DesmoDog's 2012 Challenge Build Thread -- COMPLETED

Well, under the theory I can choose to bow out later but I can't choose to join later... here's my build thread.

Now to decide which idea to go with. Hmmm....

Good luck everyone!

that's some smart thinkin' right there.:razz: Good luck!

Welcome to the fray !

I knew you couldn't stay away :lol:, good luck to ya'! :grin:

Dave

I see something in red, with a Ducati logo? Have fun. :mrgreen:

I think I know what I'm going to build. I haven't made any templates for it yet though so this one really will be from the beginning.

It's going to be another smaller scale Telecaster. This one will have a 90% sized body with a 24" scale length neck. The reason it won't be full size is because I want to use some wood from a tree my dad planted when I was a kid, and that's as big a body as I can get out of what I have. In fact it may not even work depending on how bad the checking at one end is but there's only one way to find out so here we go.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/RawWood_4660_l.jpg

On the left we have body blank I started working on months ago but never got quite ready. It's ALMOST there, but the back of it has some minor tearouts from when I "planed" it with a router.

Next to that are some fingerboard blanks, these are from a stash I took out of my dad's shop when I cleaned it out after he died. I used one of them on my build last year too.

Then I've got a couple more pieces to make a body blank. I highly doubt i'll use those so I'm not really sure why I put them in the photo. My first mistake from feeling rushed I guess. Already I need to slow down!

And finally there is what's left of the maple I bought a Home Depot for my build last year.

Here's a thread I started last year regarding the wood I'm using for a body:
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/258314-wood-source-reality-check-needed.html

Like I said in that thread, I'm thinking the wood is elm. I have no idea if that's a good wood to use for a guitar, but it is what it is.

2012 TDPRI Challenge Guitar, I hereby dub thee.... "Elmo".


Time to go morph full size neck, pick up, and control routes onto a smaller scale body. Cut and paste. No, really. Scissors and glue. Everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten!

I may be out of this one before I even got started. Tornado came through yesterday and we caught a bit of it. Windows blown out, siding gone, other damage. The house three doors down is basically gone though, and then the real carnage starts. I'm feeling pretty lucky right now... no injuries that I've heard of, the dogs and I rode it out downstairs.

The neighbor across the street was downstairs watching TV, never even knew it hit until her husband called and said to go upstairs and look around... amazing. One side of the street, very little damage. Other side, total destruction.

No idea when I'll be checking in here again, priorities have changed a bit in the past 18 hours...

Glad to hear you are OK.

Sorry to hear, glad all are OK, or at least as OK as you can be after that. It is a long contest, so hopefully you will be able to get back in it.

Glad to see you came through fine. I hate tornados.
I'm with Axedaddy. Hopefully you'll be able to get back in the game, but I understand that's nowhere near top priority right now. Good luck getting all your damage taken care of.

Glad to hear you're ok! I hope the rest of your neighborhood is too.

Perhaps you'll be able to salvage some good wood along the way, a Tornadocaster would be a good comeback

Yikes!!! I'm glad ya'll were safe.

Ouch... thats a bummer.

Good to hear you're ok. It's that time of year here in Oklahoma too, so I know what it's like. Take care

Windows boarded up, most furniture written off, carpet already torn up, roof covered in tarps... Day one is slowing down. Now the cul de sac is having a BBQ. Neighbors have been told to go away for a couple months, we're still hanging in there with a generator running the fridge. No build for me, this is going to take some time, they're saying maybe 90 days.

I was watching MyFox Detroit when I got home from work and tracked the storm is it tore through west of Ann Arbor. My first thought was "I hope Desmo is OK" We were ready to take cover if it continued west. The thing tracked south of our city and only skirted the area. Saw the devastation on TV. Saw a man picking up his Rickenbacker off of a pile. - glad there were no fatalites.

Thanks everyone for the thoughts. This is no longer a build thread so I'm not going to update it unless something amazing happens and I feel like I have a chance in starting this up again in the next week or so.

Good luck to all...

My prayers go with you all :wink:

Well, it appears that with decent insurance, recovering from tornado damage does not require the type of time I thought. After a few days a lot of work has already been done. The crew working with us is great, tomorrow we should have a pretty good plan of how to proceed, and then it's pretty much just me putting up with workers around the house for who knows how long...

Which is my long way of saying, I'm back in it.

On Wednesday night I stayed up way too late pasting together an 89% body template with 100% pickup and neck routes. I then discovered I had a drawing done by someone else with virtually the same dimensions and I could have just used that. Oops.

Today i got around to cutting the template out, then screwing that onto my body blank and tracing the outline. There are a couple splits that may cause me problems. I flooded them with CA a while back and hope I can simply fill them if they're an issue? Push comes to shove I'll cut the body smaller and build a MandoTele instead.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4797_l.jpg

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4800_l.jpg

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4802_l.jpg

I may end up going with a 22.75" scale neck. I put together a 24" scale neck drawing for it and it looks weird to me.

Hopefully I can get the body cut out tomorrow.

Do a 23" scale drawing then tell me what you think :wink:

They play great :smile:

Dave

Hey DesmoDog, heart went out to you reading of the tornado - we don't have them here, but I remember driving through Oklahoma one time and being able to tell EXACTLY where a tornado had been...
Glad you are okay, and it is great to see you continuing with the Challenge!

Although it is a small matter, compared to those who lost everything, how are the bikes?

That's awesome! Glad to see you back in the hunt!

Although it is a small matter, compared to those who lost everything, how are the bikes?

No damage. Nada. I have aways thought I've had a really lucky life. This only adds to that. My wife and I were talking yesterday and even with most of our rooms bare right now we can't think of one thing that was damaged or lost that had any special value to us.

We had already looked in to having our windows replaced. We were already planning on replacing the carpet. Roof and siding? Whatever. Furniture? Whatever.

I can't imagine what some other people are going through right now but we're going to be just fine.

The dogs are bit shaken up and stick closer to me than they used to. I am SO happy I was here with them when it happened. They couldn't have gotten downstairs even if they had wanted to...

This brings back memories of last year for me. Glad to see you're pressing on, it's a good thing.

Glad to hear the bad news begin to turn into good news. I've been there before and it's
quite unsettling immediately after a tornado has damaged your home. But, much like anything,
once you realize that the only things of true value have names and require oxygen, then all
the "stuff" becomes replaceable. And hey, that's what insurance is for anyway!

Hope your neighbors fair as well and good luck on your build.

This brings back memories of last year for me. Glad to see you're pressing on, it's a good thing.

Yeah people are amazing in adversity, you guys being some of them

Desmo sorry to hear you were hit by the tornado. Glad you're ok and things are coming together for you!!

It was a long day today but a lot of good news and a few more plans underway. Didn't have as much time to work on this as I wanted but then I'm guessing very few of us here do so time to shut up and get on with the update.

First thing I did was set up the poor man's planer for the back of the blank I'm using.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4815_l.jpg

When I planed it earlier I got a few little tearouts so I thought I'd take another 1/16" off or so. It was right at 1.75" before this but with the smaller scale I figured a little thinner won't hurt anything. The body is also heavier than I expected so every little bit off will help.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4819_l.jpg

Roughly 3,765 passes later it looked like this
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4822_l.jpg

You can see on the end where I flooded it with CA in an attempt to address the checking that happened while it sat in log form for 10+ years. I tried to lay out the body position so most of this got cut out but there's still a lot of it. Only on one end though. From here it went over to the bandsaw. I forgot to take a pic after that. I was into it and just stepped over to the ROSS.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4824_l.jpg

I don't like working with this wood, the poplar I used last year was MUCH easier to deal with. This wood doesn't cut cleanly, the lower edge had a lot of little splinters and sanding it isn't easy. But so be it. That's what happens when you grab firewood to use as a guitar!

When I cut the profile I found a lot more checking so I flooded that again. I suppose I could have put this end at the bridge end instead of the neck end, but my theory was the neck plate would squeeze it all together anyway. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4826_l.jpg

Speaking of sticking to it...

So there I was with my bottle of water thin CA. I'm always very careful when I'm using this stuff. Today I had trouble getting the cap off, it took little persuasion but with my left hand gripping the cap tightly and my right hand prying at the cap with a screwdriver, I got it off with no drama. Then I ever so carefully applied the glue with my right hand. A little here, a little there, a little more here and there... it was a successful operation. When I was done I looked over to where I normally set the cap, and it wasn't there.

Nope. It was still held tightly in my left hand.

Even when I tried to let go of it.

So I pulled it off with my right hand, it really was just barley stuck on there.

Except I couldn't separate two of my fingers. I've glued fingers together before and just torn them apart, but that wasn't going to happen this time. Those buggers were glued together for real.

Luckily I keep a small can of acetone on the shelf for certain situations. Luckily I could open it with one and a half hands. It probably took about five minutes but I finally got my fingers apart with no blood being shed.

Lesson for the day: keep a can of acetone around. Preferably one you can open with one hand.

Thanks again for the comments guys. It's still hot in here (no AC until the vents are cleaned tomorrow) but it's not as noisy tonight. This is what they took out of our house today:
http://www.teamyikes.com/Storm/xIMG_4809_l.jpg

There are still a few of them running plus one of the industrial strength dehumidifiers is still here. The good news is the noise from these drowns out the ringing in my ears, so I've got that going for me.

Wow, DesmoDog, I didn't realize you were up in the tornado disaster area. My prayers are with you and your family. We were watching the news that night with knots in our stomachs just glad to hear no one was killed.

It's awesome you're able to keep going. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Lesson for the day: keep a can of acetone around. Preferably one you can open with one hand.

:lol:I think we should have a sticky for all the shop wisdom learned during the build. I vote this for the first item :lol:

glad to read that everything is turning out alright and that you're still in the challenge.

the color and grain of your blank look like a few pictures of elm online. i thought elm was like poplar, alder, densitywise but the online charts say its heavier.

the color and grain of your blank look like a few pictures of elm online. i thought elm was like poplar, alder, densitywise but the online charts say its heavier.

I'm still not liking working with this wood - it seems to splinter rather easily and isn't easy to cut or sand. And it's definitely heavier than poplar.

I managed to get a little more done on it today. Finished sanding the body profile. I never intended to use a router on it. First of all I didn't want to take the time to make a 3/4" template for one body since I highly doubt I'll make another 89% scale Tele, and also I'm positive it would have torn out like a banshee unless I sanded right up to the line first. If I'm sanding right up to the line on a one off.... why not just sand to the line and be done?

I ran a 1/4" roundover bit around it and got some pretty rough edges. I haven't finished sanding it yet but it cleaned up ok. So this is what I'm dealing with now.

Front:
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4868_l.jpg

Back:
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4869_l.jpg

Here it is with the pickguard I cut and pasted together. The top right fits better than it appears - it's not positioned quite right and also not flat on the body so it looks like it's covering more than it really would. I'm still looking for the traditional Tele pickguard I have around here somewhere to see if I could cut that down and make it work. the neck cut out and the pickup route would be correct on a full sized one.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4872_l.jpg


89% scale body and it weighs about 5.3lbs.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4880_l.jpg

I was thinking about painting it a solid color but that seems to defeat the purpose of using the wood I did. The grain isn't great but so be it, I think I'm going to try a burst on it. That would cover most of the flaws yet still show the wood.

Next I need to decide on a peghead shape so I can cut out the neck. I'm gogin too use that to route the neck pocket template, which will also have the p'up routes on it.

Even though the grain isn't something spectacularly crazy, I think it's pretty nice. Like you said, I think you could do a neat burst that will show it off to add some interest.

Have you identified the wood for sure as elm? I grew up in Birmingham, and remember the beautiful elms we had everywhere. The bark looks like I remember elm looking. It's also fairly fast growing for such a big tree, so to get to that size in your Dad's lifetime is within reason. I don't think an oak would have. Anyway, In about a 10-year period, the elms were virtually all gone, Dutch Elm disease. I helped fell and saw up a couple of them on my folk's property. A sure give-away (and probably why the tree was cut down) is that just inside the bark, you'll find the little tunnels the bastards make. In '93 I was back in Detroit area, and went to Greenfield village/Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, and was amazed that they still had some gigantic elms right out front. They must spray the hell out of those trees to keep Dutch Elm out of them, assuming they're still there.

the color and grain of your blank look like a few pictures of elm online. i thought elm was like poplar, alder, densitywise but the online charts say its heavier.
Denser? Elm can barely be split when green, dulls good tools in record time, splinters on every edge, and as bad if not worse than oak to finish. Even better, furniture made from it takes 14 men, 30 boys and a forklift to move :mad:. Yes, I helped my Dad make a bedroom set out of elm (customer's request, he supplied the wood). Dad had to replace every saw blade that worked it, and we were sharpening chisels, scrapers, planer knives and lathe tools for two weeks (after we got out of our back braces :roll:) . This would be where I would normally laugh at my own joke...................not laughing

Just getting caught up on some build threads; I'm glad your family and dogs are all safe and sound. I also like that you're using such special wood, even if it's a PITA to work with; stick with it.

Good luck!

Have you identified the wood for sure as elm? I grew up in Birmingham, and remember the beautiful elms we had everywhere. The bark looks like I remember elm looking. It's also fairly fast growing for such a big tree, so to get to that size in your Dad's lifetime is within reason. I don't think an oak would have. Anyway, In about a 10-year period, the elms were virtually all gone, Dutch Elm disease. I helped fell and saw up a couple of them on my folk's property. A sure give-away (and probably why the tree was cut down) is that just inside the bark, you'll find the little tunnels the bastards make.

The tree was from Minnesota and the story is the same there with elms and Dutch Elm disease. I haven't been by The Henry Ford in a couple years but do recall large trees outside last time I was there.

Denser? Elm can barely be split when green, dulls good tools in record time, splinters on every edge, and as bad if not worse than oak to finish. Even better, furniture made from it takes 14 men, 30 boys and a forklift to move :mad:.

This sounds too much like what I'm dealing with for this NOT to be elm. I'm pretty sure I trashed the band saw blade cutting the outline, I planned on replacing it before cutting out the neck.

I have more of it, was considering building an electric mandolin or uke after this, but now I don't think so.

I will tell you one thing though, this is the most solid feeling guitar body I've ever felt. (Not that I've felt that many). I built a kit once that had a basswood body. It would get a ding in it if you looked at it funny. This body? I think I could pound nails with it. I am a bit worried about the pup and neck pocket routing though. Sayonara router bits, and I'm hoping not to splinter it too bad.

Just make sure they're sharp when you start. Since it's so "solid", you should end up
getting a nice, bright tone out of it, so you never know. You may like the sound it produces
so much that this becomes your wood of choice. Never say "never", lol.

I with you on the "sanding to the line". I'm not a fan of routers, and the whole "template"
thing is a little lost on me. I first built an LP and went to the effort of making 5 or 6
templates. Now that I've built a couple (4 actually), I realize that I'm getting really
bored with them, so those templates are tucked away somewhere getting covered in
dust, lol. Not that there's anything wrong with them and I know they make the build
go much smoother and probably faster, but "one off", for me anyway, makes more sense.
Plus, I have no plans on opening a Luthier Shop. Hard to get tear-out with sandpaper.

I've been thinking about the neck on this. I was going to use some leftover maple from last year's build, but I've also got some other wood from my dad's shop that I kinda sorta thought maybe could be used for a neck? The thing is, it's too short for a full scale neck. And it's too narrow for a neck. And none of the edges are square to each other. It'd take time to get this to work, and I'm already a week behind where I wanted to be. I'm not even sure what type of wood it is.

But, I'm pretty sure it was meant to be a neck back when my dad was building banjos. So today I decided I had to use it on this build.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4883_l.jpg
Excuse the crumpled drawings. They were on the table when the window let go, and ended up stuffed under a chair. My wife told the clean up crew not to throw them away. The rosewood is not going to be the fingerboard, it's going to make up the center part of a three piece neck. Yeah, I know it's too short. That's why I cut off one end at an angle and then sliced it into 1" wide strips. The splice will be in the heel of the neck so it won't be seen, and won't really see any real force on it since it'll be behind the first set of screws holding the neck on.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4884_l.jpg
There is only one somewhat finished side on it. I used that as my base and cut it down to roughly 1 x 2", then ripped that in half so I have a couple roughly 1" x 1" pieces, and a couple others of less than that. They're too thin for the neck but should work for ears on the peghead. After it's all glued up I'll "plane" it down to 3/4" thick and use a rosewood fingerboard on it.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4887_l.jpg
I'm not sure if this is maple? Elmo's a rescue guit. We're not really sure what his lineage is... kind of like Desmo. He's a rescue also. We're pretty sure he's purebred (that was the rumor when we got him anyway) but he has zero interest in tennis balls and has retrieved something for me exactly twice in the ten years we've had him. (Of course the second time was when I was proving to someone he doesn't retrieve.) And he hates water. But I digress...

I've already cut the neck blank and rosewood into pieces, and glued up the rosewood at the splice, but I forgot my camera upstairs so those pics will need to wait until tomorrow.

Taking the time to do this may be problematic but such is life. It just didn't seem right to use the Home Depot maple on the neck, even if it probably would have saved me a day or three on the build. We're moving out of our house for a little over a week starting on Tuesday so I may not get much done next week. I'm hoping those couple of days don't turn out to be the days I need to finish this on time...

Speaking of taking time, I'm considering an inlay or two. Maybe a copy of the "K" my dad used to put on the peghead of his banjos? Did I mention I gave away all the inlays he had cut out? I had no interest in this stuff back then. Where's the kicking myself smilie???? :oops:

I love the new direction on the neck, Craig (and your story about your dog :smile:). I think with what happened recently, it's more important for you to do meaningful stuff like this than to just throw some stuff together in the interest of finishing on time.

And I feel your shame with regards to throwing out your dad's stuff. My dad died about 6 years ago, and he had a shop full of tools-- band saw, planer, drill press, table saw, etc. I let my mom sell most of it before I got into building guitars. I'm with you in the need for a "kicking self" smiley.

I'm thinking of adding yet another time waster into the build. This one is pretty far fetched though since I haven't got the tools or skills at the moment.

Inlays. I've been looking for tornado graphics but haven't found much that's useful. maybe I should search on "Wizard of Oz" too? Anyway here's one I found.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/TornadoIcon.jpg

Obviously it'd have to be resized but it's a start.

It could go on the peghead, but other ideas were:

a) replacing the 15th fret marker with a little tornado (it happened on the 15th). Cons are that's not much room on a 23.75" scale neck

b) Start it/center it on the 15th fret and have it mess up the next couple of markers after that. Off center, mis-shaped, etc. Cons: I haven't got the time/skills to come up with anything that would look decent.

c) Put something like the graphic shown above somewhere on the neck and forget about fret markers (but keep the side dots obviously).

Basically like this only a different graphic
http://www.teamyikes.com/EW20/EW20_4445_l.jpg


Or I could just get on with life and forget about it. :wink:

Ideas? Comments? I'd like to do idea "b" if I could pull it off but would be ok with "a" too. I'm not sure "c" would be worth the effort...

Is that an Ibanez guitar (I can't quite make out the headstock)? That top is something for an acoustic.

Instead of doing a true inlay, maybe you could use it as a decal. Get some waterslide paper or rub-on transfer paper and just apply it rather than inlay. Just a thought...

Is that an Ibanez guitar (I can't quite make out the headstock)? That top is something for an acoustic.

Yes, it's an Ibanez. That's a figured ash top. It wasn't on my list of guitars to look at when I was going to buy an acoustic but while waiting for a salesguy I picked it up for the heck of it and there it is.

Instead of doing a true inlay, maybe you could use it as a decal. Get some waterslide paper or rub-on transfer paper and just apply it rather than inlay. Just a thought...

Hmm... nope. No decals for me. I'd end up scratching it off somehow. I'm still thinking about a little twister at the 15th fret but it'd have to be SO small I'm not sure it'd work. I'll continue searching for a suitable graphic.

Last night I glued the center strip of the neck together to get a piece long enough.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4889_l.jpg

Tonight I glued up the neck.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4891_l.jpg

I wasn't sure this would work but so far so good. I think i'll be ok with it.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4899_l.jpg

I ordered the stuff to try to do a burst finish last night too, shipped out today and should be here on the 28th. I got the two color burst from Reranch. Not cheap but I always get frustrated trying to use Duplicolor paint and I'm too lazy to break out my real spray equipment. So, we'll see how this works.

I like the idea of inlaying across a few frets. Take the graphic and print it off, glue it
some thin template material, route out the black parts and when you move it to the neck,
fill it with tinted epoxy or get an inlay blank and cut it out with a jeweler's blade in a
coping saw. It's not as hard as it sounds.

I like the idea of the tornado on the neck. It could go at the 12th fret, so it would be quite a bit bigger, one big design across the width of the neck, more easily seen. Epoxy filled seems reasonable, but I've never tried it.

My sister came to visit for the weekend. I was showing her the body of the guitar. Out of the blue she said "Oh, I have all his inlay stuff, and some veneers, and..."

Long story short, I'm hoping to get one of the "K's" that he cut out (our last name starts with a "K") and using that on the build. It's likely mother of pearl though, so it probably won't work so well on the maple(?) headstock? Maybe I can put a rosewood veneer on it first, or tint it or something.

I tried to plane the neck blank down to size today
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4904_l.jpg

But before I could finish, my router died! Porter Cable 690. Just lost power. I checked the brushes, they're fine. I checked the wiring and didn't see any shorts. When I put it back together it ran for about half a second then stopped again. I dunno. It was a loaner, I may just go buy a new one tomorrow? I'm pretty much done without one since I haven't routed the body yet.

Anyway, here's what the neck looks like now. It's sitting on top of the cabinet I'm building for the 5F1 amp kit I'm building. I was hoping to have it done in time to use in the build video but it's not a priority.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4905_l.jpg

The neck blank is still too thick and one side is rough cut. The other has a flaw I was goign to elminate when I routed it down to the final thickness.

Inlaid dog-bone fret markers. Just sayin'

Somewhere on this forum I saw somebody do a rout-and fill with dyed epoxy "inlay". Sanded smooth and flush, looked like the real thing, and with B + W seems like it would be fairly straightforward. Maybe someone else saw it and can remember where the thread is, if you're interested.

BTW, glad you're back in.

Bummer about the router. Hope you're back up and running soon

Last night I decided how to fix the router dilemma. I walked into a Lowe's about ten minutes before they closed and grabbed another Cable Porter. I figure it'll work with the plunge base and some stuff I've built for the first one. I had wanted to finish "planing" the neck blank today but instead figured out my peghead shape and glued some ears on the blank to make it work. That way they get planed down at the same time as the blank. I still haven't had time to even open the router so I guess I didn't really need to rush over there last night after all...

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4920_l.jpg

I also changed my mind back to a 24" scale neck. It doesn't look so weird to me with a shorter peghead. It also fits the blank now with a shorter peghead. 24" scale on the left, 22.75" scale on the right. Not a great pic but you get the idea.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4932_l.jpg

I've got an idea for an inlay too but I haven't had a chance to lay it out to see if it will even work so more on that later.

Hey Desmo,

Glad to hear your life is coming back to normal. I was thinking of what kind of home I would have if I lived in tornado country. Something with reinforced concrete walls and steel roll- down window shutters built into the attic I think. All activated by a central panic button driven by a protected power source of course.... But as long as you and your family are safe that's all that counts.

Glad to see you are continuing with the build. It's looking great! You could simply stylize the tornado with an asymmetrical stack of horizontal MOP lines starting from a dot and increasing upward in length to what will fit. Just a thought.

Barncaster

I'm of the opinion that you can build the house however you want, but the right tornado in just the right spot and it won't matter, it's coming down. Or up, or over, or all of the above. The wind is one thing, but the pressures involved are amazing. Amazed me anyway.

After 3 days I finally have a useable neck blank. Ouch. At this rate I'll never finish in time! Whatever. It'll be done when it's done, I finished on time last year so I don't need to prove that to myself again.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4940_l.jpg

I'm still considering inlays. Does anyone know if there is some sort of epoxy or filler I could use instead of cutting MOP or abalone or whatever? I need something that will show up on a rosewood board. I'm not sure how jet black would work... maybe grey? I'm thinking of something like this, using the 15th fret marker as the center of the top of it:
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4943_l.jpg

I went a little overboard on the peghead wings but in my defense when I put them on I hadn't settled on a design and at one point even thought they were too small. Truth be told with a little tweak I likely could have gotten away with not using them at all.

The 'burst kit from Reranch shows up tomorrow. I was hoping to have the body ready to spray when it got here. Not even close! :oops:

Dyed epoxy works fantastic. I was doing some test stuff in my build thread, but I've used it successfully in the past and it works really well.

Personally I hope you go with the tornado across several frets with no other dots. I think it's just an awesome way to commemorate what you went through on the build.

I have a friend who does inlay really well and he told me a lot of secrets that I would have never thought of. If you like I can type all that out in this thread to help you.

I have a friend who does inlay really well and he told me a lot of secrets that I would have never thought of. If you like I can type all that out in this thread to help you.

I'm all ears, (or eyes I guess...) That'd be great!

I'm also tossing around an idea for the peghead but I can't find the dang graphics for it, I know they're around here somewhere...

I'm still considering inlays. Does anyone know if there is some sort of epoxy or filler I could use instead of cutting MOP or abalone or whatever? I need something that will show up on a rosewood board. I'm not sure how jet black would work... maybe grey? I'm thinking of something like this, using the 15th fret marker as the center of the top of it:

Dave, Plain old JB Weld hardens to a gray color. Also found this stuff:
http://www.amazon.com/Milliput-SILVER-Silver-Epoxy-Putty/dp/B000R9QHX8/ref=pd_sim_t_7

Silver gray sounds like it would look cool. Stuff comes in other colors, too.

volowv has a method of making markers with crushed shells and polyester resin in his thread. Looks nice, you might be able to modify his technique and put the mix into your tornado inlay before it's cured.

Inlaid dog-bone fret markers. Just sayin'

I like it. That might work for next year's build...

volowv has a method of making markers with crushed shells and polyester resin in his thread. Looks nice, you might be able to modify his technique and put the mix into your tornado inlay before it's cured.

I was going to multiquote all the epoxy comments but suffice it to say thanks for the comments everyone. I think I'm going to use the epoxy as a back up plan. I went through all the fretboard blanks I have and picked out he lightest colored rosewood board, and the darkest ebony board. I'm going to try to cut the tornado out of ebony and see what the contrast is between it and the rosewood. it doesn't have to be super obvious what it is, subtle is good too.

If I can't get the ebony cut out or cutting the fretboard goes wrong I can always fill it with epoxy and tell people I meant to do that! :razz:

In other news we're out of the house for a while, dogsitting for some friends, so I haven't got much time to work on this. In the past few days I've hogged out the p'up routes with forstener bits, and routed the neck to shape. Pics tomorrow maybe?

My problem is getting the bottom of the peghead symmetric! Now I know one more reason to go with 6 inline tuners... I have a plan for fixing it, we'll see how that goes.

If I can't get the ebony cut out or cutting the fretboard goes wrong I can always fill it with epoxy and tell people I meant to do that! :razz:



Too late!

Subtle is always nice (to my eye).

I was going to do the pickup routes with no template but today I changed my mind. I cut out the neck and routed it to shape last night. I added the pup routes to a template I made last year.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4967_l.jpg

Speaking of last year's build... look familiar? I started to fix the tuning issue but it got more complicated than I thought it would be and, well... it's become a parts donor for this year. I can still fix it but it's not a priority right now.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4968_l.jpg

Template done, ready to route.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4972_l.jpg

D'oh! Forgot to cover the computer!
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4974_l.jpg

P'ups routed, now it's time to figure out the control route.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4975_l.jpg

put the bridge on with the plan for the pick guard...
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4981_l.jpg

... and noticed this!
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4985_l.jpg

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4986_l.jpg

You can't see it from directly above. I marked the outside of the bridge to check for this before I routed and it looked good, but the radius of the bend on the edge of the bridge exposes the edge of the route. Grrrrrr....

Got the basic shape of the pickguard worked out today. The control locations are not correct for my cut/pasted version of it. Now that I know where the screw holes will be I can work out the real control locations/route. I may still tweak the upper right corners so I didn't drill those screw holes yet.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4994_l.jpg

Came up with a template to match the shapes from side to side, and locate the tuners. In the original position I had them in I thought the top two might run into each other (the peghead is pretty narrow) so I moved them out and down from where I had them. Here's the template drilled and the peghead marked.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4997_l.jpg

Then as a reality check I drilled out the template and put a tuner in it. I'm not really liking the new position, I think I'll move them back in, they should still clear each other... I'm glad I didn't drill the peghead all the way through.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4998_l.jpg

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5001_l.jpg

Two things done tonight.

First I steamed out some "dents" on the back of the body. Apparently i forgot to upload pics of them so you're just going to have to take my word for it. Tonight I took the steamer deal my wife has for taking wrinkles out of clothes, plugged it in, and ran it over the back of the body a few times. I looked again and was amazed that I couldn't tell where the major dent had been. Of course the grain had raised too but that was easily sanded flat with absolutely no sign of the "dents". I expected an improvement but never thought it'd fix it that well that fast. Sweet...

I also finished the main part of the control route. I still need to drill to the bride route and run a channel to the neck p'up. I did end up making a template for this too.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5005_l.jpg

Hmm... seems a bit bigger than it needed to be now that I look at it. No worries, the guard ill cover it all anyway.

Next up, neck pocket, grain filling, sanding sealer, and then my first attempt at a burst finish can begin.

...Something with reinforced concrete walls...

That's was the thought behind a bunch of restaurants and stores on Rangeline last year, long story short, we have a few new stores and restaurants.

After an very frustrating Wednesday where nothing was working out and I made zero progress, I got back on track on Thursday. One of the things I tried to do on Wednesday was route the neck pocket with no template, basically putting blocks right on the body to create the outline. I got everything set up and then before routing realized I was taking too many chances with double sided tape, clamps, etc. I decided to do a template instead but even that didn't work as planned so I gave up for the day. On Thursday things went better. I added a neck pocket template to the p'up template I made earlier, using an old template from last year's build. This could get confusing...

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5016_l.jpg


Then I drilled a channel for the bridge p'up wiring. Another one of Dad's home modified tools coming in handy - he had brazed a bit onto some drill rod. This shot also reminds me I put on some grain filler on Tuesday night.Smoothed it out pretty well but there's still some areas that need more help. The grain on this is pretty open.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5018_l.jpg

Added a channel for the neck p'up.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5019_l.jpg

Hole for output jack. I clamped the body to the table and drilled a pilot hole with a hand held electric drill. I'm glad I did that - once it was drilled I realized I had to move over a little or the 7/8" hole would never clear on the left side. Instead of drawing a guide line on the top I drew a 7/8" area to see how it would meet up with the cavity and then drilled another pilot hole. Then a 7/8" forstner bit. The drill I was using has a bubble level in the handle so I could see if I was aiming it up or down, which boosted my confidence.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5025_l.jpg

My pilot hole was about 0.1" low. I meant to do that though, the bottom side is stronger since there's not cut out there, so this left the top "bridge" part of the hole 0.1" thicker for more strength. Yep. I did it on purpose. As far as you know. By drilling it low it also means the bottom of the hole fell just about right on the bottom of the cavity. It's really all in the planning. :wink:
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5024_l.jpg

The last thing I did was put on another (final?) coat of grain filler. Apparently I grabbed the treble horn when it was still a little wet. Oops. This shot also shows I did little touch-up on the body near the neck pocket. The neck is a little narrower than the body in that area so I sanded off the sides of the body a little more.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5031_l.jpg

Today I hope to put a couple coats of sanding sealer on it to prep for spraying. I also hope to get further along on the neck.

Routed for the truss rod. I thought I took pics of the set-up but apparently not. The truss rod is almost the exact width of the rosewood strip.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5034_l.jpg

I tried to drill the hole in the end of the neck freehand. Didn't work out so well... the small bit I use wandered and would have been a disaster if I had used it as a pilot hole for a larger bit. So, out came the tools. I used a 1/4" end mill to make a new pilot hole, then drilled that out with a suitable sized bit. Success.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5035_l.jpg

With that I could epoxy in the truss rod.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5044_l.jpg

I also got to put down some sanding sealer on the body but don't have any action shots of that. A lot was going on around here today and I was more into trying to get things done than trying to take pictures of it.

Hey I loved your build from last year, It seems this year is a bit conservative, and full of snakeheads:lol: I think you'll probably end up with a great playing guitar this year, shame about the headless, you gotta fix it up.

Thanks. The travel tele from last year will rise again, I'm just not sure when. A lot of other projects take priority.

Things do seem more conservative this year. I was going to say that I had decided on a snakehead before I saw other builds but in thinking about it, someone's build here did convince me that was the way to go. I wanted to go with a 3x3 as soon as I figured out that I had to add a filler strip to make the neck wide enough, it just would have looked weird to have the central strip in an inline headstock IMHO...

Just like last year, I'm already thinking about what I want to build NEXT year. Too soon to tell of course but I think next year might be the year I build "the one"... the tele I've been imagining for a couple years now.

Getting back to this build, When I was routing the truss rod slot I started doing the math in my head, and I'm a bit amazed at how little wood will be left underneath it if I go with the narrow neck I was considering. i think I'll go with plan "B" for my neck profile... something fat!

Took a step or two forward today, and a step or two back...

First the bad news. Certainly not a disaster but disappointing. I started spraying the burst and things did not go well. I tried to spray the edge first, it started out ok and then went downhill fast. I think there is a compatibility issue between the sanding sealer and the lacquer.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5057_l.jpg

Obviously the amber has been sprayed in that shot too. Once the edge got tacky I took it over to the bench and sanded the front and back a bit more, then warmed everything up since I wasn't sure if maybe the temp was messing me up? Things went better but still not great.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5051_l.jpg

There's a different problem going on there too. I though the spray was messed up but then figured out that the glove I was wearing had gotten loose on my fingertip and was drooping down into the spray pattern which led to spurts. Oops.

The back was a little better.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5053_l.jpg

I got that far and decided my issues were mainly with the sealer I used so I let it sit and will sand it off tomorrow.

While that was setting up I started working on the neck again. Drilled the tuner holes and then decided to take another look through my fingerboard blanks to choose one for this.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5047_l.jpg

In the spirit of this build, which seems to be using up parts that won't work on full size builds, I chose one that had a flaw in it that won't be a problem on the smaller neck. It might have worked on a larger scale neck to but so be it.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5048_l.jpg

It was about 1/8" too thick so I set up my poor man's planer and went at it.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5050_l.jpg

I noticed that this board had also been sniped on the end so it wouldn't have worked on a longer scale after all. The thin part of the board starts just ahead of the nut in this shot. I realize you can't see it but take my word for it. :wink:
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5059_l.jpg

And that's where I quit for the day. The really good news is, the people we were dogsitting for are coming home early so I'm back at my own house tonight. Which means my own bed. Woo Hoo. It's the little things in life... :cool:

I know what you mean. Love to go places, but hate to sleep anywhere but home.
Great work, this is gonna be cool.

Sanded down the body but no luck in getting decent results. I think I'll have to strip everything off of it and start over with different fillers and sealers. Something on/in the wood is repelling the finish. In some places on the edges I must have sanded through everything and now the finish is very dull in those areas. I'm using Re-ranch two color aerosol burst lacquers, had I been more careful choosing the products I put underneath it I think it'd be a pretty nice system.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5069_l.jpg
Bummer... I think I could have finished the burst and been on to the clearcoat had it all worked out. I am so much better at painting metal... I think on the next build I'm going to use all House of Kolor products and paint it up like it's a gas tank!

Spent more time on the neck. I went lo-tech on the fret slot cutting but I think it'll work out ok.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5061_l.jpg

And not much later it looked more like this. Every slot was measured from the nut to avoid compounding measurement errors. That tape measure probably looks normal to non-US members. I used to have it at work - no one would steal a metric tape measure. I brought it home because, let's face it, the US should have gone metric years ago. it is SO much easier to deal with...
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5063_l.jpg

Now it's time to decide if I'm going to do any inlays. Considering the setback on the body finishing I'm thinking probably not. If I do it'll likely be with epoxy to save trying to cut the forms then matching the shapes with the routing.

Sometimes Nitro Lacquer gets fussy when it's either cold out or too humid. Some people
have good luck warming the can before they spray. Of course it's probably a compatibility
issue, but if it's one of those two at least it would be easier to fix.

Great job on the fretboard and I think your slot-cutting-jig was perfect.

Sometimes Nitro Lacquer gets fussy when it's either cold out or too humid. Some people
have good luck warming the can before they spray. Of course it's probably a compatibility
issue, but if it's one of those two at least it would be easier to fix.


I thought maybe it was temp related, then decided against that thinking the sanding sealer wasn't playing well with the Reranch lacquer... but now I'm not so sure. More on that below.

Today I got out the lacquer thinner and gave the body a nice rubdown.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5087_l.jpg

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5083_l.jpg
See, here's the thing. As I was resizing that picture to post here it occurred to me - there is sanding sealer in the routes which had been put on relatively thick and hadn't been sanded. If the sealer was incompatible with the lacquer I would think the routes would look horrible. They don't. I checked the sealer earlier and it's Deft lacquer based sealer. Maybe it's the (water based) grain filler? Or maybe it's temp. I did try to warm the lacquer after the first sign of trouble but I probably didn't let it warm up enough. I've created a couple test pieces I'll spray tomorrow (after warming lacquer and body) to see if I have issues. If not, I'm going to sand and re-seal the body with no grain filler, then re-spray the burst. If all goes well I'll put some clear on the test parts - Reranch on one and polyurethane on another. If the poly works I'll likely go with that instead. If not, I'll spray the Reranch and hope it sets up relatively quickly.

Alrighty then, enough about the body. The neck is under here somewhere!
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5076_l.jpg

That's a wide fingerboard
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5081_l.jpg

I thought I'd wait until tomorrow to route it to shape but I went down to shut off the ventilation in the "booth" and one thing led to another. After that I took out the inlay my sister had sent me and set it on then neck. I don't think I'm going to use it, it's not the shape I remember and won't work very well with the idea I had. That swoopy tail screws it up...
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5091_l.jpg

Then I tossed a couple tornadoes on there. I would still use the typical round marker dots I just didn't lay them out. I like this one because I can incorporate the marker dots in with it. Not a great pic but shows the placement, starting at the 15th fret
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5093_l.jpg

The top dot in it would be the marker for the 15th fret, the lower nib the marker for the 17th.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5094_l.jpg

And a couple of a different style
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5095_l.jpg

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5097_l.jpg

Verdict is still out on this, I may just go with standard markers.

I think it would be really cool. If you have a way of making it happen, I say go for it!

Please don't do standard markers. The inlay is just so fitting of what this build went through. Of course it is your guitar and if you truly don't like it then...

Ahhh yes, a snakehead :smile:, the takeover is almost complete :twisted:

Oh BTW, looks like there was some silicone of some sort on the body. Kinda like trying to paint Armorall, it just slides off :wink:

Oh BTW, looks like there was some silicone of some sort on the body. Kinda like trying to paint Armorall, it just slides off :wink:

That's what I thought too, but silicone was banned from my shop years ago.

Seriously. I have one can of lube in the house that contains silicone and it is treated like a hazardous substance... and I've already ranted in another thread about how much I absolutely detest everything about Armor All so no reason to get there again I suppose. But it truly is evil. :twisted:

I'm kind of wondering if maybe the brush I used to put he sanding sealer on was contaminated with something? But that should have messed up the sealer too I would think? Hopefully the lacquer thinner bath will take care of anything that may have been messing it up... and I'll warm things up better this time (he says, with snow in the forecast...)

And now instead of going off to bed to be nice and rested for yet another day of hell at work, I'm off to look at inlay supplies... I've thought of something else I want to try too... :mrgreen:

Desmo it's not temperature related. I've sprayed lacquer in the bitter cold, the only thing that happens when you spray in the cold is it takes so long to dry it really settles into every nook and cranny. It's difficult to get lacquer to build in the cold. I also don't think it's humidity because that typically shows itself by making your lacquer all cloudy (it traps the moisture inside the lacquer since the lacquer dries quicker than the moisture can get out). You definitely have something oily or some sort of silicone on the wood. I need to go back and read but what kind of wood is that? Some woods are naturally oily. I've also had a rare occurance where my can of lacquer condensated inside and I didn't realize it. I thought it looked a little funny when I poured it in my gun, then when I sprayed it that's the exact result I got.

You need to scrub that thing down real good with naptha or some sort of degreaser. As a very last resort you can mist very very light layers on, don't even go for a wet coat until you mist on several light coats. The very light mist coats won't separate like the wet coat does. Once you get a good layer of mist on you can start laying down wet coats. Not the best method but if that is silicone it may be your only option apart from primer.

Just read up on Elm, is that what you've decided the body wood is? Apparently Elm wood is suitable for lasting a long time underwater, which makes me think it's probably oily. I'm not sure what the solution is for naturally oily wood. There are plenty of knowledgeable people around here that probably do know how to lacquer oily woods though (if this is indeed oily wood).

If it is an oily wood, you could try using Acetone as a wash

When I got home I sprayed some lacquer on the test pieces but I just didn't have the patience for that sort of thing today, so I left it and worked on the neck instead.

Last year I managed to screw up my side markers, even with some fancy fence scheme they were out of line. So I came up with a much simpler fixture to put 1/8" markers in to cover the old ones. This year I modded that to use with 2mm markers. Hopefully I offset the holes enough that they won't get hit when I radius the board.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5099_l.jpg

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5106_l.jpg

After marking the spots for the dots I took it over to my high tech tool set up and drilled some holes.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5108_l.jpg

Then I glued in the markers and started playing around with inlays again.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5111_l.jpg

Not much done today but I'm feeling lazy so there it is.

Hey progress is progress. I'm still sold on the idea of the twister inlay, but of course, I'm not the one who has to actually do the inlay, so...

Side dots shaved down flush. Desmo is less than impressed.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5117_l.jpg

I've been misting some lacquer on the edges of this thing. It's slow going but turning out better. I think if I get it to an even dark brown I'll let some of the grain show through rather than worrying about hiding all the grain. A few more coats and I think I'll move on to the amber and the burst.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5127_l.jpg


I also thinned the headstock and sanded the transition. I was dreading this step because I wasn't sure how I'd do it. I ended up mounting the router in one of my "planing boards" and clamping that upside down so it was like a router table. Then I ran the neck over that to get the thickness. No pictures of that as I was entirely consumed keeping track of the location of my body parts in relation to that spinning metal thing...

I shaped the transition with the mighty ROSS, using the largest drum and just eyeballing it. It ended up going a lot easier than I had though but now it's even more apparent that I didn't get the neck even around the rosewood stripe. It's off by about 0.04" which sounds like a little but looks like a mile!
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5130_l.jpg

I also spent some time figuring out how deep the truss rod channel is and laying out the markers. I haven't decided exactly how they'll work after the 15th fret... but I did get a box from Stew-Mac today so there will be changes from what I've shown so far. Nothing drastic. I got some black epoxy and am testing how that will look on rosewood. They say to let it set up for three days before sanding. Finally I got some dye to mix with the epoxy so it'll match the rosewood. Looks pretty dark, I think I'll have to back off on the dye next time.

Just read up on Elm, is that what you've decided the body wood is? Apparently Elm wood is suitable for lasting a long time underwater, which makes me think it's probably oily. I'm not sure what the solution is for naturally oily wood. There are plenty of knowledgeable people around here that probably do know how to lacquer oily woods though (if this is indeed oily wood).

Yeah, I think it is elm. Doesn't fell like an oily wood but spraying lacquer on it makes me thin it must be. I wiped everything down with lacquer thinner before spraying and changed to the "fine" spray nozzle, light coats. Seems to be working though I did see hints of the same issue in one spot. I stopped, let it dry over night, and then sanded it out. Misted it again and I think it's working. The endgrain seems to be the worst, I'm hoping I don't have issues with the front or back!

Hey Desmo,

I'm working with ebony and for it they recommend acetone for a thorough wipe own prior to gluing. Acetone is also what surgeons use to wipe down incision areal prior to cutting. It takes oil out extremely well. Give it a try.

Barncaster

Hey Desmo,

I'm working with ebony and for it they recommend acetone for a thorough wipe own prior to gluing. Acetone is also what surgeons use to wipe down incision areal prior to cutting. It takes oil out extremely well. Give it a try.

Acetone probably would have been a good idea but I already forged ahead. Lacquer thinner plus misting the first coats seems to have done it. I've got the edges done and now the amber is on. Reranch said that the brown and amber play nice together and make red. I didn't notice it until I resized these shots, it's pretty evident around the edges in the first one. I think the clear must really bring it out.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5141_l.jpg

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5146_l.jpg

Next step is to try to spray the burst. I'm letting it set up overnight though, I'll probably have to do some light sanding first. I noticed that in my paranoia
about sanding through the sealer I didn't sand it enough in some spots. Oops... One more finish I'll write off to "I'll do better next time..."

I hope I have enough brown left to make the burst look decent...

That's coming together really nicely. I like that little "red" that peeks through, even though
it's probably getting covered with the burst. Cool how that works.

And, I hate to tell you this, but I have a patent on the "I'll do better on the next one" statement.
You now owe me 18 cents.

Did my first attempt at a burst this afternoon. Got a pretty good start and then thought it best to let it dry before going further.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5154_l.jpg

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5158_l.jpg

Then it was time to shape the back of the neck. I marked off the first chamfer and went at it with a rasp I bought from Stew-Mac for this year's build.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5161_l.jpg

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5163_l.jpg

The rasp made things go a lot quicker but it's pretty aggressive, I need something a little milder for when I get close to the line. After getting the first pair of chamfers cut I just eyeballed it from there, making things more or less even per side.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5167_l.jpg

I sanded that all down nice and smooth, got out the scraper and did some more fine tuning... and decided I didn't like the profile so I got out the rasp again and shaved more off. Eventually I got it nice and smooth again in a shape I like a little more. I still have some work to do, especially on the transition at the heel, but I decided to let it sit for the night and take a new look tomorrow. It always amazes me how different things can look the next day when I've had time away from something I've been staring at for hours. I'm pretty happy with the transition at the peghead but I'm sure it'll still need more tweaking.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5169_l.jpg

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5182_l.jpg

Then it was back to the burst. I tried to even things out but I'm afraid I may have made it too wide in a couple areas. I may try to tweak it a little with sandpaper and spraying more amber if needed, but I'm almost out of brown so there may be no recovery from making a distinct line so it may be best to just leave it!

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5174_l.jpg

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5178_l.jpg

It looks a lot different under the flash than it does under fluorescents by the way. The flash makes a lot more of the brown look red. So instead of the cool red band it's more of a lighter brown area. One more thing I'm leaving until tomorrow for a second look.

Sweet job on the burst, looks great. Shaping the neck is awesome as well. Excellent!

I'm likin' the burst. It will look different with the pickguard on it. I'd look at that tomorrow before I changed anything. The transition at the headstock is great, I really like the stripe down the middle of that symmetrical head.

Thanks for the comments guys. In thinking about it I'll likely leave the burst as is. It's my first attempt, I learned some things, and I'm afraid the potential is there to really screw it up if I try fixing it. That would mean stripping it all off and either ordering more or going with a solid color after all. Tomorrow I'll toss the pickguard template on it and give it another look but unless I think it's horrible, I'm leaving it. Yes, it could be better. But it could be a lot worse too!

Assuming I leave it as is, the question becomes... do I spray some of the left over amber on the neck??? Hmm...

This weekend marks the halfway point of the time allowed for the build. I'm feeling a lot better about the build now than I was last weekend. I'm pretty sure I'll make it barring any unforeseen disaster.

The last major hold up is the inlay on the fingerboard. I dunno... I figured out today I'd need to build or buy a router base for my Dremel, and then I'd have to buy some bits for it. And then hope it works or I'd need to buy another one Dremel too! This cheap build hasn't been all that cheap...

Oh yeah, one more question. Anyone have a guess what kind of wood the neck is? It shaped easier than the maple I used last year but seems more "stringy". At one point I tore some tape off of it and it actually took a strand of the grain with it. Doesn't seem to drill as cleanly as maple either. It occurred to me that I'm only assuming my dad didn't use it for a neck because the piece was too small. It may be some sort of wood that isn't all that appropriate for use as a neck! Oh well, with the rosewood stringer and the truss rod in there it should be alright.

Right? http://forums.floridasportsman.com/images/smilies/fingers-crossed-emoticon.gif

The last major hold up is the inlay on the fingerboard. I dunno... I figured out today I'd need to build or buy a router base for my Dremel, and then I'd have to buy some bits for it. And then hope it works or I'd need to buy another one Dremel too! This cheap build hasn't been all that cheap...


I am building mine for under $100 this year. If you don't count any tools I have bought like the ROSS. Or the $40 in tools I bought to make a truss rod for $10 less than buying one. Oh and I am also using the pickups I removed from my Mexican Tele. Those are free right. :-) The joy of building cheap home made guitars.

I think the sun burst looks great. Your gonna find flaws in your own work days before a stranger, no matter how good of a job you do. The first one is done. The next one may be better. But the first one is DONE. Keep up the great work. I enjoy your builds.

Beautiful job on the burst! I think after you come back
to it you will realize how good it looks. Hope mine turns out that well.

And I really like the neck, too.

Thanks again for the comments. One thing I'm finding is the burst pics look different on different monitors too. There is a lot more red on my iMac monitor vs my laptop or iPod. Funny how that works!

that burst looks great. nice grain too.

i hear you on 'the messing it up when trying to fix it' problem. i'd just leave it.

I think the burst looks great :)

Nice burst!

I was going to do the pickup routes with no template but today I changed my mind. I cut out the neck and routed it to shape last night. I added the pup routes to a template I made last year.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4967_l.jpg

Speaking of last year's build... look familiar? I started to fix the tuning issue but it got more complicated than I thought it would be and, well... it's become a parts donor for this year. I can still fix it but it's not a priority right now.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4968_l.jpg

Template done, ready to route.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4972_l.jpg

D'oh! Forgot to cover the computer!
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4974_l.jpg

P'ups routed, now it's time to figure out the control route.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4975_l.jpg

put the bridge on with the plan for the pick guard...
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4981_l.jpg

... and noticed this!
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4985_l.jpg

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4986_l.jpg

You can't see it from directly above. I marked the outside of the bridge to check for this before I routed and it looked good, but the radius of the bend on the edge of the bridge exposes the edge of the route. Grrrrrr....

That's pretty normal. My new American Special Telecaster has the same thing. However, my CVC does not. The "flaw" has been discussed before on this forum.

I think you've done a fine job there. Good call on leaving it. Disaster usually strikes when we say, "I'll do just a little more here and that should fix it..." Of course we usually know the rest of that story.

Now, I've never done a burst before, so take this with the appropriate grain, but I'd tend to think that something like a burst would be best handled like doing a faux finish on a wall. You always want one person doing the wall, and each layer of treatment should be done during one session. This is because a different day is likely to bring differences in application technique, so it will never blend with what you did the day before...

I am building mine for under $100 this year. If you don't count any tools I have bought like the ROSS. Or the $40 in tools I bought to make a truss rod for $10 less than buying one. Oh and I am also using the pickups I removed from my Mexican Tele. Those are free right. :-) The joy of building cheap home made guitars.

I think the sun burst looks great. Your gonna find flaws in your own work days before a stranger, no matter how good of a job you do. The first one is done. The next one may be better. But the first one is DONE. Keep up the great work. I enjoy your builds.

I'm already into this one for a new router, a rasp, some dyes and epoxy, yadda yadda yadda... There is no such thing as a cheap build! There's a saying out there along the lines of the most expensive bike is the one you got free... I think the most expensive cheap guitar is the one you build yourself.

That's pretty normal. My new American Special Telecaster has the same thing. However, my CVC does not. The "flaw" has been discussed before on this forum.

Oh sure, now you tell me. :wink: I already put some filler in the corners to try to get rid of the gap. Had I known it was normal/common I would have left it!

I think you've done a fine job there. Good call on leaving it. Disaster usually strikes when we say, "I'll do just a little more here and that should fix it..." Of course we usually know the rest of that story.

Now, I've never done a burst before, so take this with the appropriate grain, but I'd tend to think that something like a burst would be best handled like doing a faux finish on a wall. You always want one person doing the wall, and each layer of treatment should be done during one session. This is because a different day is likely to bring differences in application technique, so it will never blend with what you did the day before...

I still haven't gone downstairs to check stuff out today but I'm pretty convinced I'm going to leave it. I was going to take some pics in normal lighting today and make the final decision but it is so dang windy out three's no way I'm going to spray any clear anyway, so I may as well just let it set up longer. That's alright, if I have time to work on it I'll concentrate on the neck. I can be putting Tru oil on that in the next day or so, which also gives me more time to contemplate the inlay. No reason the back of the neck can't be finished before I do that, and it'll give the tru-oil more time to set up before polishing too.

I still haven't gone downstairs to check stuff out today but I'm pretty convinced I'm going to leave it.

I lied. I took a look at it in natural light and it's only a matter of time before I hit it with some wet, fine sandpaper... there's just too much overspray on the bass side of the front. But the bigger issue is the top roundover didn't get fully covered so I need to lay the template on top and hit that with whatever brown I have left to get some coverage there.

Hang on people, it ain't over yet... :twisted:

Hang on people, it ain't over yet... :twisted:

Now it is. Well the color part anyway. I'm spraying clear from here on out.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5205_l.jpg

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5216_l.jpg

Better, worse, or just different? I'm leaning towards different but there really was a huge amount of brown overspray all over the back. The good news is it did a pretty good job of hiding the major flaws in the wood, especially the upper bout on the bass side.

I also started Tru-oiling the neck. Found a couple areas that could have used a bit more sanding first but they aren't all that obvious so that's the way it's going to be. I'm not sure I really like the rasp I got for this, the teeth are very pointy and left a few gouges that were a pain to get out...

Anywhos, I have yet to get a decent picture of the neck so this will have to do for now.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5195_l.jpg

Ooh! ooh! Ooh! This is how it looks with even more clear!
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5230_l.jpg

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5238_l.jpg

Um, yeah... so I probably won't be showing any more burst pics since I really don't think it's going to change much at this point.

But I did also do a rough cut of the pick guard so of course I threw together a little mock up.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5218_l.jpg

Still need to do the final shaping of it of course. I had the white around but thought it might be boring so today I spent some time on Warmoth's site playing around with their body builder feature. Turns out I couldn't find another color that looks all that much better to me. Maybe pearl but I'm going to be cheap and just go with the white. I've got a cream colored blank around here somewhere, i wonder how that would look.. but where is it? Probably with the dang speaker I can't find.

And just for yucks I flipped it over and tossed the neck on there. Maybe I SHOULD have hit the neck with some amber first?
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5220_l.jpg

The bottom two pics were taken with no flash. See how different the burst looks? I have no idea how this thing is going to look in decent natural lighting.

No, that necks fine. It's a nice contrast between the light and the dark of the burst.
Which, btw, looks awesome!

Good question on the neck wood. You're right, it doesn't look like maple now that you mention it, especially down toward the butt end. If I didn't known better, form the appearance there, I'd almost guess hickory--stringy, but hard to work, twists a lot, I don't think its' hickory.

I love putting the clear on bursts. It just magnifies the magic.

That burst and the neck look great!!

Well the problem of the missing amp speaker has been solved.



I ordered a new one.


Same size but different type so I can justify it as wanting to see what the difference is between ceramic and alinico magnets...

That burst is amazing. I'm not a big fan of bursts, but I really like this one.

Thanks again for the comments. I'm not a huge fan of bursts either but it seemed appropriate for this build. I'm liking this one more as time goes on!

Sprayed the last of the clear this morning. I wish I had more but that's what happens every time I spray aerosols.

I think the neck may be far enough along I can polish it so I'm letting it sit a while before playing with it anymore.

So it was on to the pickguard. I stuck the rough cut plastic on the pattern with double stick tape and introduced it to the router. Couldn't even feel when it hit it cuts so easily.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5247_l.jpg

It still managed to snatch it out of my hands once when I got distracted though. :oops:

No harm done. Smoother rough shape.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5249_l.jpg

Next up came the 45 degree bit. An efficient man would have done the pup route with the straight bit still in there but that's life.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5251_l.jpg

Rough out the pup route
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5252_l.jpg

Back to the straight bit and tah dah! A semi-finished custom pick guard. I still need to drill the screw holes, figure out the control placement, and route the neck pocket area. I'm doing that on the body once it's positioned correctly.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5257_l.jpg

I didn't know you were posting here

yer havin' too much fun with this

This builds looking great! Nice job on the pickguard. :-)

I didn't know you were posting here

yer havin' too much fun with this

The real fun's gonna be when I get that amp together and my good buddy helps out with the tubes on it! If I get busy I might even be able to have him play this guitar on my completion video through that amp... :wink:

So today I sprayed the last of the clear. I set the body down on it's face, on top of a few paint can caps per usual, so it was flat but not on resting on a surface.

I was pretty surprised that after I got the initial stuff worked out I didn't have any issues spraying it. There are always issues. Well, there was the time the clear threw a big blob onto the body... but it hit the bridge p'up pocket so that was really a non issue.

Anyway... I let the body sit for a bit after I sprayed the last coat on the back. Then hung it up with the back facing the door to my "booth".

Later on I went in to hold the pickguard up to it. Spun it around... and noticed a red arc in the finish. I had put one of the caps upside down and the edge had some overspray from last year's build. it melted into the finish on the front.

D'oh!

Son of a... ok, what now?

Hmmm... I ended up hitting it lightly with some 1000 grit paper. That cleaned it up ok, took the red off but left a little groove. Deep breath. Hung it up again, grabbed the "empty" can of clear, shook it up and hit the button. No lacquer. So I shook the can while spraying it and it sprayed. Did that a few times, managed to spray it with no blobs. Crossed my fingers and walked away. Later tonight I'll probably go down to check it out. I'll either have gotten really lucky, or there's going to be one more spot I'll not get too close to with the completion pics!

On Saturday I went to lowes to buy a router base for my dads old dremel. I had looked at them three times before, knew exactly where they were etc. so I get their a find they only have one left. Pick up the box and hear a rattle. Look closer and see its taped shut. Shake it and it's obvious the stuff was just thrown in there with no other packaging - this one has been opened then returned. No go.

I also notice the model dremel I have isn't listed on the box. Hmm... Ya know, for only $25 more I can get a NEW Dremel and it comes with some attachments I'd want any, including a cutting guide which could stand in for a router base? Ok, but I'd want this cutting tool also. But wait, for only $6 more I can get this whole assortment of cutting tools. Ok.

But wait, for only $5 more than that I can get a better Dremel that comes with more stuff, and I'd only have to buy one cutting tool...

Long story short I went in to buy a $30 attachment and came out half an hour later with about $85 of new stuff not including the $30 attachment. Cheap build. Riiiiiiiiiiioght...

The punch line is, the next day I did some practice routes and decided to abandon the tornado route. I need a smaller router bit than what I see available and didn't have very good results from my practice runs. So... I now have a new dremel I'm not going to use in the foreseeable future... Oops.

As long as I'm rambling, are 1/16" router bits available for these things? I saw a grout cutter that size, but so far everything non-routerish I've used has been very hard to control with rosewood.

As long as I'm rambling, are 1/16" router bits available for these things? I saw a grout cutter that size, but so far everything non-routerish I've used has been very hard to control with rosewood.

I was in the same situation last year around this time. I ended up using a carbide endmill that I found on the bay. It was not a specific Dremel SKU but had the 1/8 inch shank that fits Dremel mototools. I tried using the Router Base attachment to try to have some control over the cut but abandoned that idea after trying it on scrap. Eventually I just held my breath and went free-hand with it.

That's a crazy good burst! That's gonna be gorgeous when all put together.

As long as I'm rambling, are 1/16" router bits available for these things? I saw a grout cutter that size, but so far everything non-routerish I've used has been very hard to control with rosewood.
What MCT said.

There are a lot of small end mills available with a 1/8" shank.

http://www.amazon.com/Flute-Single-End-Carbide-Mill/dp/B0033B66FG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1335197677&sr=8-3

Thanks again guys. The inlay idea is officially dead for this project but I'm sure I'll be playing with it again on something else.

For the past couple days I've been working on an amp kit instead of this. I'm telling myself that it's to give the finish on the neck and body a chance to set up but actually I'm kinda just wanting a break from it.

Sunday on the amp went pretty well. Ran out of time and went to bed. Monday didn't go as smoothly. I managed to break a tab off an input jack, burn my finger on the soldering iron, and then break the pilot light housing. At least nothing expensive got broken! Today I'm sort of taking the day off of everything except I had to pull the masking off the neck pocket and try a semi-mock up.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5261_l.jpg

Fingerboard will look a lot darker after sanding/cleaning of course. I'm leaving the 12th fret markers out until I've gotten most of the radius in the board. Paranoid about shaving the edges off. The pick guard isn't positioned right because I haven't cut the neck pocket area to size yet.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5266_l.jpg

The flash really washes out the edges so here's another angle

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5272_l.jpg

Yep, I stuck the neck in the pocket then stood it up on the edge and walked away long enough to take a picture. Not brilliant considering my luck lately but hey, that's me. Poking the grim reaper with a stick and then running away!

that's looking really good, Craig.

^^Here, here. Really nice looking guitar. I just love how the pickguard flows down from the neck. Brilliant!!:cool:

Thanks guys. I'm liking it more than I thought I would. I'm pretty happy I stuck with the burst, I was considering bailing and going with a solid color when I was having trouble getting the lacquer to lay down right.

The pickguard is a cut and paste of a stock Tele guard. I took a print out of the 90% body, a print out of the 100% guard, a pair of scissors, some tape and just started cutting and taping until it fit. The neck pocket and pickup/bridge locations are the same as a full size Tele so it was a little weird making it work but it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.

The trouble is getting the controls to fit. I was all set to spend the bucks on a concentric pot and rotary pickup selector so I could get it down to two knobs, but then I looked at my Strat and realized it's ok to have a control near the strings ahead of the bridge. Stay tuned for the final design (aka, I'm still not exactly sure what it's going to be, and won't be sure until I actually drill some holes... but it will be two knobs and some sort of selector switch)

Thanks guys. I'm liking it more than I thought I would. I'm pretty happy I stuck with the burst, I was considering bailing and going with a solid color when I was having trouble getting the lacquer to lay down right.

The pickguard is a cut and paste of a stock Tele guard. I took a print out of the 90% body, a print out of the 100% guard, a pair of scissors, some tape and just started cutting and taping until it fit. The neck pocket and pickup/bridge locations are the same as a full size Tele so it was a little weird making it work but it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.

The trouble is getting the controls to fit. I was all set to spend the bucks on a concentric pot and rotary pickup selector so I could get it down to two knobs, but then I looked at my Strat and realized it's ok to have a control near the strings ahead of the bridge. Stay tuned for the final design (aka, I'm still not exactly sure what it's going to be, and won't be sure until I actually drill some holes... but it will be two knobs and some sort of selector switch)

You're right--that basically is a Thinline pickguard, is it not? Maybe the burst, or something, it just looked different, and good, to me. Still does, where ever the controls end up.

You're right--that basically is a Thinline pickguard, is it not? Maybe the burst, or something, it just looked different, and good, to me. Still does, where ever the controls end up.

Yep. I like Thinlines a lot. Chances are good if I do another challenge, it'll be a thinline. That's the guitar I'm planning out in my head while I'm working on other ones. Double bound, jet black as glossy as I can make it, nickel plated hardware, wenge neck... of course the specs change with my mood but you get the idea. :cool:

Really nice job. I think I am going to do a thinline without any F holes next. Just a lighter version of the same thing.

Man, I was really lazy with this thing this week. I did get the fingerboard radiused, then I was going to put in the frets and polish the neck. But, I got to looking at the neck and decided it wasn't there yet. So I sanded down the finish once again and added a couple more coats of tru oil. SO... that means there's not much to show. But I'll show it anyway. :rolleyes:

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5286_l.jpg
Yep, it's got a radius to it now. You can kinda see the tape I've got the fingerboard masked with too. I know it looks like the radius is off from one side to the other, but it measures out within .005" side to side so I'm running with it. That's a 10" radius I got by hand sanding using a Stew-Mac radius block or whatever it's called.

And here it is with more coats of Tru-Oil. Oooh, ahhh... still don't know what kind of wood it is.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5291_l.jpg

I didn't get any more work done on the body or the pickguard, both of which were on my list of things to do. I did get some stuff done on the amp I'm building though. I seem to be bitten by that bug now. For some reason late last night I found myself ordering all the electronics to build a 1.5 watt "firefly" amp... :grin: Late night internet shopping. I love it.

Hey Desmo,

Your build is looking beautiful. Almost there brother!

Barncaster

Thanks! Yeah, it's getting there, slowly! I have to admit I'm getting kind of excited to get it together and see how it plays. I might take a couple days off work to be here while they work on the house, maybe I can make decent progress then.

Tonight I went down to sand/polish the body and ended up pounded some frets in instead.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5296_l.jpg

Not much later it looked more like this:
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5298_l.jpg

One part of the tornado inlay plan made it onto the fingerboard. Marker for the 15th fret was supposed to sit in the center of the top "ring". I was the difference between the dots would have been a little more dramatic but there it is.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5303_l.jpg

That shot also shows I had some CA wick up onto the fret board. Oops. Clean up on aisle 13! And 14. And 15. And... I still have some frets to glue down - it seems my technique needs work, some of the ends of the slots got wide so the ends of the frets don't stay down on their own. Same thing happened last year. Though in my defense it happened more last year than this year!

Also managed to mess up the finish on the back of the neck too. I thought that might happen, no biggie. I'm going to finish the fret work before I go back and work on the neck finish again.

Looking really good. Very nice job on the burst and a good looking unique neck.

The batteries went dead on my camera so I haven't been taking progress photos. but, since my last report I have finished fretting the neck including leveling, recrowning, and polishing them. I followed that with a sanding of the back of the neck, another coat of tru-oil, and now I'm waiting for it to set up so I can polish it. Maybe later today but likely this weekend.

I wet sanded and polished the body finally. It's not nearly as flat as it should be, but I didn't get to lay on as much clear as I wanted and was paranoid about going through to the color so I didn't sand it entirely flat. It'll work i still managed to go through an edge in one spot while buffing so I think my fears were justified. I much prefer not flat to bare...

On the pickguard I committed to the control layout by drilling the holes. Also routed the neck pocket area and countersunk all the holes (after I took the pic). I hope to get it mostly wired today.

Ran into an issue with the bridge p'up. I pulled it out yesterday and noticed the magnet had fallen off. Also found out the mounting screws I have for it are too small for the holes in the pickup. The holes are threaded, but a screw that fits will be too large to fit into the bridge? Looks like there's a trip to the hardware store in my future to get some screws, and then the bridge plate will have a date with the drill press... I already glued the magnet back on the pickup so that should be OK.

So, with camera in hand I went down to clean up the bench and then take some makeup pictures but once I got down there I decided to, um, wait, I mean the bench was ALREADY clean, like it always is, but the creative side of me thought that it would be better to pull out all the tools that I had used over the past couple days and put them on the bench, then do a little mock-up of the guitar on the edge of the bench. That way in one picture I can show all the progress and most of the tools involved. Yeah, that's it. That's EXACTLY how it went.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5325_l.jpg

In other news, my amp parts are supposed to arrive today so there is a super slight chance I'll be able to do the video with the homebuilt Champ too. I'm concerned about the box weight though... weight listed on the shipping notification doesn't seem heavy enough to include the speaker? I think all the electronic stuff got shipped but now the new speaker may be MIA too! I'll find out soon enough I guess...

Looks great!

I went out to get the hardware I needed. On the way back stopped and bought some stuff for lunch. Also picked up some beer as long as I was there. And got carded.

I'll turn 50 in August. :rolleyes:

I had to laugh about it, but really? It was two women at the register, I think they were just playing around. People always tell me I look young for my age but come on.

Anyway, I worked out the bridge p'up mounting. Turns out it uses metric fasteners so the 'merican stuff I had was too small. A 4mm screw works just fine, and fit through the bridge plate too. So I put the bridge on (and even remembered to ground it first).

I also put the neck p'up in place but don't have time to start soldering anything tonight. But, if things go well this weekend it may even be bale to make some noise by Sunday night?

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5330_l.jpg

That shows the controls a bit better too. I'm going with an LP style pickup selector, it just seemed to fit the layout better. That means I have a spare three way tele-style switch. Hmmm... shouldn't let that go to waste... :wink:

Oh, and my amp parts showed up. They aren't even for the amp I thought they were for, they're parts I ordered a week after the other stuff for an entirely different amp!

Wow! I'm gonna copy this look some day. ( as if I had the skills to do that )
Excellent work there.

Looking very good Craig. Great job. I like the thinline pickguard and the headstock. Making it unique in subtle ways is very cool in my book!

Thanks guys. it is SO close to being done now.

I put the tuners on it last night.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5331_l.jpg

The nut/nut slot is a nightmare, but I got things to work finally... Last year I cut the slot pretty thin and had to do quite a bit of sanding on the nut to make it fit, this year I cut the slot a bit wider than I should have, I only had one nut blank here that was wide enough to fill it, and that was an el cheapo with all the slots pre-formed to the same dimension - too small for the low strings and too big for the high strings. Nice... I've got a lot of work to do on that, and my success rate in cutting slots isn't stellar.

I put the outer strings on and checked the neck alignment, drilled the holes, and screwed that on. Then I wired it up and put the pickguard on.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5337_l.jpg

Then I brought it upstairs and strung it up. The nut is horrible... it's not even playable at the moment but the pickups and controls all work so good news there. Also looks like I'll be able to get the string heights set ok without shimming the neck or buying longer screw for the saddles.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5338_l.jpg

I took some pictures of it strung up but they didn't turn out very well, so here's one of the back. Front will have to wait until it's done. Just imagine the previous shot with strings in place. :wink:
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5346_l.jpg

Hopefully I'll be able to cut some decent slots in the nut tonight or tomorrow and it will play a lot better than it does now. The B and e string both have that wonderful sitar sound to them but with how they're flopping around in their pre-formed slots it's not a surprise. Intonation is horrible too but I left the nut high so I'd have room to work. Between that and the saddles not being touched there's a lot I can do to improve that.

I had already planned that my next build was going to be a tobacco burst pinecaster...but yours and flatfive's bursts have got me wanting to start right away...wow that's a nice looking burst, Great Job!!!

Hopefully I'll be able to cut some decent slots in the nut tonight or tomorrow and it will play a lot better than it does now.

Wow, I really suck at cutting slots in the nut. It's better than it was but still horrible. The D, G, and B string slots are all too big, and I used dedicated nut files that were smaller than the string size. I've done this before, only about four or five times, with better results than this. I still have to go deeper but I'm leaving it for tomorrow. Maybe I'll have a steadier hand then or something. And this thing will not stay in tune to save it's life. SUPER touchy to begin with and then loses it. Maybe things will stabilize some as it sits... I put some .010s on it but think I should have gone with at least .011's. In fact I may do that before I work on the nut some more, I think they'd feel a lot better on this.

I had already planned that my next build was going to be a tobacco burst pinecaster...but yours and flatfive's bursts have got me wanting to start right away...wow that's a nice looking burst, Great Job!!!


Thanks, but don't expect any close ups of the finish! What's that saying, far from good but good from afar? :wink: It's ok for what it is (an experiment with aerosol bursts) so I'm ok with it. In fact it has it's own sort of appeal to me with the less than glass smooth finish. I kinda like that it shows off the texture of the grain a little. No way I'll relic it on purpose but getting some honest nicks and scratches in it isn't going to bother me much.

I've done about eleven nuts, and I'm still shocked when they come out right on the first try. Not to worry, Desmo; it'll play. That burst is great!

I spent more time on the nut yesterday. Filled a couple of the slots with CA to try to get a second chance at them. Got things a little better but it's still the worst nut I've done so far. Early on I even managed to break it in two and had to glue it back together! You can't see the break/repair, it was a clean split, but seems sort of like an omen. I do not like how this thing sounds and don't know for sure if it's pickups or the nut or what. Actually that's not entirely true, I'm pretty sure it's a combination of both since I don't think it sounds very nice even unplugged... I'm convinced I need to start over with a new nut, and that's not going to happen before Monday so now I'm just going to try to make a video and meet the deadline. the tweaking will continue after the contest ends.

Today I got a few more pics of it but nothing grand. My stands are buried in a closet I can't get into right now, and most rooms in the place are either torn up or stacked with stuff. I tried to take them in natural light to get a better look at the burst. Video will come later, it's too late to make noise tonight.

But enough freakin' whining. It is what it is, and I'm not sure I've got time to make it much better.

A little recap before adding what may be the last pics (aside from the last post single pic requirement). Here's the wood I started with, picture taken in January of 2011. I was considering using it for the 2011 build but changed my mind.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Saga/Stump1_m.jpg

It was too big for my band saw so I made the first cut with a hand saw. Ended up with this:
http://www.teamyikes.com/Saga/Stump_3137_m.jpg


Flash forward to this year's build and from a couple of those pieces came this.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4802_l.jpg

For a neck I scrounged more unknown wood and decided to use this:
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_4884_l.jpg

Which takes me to current state.

Natural light. Not a great shot but the best I could manage today.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5385_l.jpg

Peghead
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5387_l.jpg

A shot of the controls which also shows what I meant by the finish still shows some of the texture of the grain. Again, I kind of like that on this one. I think it will "break in" nicely with a natural relicing process.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5377_l.jpg

I went with a football shaped outlet jack plate. I'm not a fan of the flat spot for jack plates so instead I got out the hammer and put a little more curve in the plate.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5392_l.jpg

Back side. Again. Looks like with flash. Again. :rolleyes: I'm happy I went with the burst, seemed appropriate considering the wood that was used, even if the grain wasn't spectacular.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5382_l.jpg

Back side, natural light.
http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5395_l.jpg

Now on to trying to make a video and maybe get some better pictures.

That snakehead with the stripe down the middle is awesome and a fantastic job on the burst.

That snakehead with the stripe down the middle is awesome and a fantastic job on the burst.

+1. And I think you definitely made the right call with a burst. I think the grain is awesome showing through there. Very nicely done!

Stunning! Superb craftsmanship all the way around. I really like it allot!

That's a beautiful guitar right there. I can't wait to hear it!

Thanks for the comments, they are much appreciated. I like the looks of this one more than last years effort, but last years played much better ( aside from tuning issues which were its downfall in the end)

But... I just haven't gotten a handle on playability for this one. I'm sure I'll get there, but not by Monday. To be honest I'm dreading making the video. I've only been playing for a bit over two years now so the skills aren't there to begin with, let alone knowing the guitar needs more work. I was playing it yesterday trying to convince myself it was alright. Then I picked up the Strat I put together using Warmoth parts. It was like going from a dull pocket knife to a freakin scalpel!

Dang I like that Strat! "Elmo" is more of a problem child. Probably karma from my childhood. ;-)

You did a beautiful job, DesmoDog. As others said, really nice
work on the burst, and I like the stripe on the headstock; seems
to fit the headstock shape very well.

What are the playability problems you're having? Is it high
action, fret buzz, ...?

You did a beautiful job, DesmoDog. As others said, really nice
work on the burst, and I like the stripe on the headstock; seems
to fit the headstock shape very well.

What are the playability problems you're having? Is it high
action, fret buzz, ...?

Thanks.

I'm pretty sure the majority of my issues can be blamed on the nut. It's a cheap one that I've managed to mess up/kinda fix. I'm also thinking the cheap pickups I put on aren't doing it for me. And as long as I'm making excuses, I'm not all that fond of the tuners either! ;-)

Fret buzz is acceptable considering where I am in the set up process. I misplaced the Allen wrench for saddle heights. They're close but could be better. Break angle of the strings over the nut isn't great either. I'm not sure how that happened. I can use the lower holes to improve the outer strings but the others will stay as is unless I go with a strong tree, which would look silly on this IMHO.

Which is all a really drawn out way of saying I need to get a decent nut for it and spend the time setting it up correctly! One distraction is Im trying to get my 5F1 amp kit running in time to use on the video. It's THIS CLOSE to being ready and I've Ben spending my free time on that instead of the guitar.

Focus, Craig-san. Make yourself a list of what has to be done before the vid, then prioritize it. Once you've done that, focus on nothing but the job at hand. My bet is that you'd get a lot of stuff knocked out and be done in plenty of time.

Craig last I checked this wasn't a guitar playing challenge or who bought the best pickups challenge :wink: Really hoping you finish strong here, you have done such a great job and those are really minor issues to overcome in 4.5 days (well not sure about the amp I've never built one of those). Now go tell that nut "you are not the boss of me", no I'm not referring to Nosmo with that last sentence :razz:.

Hey now - I've been fairly quiet around here!

On the other hand, I agree with everything James said :grin:

Ok guys, thanks for the encouraging words. My plan right now is to come up with a video, but not post it right away. then put more time into working on the guitar. I think once I have a video that satisfies the rules I'll feel more confident about digging into this. If I completely screw the pooch I'm not frantically searching for something to make a nut out of at the last hour.

It's not even that finding a replacement nut is really all that difficult, it's that I have too many other things I should be/want to be paying attention to right now. The house repairs have reached a rather stressful point...

Oh, and tonight I put tubes in the amp. First one in, powered up, glows, check, good to go. Second one in, powered up, glows, check, good to go. Speaker plugged in, last tube in, powered up... starting to glow, hey, what's that sound? D'oh! Unplug it!

Hmm... that can't be good... :oops:

Weird sounds from the amp are one thing. Smoke, on the other hand would be bad!

Good idea to make the video and take the pressure off. If you need more encouragement watch my video - it can't be worse than that :grin:

Weird sounds from the amp are one thing. Smoke, on the other hand would be bad!

Good idea to make the video and take the pressure off. If you need more encouragement watch my video - it can't be worse than that :grin:

No smoke! And after posting that I took some advice from another thread and reversed the polarity on the speaker jack. Success! I thought there was more hum coming from the amp than I'd expect, but it was very late at night, the house was absolutely quiet, and when I compared it to my Fender Champion 600 it sounded similar so it may not be a problem.

As for the guitar... I put together a video last night that more or less satisfies the rules. It ain't pretty but it'll do in a pinch. Then I looked at the guitar more closely and it's not just the nut that's an issue. I hadn't been paying attention but as I lowered the slots on the nut the break angle over the nut got less and less. I think on the G string a major part of the problem is there's almost no break angle on the string anymore. So.. I either need a string tree (nooooooo!) or I need tuners that have the holes closer to the surface of the peghead. Or space the existing tuners somehow. Or try to wrap the strings down around the tuner more. Or... I dunno, it's just something I need to work out.

With that in mind, and how much I hate the nut that's on there, my plan is to play around trying to make a better video using lots of barre chords, and save the tweaks for a later day. I'd be doing that now but there is a crew here putting siding on the house and their hammers don't keep a very steady rhythm so I need to wait until they leave.

But that means if I stopped surfing everyone else's build threads I'd have time to go try to get this amp stuffed into it's cabinet. Ya know, maybe I CAN get that thing together in time to use on the video for this...

I'll have to check the rules to be sure, but I think this is it for the 2012 build.

http://www.teamyikes.com/Tele2012/tele_5385_l.jpg

O2JfGpwFXXw

EDIT: Yep. It looks like this is all I need, so.. one more build done!

Now to send the e-mail it's complete and it's on to getting that amp into shape!

Forgot to mention in my "final" post that the guitar weighs 7.6lbs.

I also didn't realize the video quality would be so low... should have taken the time to upload the high resolution version I guess!

Great looking build! The color, pick guard, and neck look great together!