though.

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[nialldabass]

I managed to get the rest of the inside cleaned up, well as cleaned up as needed, glued on the back and and sealed with a coat of orange shellac

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I was gonna double bind but as she is such a big girl I thought she deserved a nice big round backside

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Here's a look at the top

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Like I say she is a bit of a big girl but I hope to get it down to about 48mm, so she may not be Fat but a little chubby, and who can complain about that eh!

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And If I can shave her down to 4 1/2 pounds after pickups routing and sanding I won't be too disapointed

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Couldn't resist throwing up this pic, And I'm going for a fairly classic 3 tone sunburst but I'll see where the wood wants to take me

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And the big van came to my house today, very late in the day but bringing some goodies, so I can get back on to the neck

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Thanks for looking

Niall

[Maricopa]

That's gonna be one stiff neck!

[nialldabass]

Originally Posted by Maricopa

That's gonna be one stiff neck!

Oh! Is that not how its done?

Seriously, thats thats got me in stitches,

[kwerk]

Originally Posted by Maricopa

That's gonna be one stiff neck!

That IS the neck.

[nialldabass]

Originally Posted by kwerk

That IS the neck.

Yeah! Well I'm going for first one finished, just wait till you hear her, elastic bands for frets and steel rods for strings, its a bass don't you know, its gonna be awesome

[nialldabass]

Not alot got done today but a couple of things I've never done before, first of I had to plane the top down a little and after about 2 hours I managed to shave of another 2mm, oh! for Barnaby's skills (a little in joke for the secret mlp'ers here) then drill a few holes, thank God for batteries and the whole electrickery malarkey.

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And a little rasping

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And my first atempt at binding

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Gonna try and get it finished off tonight and clean up in the morning

[nialldabass]

Took the tape off and did a quick clean up, yikes! What do I do now? I'll carry on and see if I can clean it up better, just scraped it, might come up better, maybe see if i can melt a little binding and fill a little here and there, did't cut my insise corners at the right angle atall. Might just have to take of 2 bits an redo with a better cut, we'll see

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I'm A bit more confident about the outside binding now, none of those pesky internal cuts

[RogerC]

binding F holes is tough. Don't be too hard on yourself. After all, this is a challenge, so stretching yourself should be part of what you do on this build. You'll come out of this with a whole new skill set.

[nialldabass]

Originally Posted by RogerC

binding F holes is tough. Don't be too hard on yourself. After all, this is a challenge, so stretching yourself should be part of what you do on this build. You'll come out of this with a whole new skill set.

Thats Exactly right, the whole build was for me to do stuff I'd never done before
Bolt on neck, Hollow body, maple board,body binding, the only thing stopping me doing a trad headstock was the fact I had three a side tuners already and I'm not keen on the snake head, although Igork may of changed my mind a little
I've cleaned it up a little more and I am gonna try a little drop of enamel paint at the corners, I have some, somewhere, if only I can find it, and I'll post pics.
Thanks for the words of wisdom its as good as a pat on the back

[emoney]

Looks very much like you've got skills to compare to Barnaby's. I know he'd be proud.
Love the binding, and 2.5 hours is about right, hand tools, power tools, don't matter.

I think you've inspired me to build a "Truss Rod Neck" on my next one. It will save a lot of
time sanding and finishing and be much less messy.

[nialldabass]

Originally Posted by emoney

Looks very much like you've got skills to compare to Barnaby's. I know he'd be proud.
Love the binding, and 2.5 hours is about right, hand tools, power tools, don't matter.

I think you've inspired me to build a "Truss Rod Neck" on my next one. It will save a lot of
time sanding and finishing and be much less messy.

Dont hold me on the sound now, you might need overwound pups with alnico xxv magnets