TDPRI 2010 $210 Tele Build Challenge - Fircaster

Seeing as I was planning a build anyway...

I live in a ~90 year old bungalow. The house was all built out of the same wood, framing to trim. I do believe it's fir. Anyway, along with the house came many old things, including a good amount of the wood used for the house. I have selected a hunk - actually - 2 boards nailed together - of this for a tele body. Right now I'm planning on an esquire. Pics to come soon...

Cool!

I got started today. I cut my two boards into four boards and ran 'em through the jointer. They're now glued up into a hunk big enough so that it can be cut into a body. Pics to come soon...

Like I said, this started out as two 2x6's I found in my basement when I moved in 7 years ago. I wasn't able to get a pic before I cut em in half and jointed the boards. I hope this still counts as uncut wood. After all they were 2x6's, so they were cut by someone long ago...

The obligatory...
http://www.aweddingpainter.com/derek/100_0604.jpg

Another angle...

http://www.aweddingpainter.com/derek/100_0605.jpg

Rough sanding the faces ...

http://www.aweddingpainter.com/derek/100_0606.jpg

It's good to have friends with killer shops. Scott is a very fine cabinet maker.

Making the template ...

http://www.aweddingpainter.com/derek/100_0611.jpg

Rough idea of where to cut the body from...

http://www.aweddingpainter.com/derek/100_0612.jpg

Here's my first dilemma. the wood is only 1.5 " thick right now...

So, it's actually less than 1.5" thick. I've got some 1x12 that came down when I remodeled my front porch. It was trim with oodles of white paint on it. YOu couldn't even really see it because of a drop ceiling. Most of it was turned into this:

http://www.aweddingpainter.com/derek/100_0614.jpg



Anyway, I have one more 1x12 left about 10 feet long. I'm debating lopping some off and resawing it to make a bookmatched two piece top. Thoughts? Comments?

My other idea would be to just have a body that is slightly less than 1.5" thick.

I dont think 1.5 " is deep enough for the pickups, switch or neck pocket (particularly the switch. An SG style switch might work though, they are thinner). Maybe find some wood that is around 0.3" to put on the top?

Ok, I've decided on the cap. I'll get that started today after I finish up my boys Pinewood Derby Cars.

P.S. Glitter doesn't work as a replacement for metal flake a la Mr. Dikkers' Emeraldcaster et al. I know 'cause I tried it on one of the PWD cars.

I just showed my wife this subforum, especially the build vtcaster is doing with his son. She actually thinks the whole idea is really cool. I think that means I can cross of the biggest challenge, cost-justification to she who must be obeyed. Cross your fingers...

More work done tonight. Things took a little turn for the different...

First though I did a little work on my templates. So far, templates and plans are my only expenses for this build.

http://www.aweddingpainter.com/derek/100_0630.jpg

Here's where things start to deviate from the plan. Apparently friends with killer shops also have killer scrap piles.:eek:

http://www.aweddingpainter.com/derek/100_0631.jpg

:lol:

http://www.aweddingpainter.com/derek/100_0632.jpg

:shock: Yes, believe it or not, there's more... :razz:

http://www.aweddingpainter.com/derek/100_0633.jpg

No that thick,long hunk isn't BRW, just sapele. Hmmm, looks like about 5 LP juniors to me. Oh, wait, there's still more.

http://www.aweddingpainter.com/derek/100_0634.jpg

African Mahogany. Does anyone have plans for a '59 burst :idea::?::!::!:

I was told that the piece of fir I brought wasn't thick enough, wouldn't be worth resawing, etc, etc and basically forced to accept scrap for the back/front (TBD) of the body. Some walnut gets paraded out. Soft maple. "Oh wait," the man says, "I have some crappy, warped birdseye I have had for years." Imagine that, me a forty year-old male completely unfamiliar with 'crappy' birdseye.

After much discussion, I was forced (twist my arm) to accept a walnut scrap to bring my body to the desired thickness. It was cut, sanded and glued up to the fir. I still can't get the idea of having a walnut back on a guitar squared away in my head.

http://www.aweddingpainter.com/derek/100_0628.jpg

http://www.aweddingpainter.com/derek/100_0637.jpg

Of course, I decided to go slumming and accept some 'crappy' birdseye to use for a neck. We made very specific measurements before cutting...

http://www.aweddingpainter.com/derek/100_0627.jpg

Specific as in we held it up to my SX STL50 and cut it too length. Unfortunately, it also is not thick enough. Where's that scrap bin again?

Since I still wasn't quite square on having a walnut back, I thought it would offset it a little, and be cool symmetry to have a walnut fretboard. Scott resawed a scrap for me...

http://www.aweddingpainter.com/derek/100_0636.jpg

and I ran it through the jointer.

http://www.aweddingpainter.com/derek/100_0635.jpg

Should be a neat combo.

http://www.aweddingpainter.com/derek/100_0638.jpg

And, here it is glued up...

http://www.aweddingpainter.com/derek/100_0639.jpg

I've got some burled walnut veneer I have had for about 10 years that I'll use as binding for the front of the body. I will also use that for the control plate and maybe the pickguard. Oddly enough the quality of materials I am using and the cool factor is going up and my planned out of pocket costs are going down.

I have no idea how I am going to value these scraps. Scott wouldn't accept any cash. When I pushed him about the birdseye, he said he probably paid less than $15 for the board. It was 9 feet long, so I ended up with about $5 worth. Finally I have some costs to track. I have no idea how to value the fir, either. Since it came with my house, I suppose you could say it cost me roughly $150,000 and it came with a free house. Or you could say it was free wood. Who's to say?

Resized the pics. sorry if nig file size caused loading probs for anyone else...

I printed my neck template today and am out to pick up more spray mount. More shop work tomorrow night,,,

I printed my neck template today and am out to pick up more spray mount. More shop work tomorrow night,,,

What are you using as a neck drawing? I saved Ed Hawley's Esquire neck PDF, but the colors didn't show up when I took the file to Staples to print.

That walnut/maple is going to look great.

I couldn't get Ed's neck pdf to print consistently, either. I blame my printer. I ended up finding this (http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/157004-printable-guitar-template-pdf-3.html#post2149332), by searching this forum.

Couldn't get in the shop last night. Ordered a truss rod and fretwire from Stew-Mac today. That puts me @ $25.15 so far. Should get to cut out body and neck shapes tomorrow night....

Well, the last two times I have worked on this, I have forgotten the camera. We have achieved guitar shape. Here are pics to show where I am in the process.

The jig shown was used to route for the truss rod and is being used to sand the radius into the neck.

The neck carve had been hanging over my head like the axe of Damacles for a while. We made short work of it and it turned out rather well. Wifey had the camera so I have pics of the outcome, but not the process.

What we did is as follows:

Printed the cross sections and ends from Ed Hawley's plan
Glued the ends to the back of the neck blank so we'd have that reference
Drew tangents on the cross sections and measured the angle and distance from the sides
Using these measurements, we then drew lines on the side and back of the blank and
Tilted the table on the bandsaw to the measured angle (42.5 degrees) and cut (leaving the line and a bit for fudge factor.
This left relatively little material to sand off. The rough curve was sanded with a belt sander and then I went at it with a random orbital by eye, checking by feel. Then, of course, hand sanding. Of which there is much left to do.

http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs486.snc3/26602_1289081143522_1125007966_30758222_5145473_n. jpghttp://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs486.snc3/26602_1289081263525_1125007966_30758223_7593513_n. jpg
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs506.snc3/26602_1289081383528_1125007966_30758224_5045883_n. jpg
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs506.snc3/26602_1289081503531_1125007966_30758225_8114737_n. jpghttp://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs486.ash1/26602_1289081583533_1125007966_30758226_6671597_n. jpg
http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs506.snc3/26602_1289081663535_1125007966_30758227_3172278_n. jpg

Next time, I'll try to get a close-up of the birdseye. It's fantastic. The best part is, there's more 'scrap'. "One man gathers what another man spills."

Here's what I ordered from mojotone yesterday:

Tele 3-Way Standard Boutique Wiring Kit 24.95
Fender Vintage Style Plain Neck Plate with Screws Chrome 7.95
Gotoh Dome Knob(s) Chrome 8.00
Mojotone Modern String Ferrules 3.00
Mojotone Tele Jack Ferrule Chrome 2.50
Mojotone Jumbo Fretwire 9.00
Gotoh Tele Control Plate Chrome 12.00

Total - $67.40

Previously, I ordered the wrong fret wire from StewMac so my previous was actually $22. Bringing me up to $89.40. I traded for a $10 bridge plate and bought brass sadddles for $8 from a forum member. That's $107.40 (cash out of pocket is $97.40).

Very nice! Veeeery nice! That's some gorgeous walnut you got there too!

And a Mac! You're my kinda guy!


Cab (aka Dr. Macintosh)

Any updates?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHH!

Why didn't anybody tell me that putting a hotrod type truss rod in with a "skunk stripe" was a no-no? (just kidding, I should have known.)

I got frets installed and leveled and everything was cruising along just fine. I thought I was well on my way to final sanding and then I tried to adjust the truss rod, just for kicks. Out pops the stripe.

I'll post pics and solicit advice this evening...

Sorry dude, bummer I'm sure. Might wanna check this thread:

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/196941-truss-rod-questions.html

So it sounds like it may not be disastrous after all. I'll be in the shop tonight, we'll see what happens...

Why didn't anybody tell me that putting a hotrod type truss rod in with a "skunk stripe" was a no-no?

Never really thought about it but it makes sense that it would pop out since the skunk stripe is probably not that thick with a double action truss rod so there's not a lot of glueing surface. When you adjust the rod to correct excessive relief, the end of the rod is pressing against the skunk stripe. You need a way to really secure the end of the skunk stripe.

Too late for this neck but one solution on a new build would be to rout the channel shorter than the truss rod ........... say an inch shorter. Then drill out that final inch so that the end of the rod will be pressing against neck wood.

On this neck perhaps there's some way you could pin the end of the skunk stripe with dowels or perhaps use a more secure glue.

Skunk stripes can be a bit tricky. If you make them too tight in the channel, you'll wipe off most of the glue when you press them in.

Jack, you're right on the money. It was pretty clear that the glue had just been squeegee'd right off. It became even more so when we tried using epoxy and that still didn't work.

http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs279.snc3/28093_1307804251588_1125007966_30801772_5330746_n. jpghttp://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs319.ash1/28093_1307804491594_1125007966_30801773_2950776_n. jpg

I ended up propping the walnut up and getting a few drops of CA on the maple, inside the channel. That seems to have done the trick!

The next thing I need to redo is the fret work. none of the ends seem to want to stay in, no matter what I do. My best guess is that preloading the fret wire at a radius greater than that of the fret board is a mandatory step. Unfortunately, I skipped it.

Sounds like you recovered the neck

Going to look beautiful with the walnut :wink:

My best guess is that preloading the fret wire at a radius greater than that of the fret board is a mandatory step.

I think you mean smaller radius........... so the ends go in first then move outward and the center is pressed or hammered down. At this point you may need to glue and clamp the fret ends.

Yes, Jack, I do mean smaller radius.

Worked on the pickguard today and tore out the poorly installed frets in anticipation of receiving new ones. Unfortunately I did a small amount of damage to the fretboard in the removal process.

We designed our own pickguard, derived from Leo's design. It's made out of the same birdseye maple board as the neck. Here's a pic with most things together...

Well, the pieces made it into the spray booth today. On the body, I taped off the fir and Scott sprayed the Walnut with a first coat. We're using clear catalyzed lacquer. It's dry to the touch in about 20 minutes so I was able to unmask the fir and apply stain to warm up it's color tone a little. The neck and pick guard got just clear.

Right now, the stain is drying. We'll be back at it tonight for two more coats. I believe the lacquer is hard in 12 hours. Unfortunately I have a church meeting immediately after work tomorrow. I'll be soldering and assembling right up to the deadline!

I've got wiring hooked up and parts on. Just need to string it up and do a setup. I was going to post an update picture, but I accidentally stuck my SD card in the superdrive slot of my new iMac. I can only imagine what that is gonna cost...

You must have finished photos, with the guitar strung up. Are you going to be able to do that?

The guitar is done and strung, worst case scenario I take PhotoBooth photos with the built-in web cam. I made it!

Can I add additional photos tomorrow or is the thread locked @ 11:59?

don't forget your cost summary!

Here are my final pictures and my accounting:

Tele 3-Way Standard Boutique Wiring Kit 24.95
Fender Vintage Style Plain Neck Plate with Screws Chrome 7.95
Gotoh Dome Knob(s) Chrome 8.00
Mojotone Modern String Ferrules 3.00
Mojotone Tele Jack Ferrule Chrome 2.50
Mojotone Jumbo Fretwire 9.00
Gotoh Tele Control Plate Chrome 12.00
Truss Rod $22.
Bridge plate $10
Brass saddles $8
Fret wire $9
Bone nut blank $8
String Trees $3
Screws @ hardware store $5 (rounded up, way up)
Tuners $10 (trade)

Pickups are complicated. I traded my Epi LP for A G&L Legacy. My Epi had a hard case, the G&L didn't. So the guy threw in a set of T-tops to even up the deal. I traded those for the pickups for my build. Let's say $50.

That's $192.40. My wood cost for this build was zero. I feel ok listing it as such because, in the words of the man I got it from, it would have just ended up as firewood.

P.S. In my mind, it doesn't matter how anyone votes. I win because I have this guitar!