Tele-Paul-Les-Caster, I don't know who coined the name I read it somewhere on this forum, but I like it and it nicely describes these builds.
I’ve been playing my Jagster a lot lately and really enjoying the humbuckers and the pickup selector switch location.
But I really prefer the tele shape much more than the Jaguar shape. So now the idea is to marry this Jagster with a Tele and live happy…until I decide something else would be even better
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These will be top bound only with a medium round over on the back, until I change my mind. Back and sides will be a dark reddish mahogany color and I haven’t decided what color I will tint the tops yet.
My Dad builds acoustic guitars and has made me several including a really nice 12 string but I’ve never made him an electric. So I thought I might as well make two of these while I’m at it.
First I picked up a really nice piece of Sapele, I guess it’s a sort of mahogany, hopefully the wood experts chime in.
It’s the long one in the middle. It’s a little on the heavy side so these will need to be chambered.
I also have a bunch of unknown wood that has nice grain and even some curl that will make really nice tops for these.
It’s the shorter pieces on the right. I don’t have a re-saw saw so I have to do some actual labor to saw these pieces into tops. First I run them through the table saw as deep as the blade will go.
Then I take the table, guide blocks and some protective pieces off my bandsaw to get the maximum exposed section of blade I can get. It looks like this and is sorta scary to use in this configuration
Once the saw is apart I run the tops through like so (sorry this is a terrible picture) but you get the idea.
I don’t own a 13” planer…yet, so once they are all sliced, I carefully run a hand held Ryobi planer over the tall middle part that is left behind. The bandsaw blade is much thinner than the table saw blade so I’m left with a ridge like a Firebird has, only my ridge is not cool like a Firebird. Once I plane down the middle strip all that’s left is lots and lots of sanding. But in the end I ended up with 6 really nice looking book matched tops.
Here’s the one I selected for my Dad’s top
These are actually pretty large and I won’t need the area with the knot in it.
And here is the one I selected for mine.
I set those aside for a while to start working on the bodies. Here are two of the blanks glued up.
And truth be told I had enough for three so I figured might as well and threw this one in the clamps.
Roughed them out on the band saw. I just put a new blade and some poly-urethane tires on my band saw and I was able to cut these out like this
With my old blade I had to make 50+ relief cuts and fight all the way through the process.
Sanded close to the line with the ROSS and that's where I’m at on the bodies for now.
I already thinned down the one in the middle, the sapele board I bought was over 2” thick. If I was smart I would have done the same table saw, band saw routine and made a few tops but I didn’t think about that until after I had glued the two piece body blanks together. Oh well.
I’m also working on the necks for these. My brother had given me some maple, enough to make 6 necks out of. Here’s the four I’m working on now. These are all 1 piece builds, I’ve never made a 2 piece neck but I hear it’s easier.
Nothing exciting to document on these neck builds. You can see my template and reference neck in this shot. I have a homemade fret slotting device so I’ll show that when I get to it.
I’m afraid these will end up being slow builds because I will probably set these aside to try my hand at losing the challenge build. But I’m not the type to never finish these things so eventually I should have more to add here.
Thoughts, suggestions and ideas are always welcome.