The Telecaster Body - T Downs 27 APR07

got a pdf of this autocad drawing and wonder if this is an accurate drawing??
what is its source?

i have purchased 3 different tele template sets and find all to be different in some ways to this drawing and am thinking of cutting my own master

main reason is there always seems to be a fiddle getting everything lining up right with aftermarket parts.

i dont build a lot of guitars but the most ordered project is the tele and i would lke to have a stock standard template if there is such a thing

I doubt there is such a thing as a perfect template...and there cannot be one because FAIK the body shape changed slightly over the years.
The very early Teles all varied to a degree because of the amount of handwork involved. I also got a 1952 AVRI that is slightly bigger than any of the blueprints that have been posted on this board.
Another issue is that I'm not able to mount a B16 Bigsby on my 52 RI...it simply doesn't cover the bridge pickup rout which it is supposed to...but Vintage Teles from the 50's had no problems with this unit which led me to believe that the body of those old Teles was slightly shorter of the back was flatter and less rounded as on some of those aftermarket bodies.
But I could be entirely wrong here...
My suggestion would be to either use Ed H.'s or Terry D.'s blueprints, glue em to MDF, cut them out and alter them to your liking and to fit your choice of aftermarket hardware...
Cheers,
Sascha

I'm sure Terry will address this when he sees it but I believe the source is a scan of the Fender blueprint found on page 57 of the Duchossoir Telecaster book. It is described as "The original blueprint of the Vintage Telecaster as drawn by the late Freddie Tavares in November 1980."

The profile of my drawing was generated by Ed Hawley. He had some way of "scanning in" a real body. I think it was a 1968 Tele (or some late 60s model). He had a DXF file of that specific guitar. I was interested in it, to determine the volume of a Tele body, so I could predict body weight based on a board-foot weight. The outline of the guitar was 50+ discrete polylines, disconnected by roughly 1/10000". I joined them all together to make a closed polyline. From that, the area could be calculated in AutoCAD.

Once I had this outline profile, I thought to myself, hey, I could recreate the blueprint into a modern portable electronic version (PDF).

The drawing needs an update, but I've been too busy. The bridge pickup cavity is a little off in rotation, but many folks have built from this shape with no appreciable problems.

The profile of my drawing was generated by Ed Hawley. He had some way of "scanning in" a real body. I think it was a 1968 Tele (or some late 60s model). He had a DXF file of that specific guitar. I was interested in it, to determine the volume of a Tele body, so I could predict body weight based on a board-foot weight. The outline of the guitar was 50+ discrete polylines, disconnected by roughly 1/10000". I joined them all together to make a closed polyline. From that, the area could be calculated in AutoCAD.

Once I had this outline profile, I thought to myself, hey, I could recreate the blueprint into a modern portable electronic version (PDF).

The drawing needs an update, but I've been too busy. The bridge pickup cavity is a little off in rotation, but many folks have built from this shape with no appreciable problems.
And where can I acquire this file?
I can't search to find the answers, I'm sorry :(

And where can I acquire this file?
I can't search to find the answers, I'm sorry :(

Yes you can!

Click the search link and type in the keywords tele, body and blueprint.

Then you will be presented with a list of threads.

The thread titled "Generated a D-Size Tele Body Blueprint", started by tdowns, contains the file.

Happy searching!

Here is the rev B PDF (http://terrydownsmusic.com/Archive/tele_body_drawing_revB.pdf).

I have another update coming soon that adds the neck pocket raduis (0.25") and a few other minor things.

Here is the original post (http://www.tdpri.com/forum/telecaster-discussion-forum/74504-generated-d-size-tele-body-blueprint.html). Bear in mind the rev B print I linked above is the latest drawing I have.

Yes you can!

Click the search link and type in the keywords tele, body and blueprint.

Then you will be presented with a list of threads.

The thread titled "Generated a D-Size Tele Body Blueprint", started by tdowns, contains the file.

Happy searching!
Haha yeah Opera browser was being a pain in the behind last night.
Wasn't accepting my search. Like it would just not load.

Thanks though :)

EDIT: Forgot to say thanks to Terry!
THANKYOUUUUUUUUUUUUU!