If a Tele and a Gibson ES had a baby...

So this is my first ever guitar build. I've assembled partscasters before, but never built from scratch and thought it would be a good summer project.
So without further ado, my take on a Tele/ES-335 ish thing. (does that even make sense?:shock:)

Body wood is Beech and the top will be a combination of Walnut and the mystery wood (if anyone can tell me what it is, that'd be awesome) in the middle. I haven't seen a lot of beech being used, but i got all this wood for an extremely good deal, so I figured it'd work.

Body is all glued up and rough cut around the edges, I started the routing and the router bit snapped. (it's my fault for buying cheap ryobi bits, ugh) Sorry, i forgot to take pics of the rough cut outline and snapped bit, I got to angry and gave up for the night.

So what do y'all think? Anything that you see needs changing or any tips? I plan on getting the top wood glued up tonight. and i'll take some more pics.

yes, it makes good sense to me - since these are probably my 2 favorite guitars :) actually I had already thought what would look like a mix of these guitars!
So I'm looking forward to your project and wish you the best of luck - cool idea! :cool:

Yes -- cool idea. I have a similar guitar in mind -- injecting a healthy dose of Gretch into a tele. Or maybe it's the other way around. But a similar mash-up for sure.

Good luck!

Cool idea...I bet it'll look fantastic!

So I am having a few issues, and hopefully someone here can help.
My body (beech) is 2" thick and I need to get it planed down to 1.5" the problem is that the body is 13.5" wide at its widest point and wont fit into any of my friends planers. Any suggestions on how I can plane this down to thickness? build some sort of jig for the router to thin it down?
Any help would be appreciated, because i'm pretty much stuck until I get this figured out.

I built a planer gig for my router. Just used some scrap pine ripped on my table saw to the same width, then mounted them vertically and ran a long board with the router mounted on it across it.

http://distilleryimage5.instagram.com/e8a17850b43311e1bf341231380f8a12_7.jpg

Lots of ways to do this. Just google router planer jig and you'll see plenty of examples.

^^^Thanks storyboards27! That helps a lot, i'll hopefully get a jig made tonight so i can get the ball rolling again.

So things have been slow moving lately because i've been working on some projects for the wife, and building a doll house for my daughter. but I finally have something to post so here goes. I apologize for the crappy photos in advance, just a crappy old Iphone camera.
Body cut out to shape
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0562.jpg
Swiss cheese
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0563.jpg
Cleaned up with the router (sort of) still pretty rough and needs some work, i know...
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0567.jpg
Pickup cavities and neck pocket drilled
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0568.jpg
Top wood glued up and ready to be worked with
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0576.jpg
And just for fun, here's some shots of the shop, it's not much, but it is a work in progress.
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0575.jpg
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0574.jpg
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0573.jpg
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0572.jpg
Had to sneek in a shot of the doll house
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0571.jpg
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0569-1.jpg

looking super cool! kind of reminds me of that Gibson Vegas i think it was called. the one the guy plays in the freecreditscore commercial on the beach haha excited to see how this turns out!

Got a little more work done this week.

I decided against traditional F-holes, but i'm sure i'll use them on my thinline build i'm planning now.
Here is the top almost ready to be glued up. (just need to decide where to put the pots and switch.

top and body side by side
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0588.jpg
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0590.jpg
I think i've settled on this design for the headstock reshape. What do you think? kinda like a tele, but on an angle.
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0586.jpg

And finally, the reason I haven't had much progress on the build lately.
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0592.jpg
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0593.jpg
The wife is having me make these giant "barrel-o-monkeys" and "Barrel-o-elephants" to sell on etsy and around town. These are the mdf templates, I think the finished product will turn out pretty cool :mrgreen:

I've been thinking of binding the top in 1/4" of walnut, using a similar process found here: http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/329495-nosmo-2-ziricote.html
What do you all think of the idea? Any better/easier ways to do a walnut binding?

I think binding would look nice.

Got one question for you. In your shop pictures, how did you get the Rockwell to levitate like that? If I knew that secret I would gain a lot of useable space in my shop.

I think binding would look nice.

Got one question for you. In your shop pictures, how did you get the Rockwell to levitate like that? If I knew that secret I would gain a lot of useable space in my shop.

The Rockwell came with wall mount brackets. Not much of a secret i'm afraid. I wish I had a better answer for you as possible use for other tools as well, that sure would make the shop more spacious.

I'm loving your build nosmo! simply inspiring.

So I finished the walnut binding, and I am almost to the finishing stages, and now all the photo's i have taken of the build can't be uploaded because my iphone took a swim (literally) at bear lake. :oops:
I will try to take more photos tonight and get them posted, because I have a few questions for all you experts

I'm going to ask the questions anyway:mrgreen:

I used nosmo's method of the wood binding (as mentioned earlier in this thread) and it turned out great, except there are a few spots that there is a small gap. I think the method to filling those would be superglue and sawdust right? I saved some of my walnut sawdust just in case. Are there any better ways to fill those gaps?

I'm thinking of doing a tone-bar out of walnut as well, and negatives or positives to this idea? I don't have any ebony, plus i'm not good enough to be part of that club anyways.:neutral: Will walnut work ok for that?

I wonder who is the man and who is the female...

Where are you going to place the pots and switch?

I would fill the gaps with sawdust & regular old wood glue. Sometimes super glue will make the fill too dark. You can also use a wood filler that is either stainable or similar color to your walnut.

Tone bars are cool. If you don't have a drill press, it may look better than drilling the body by hand. On the other hand, if you're careful you can do it either way.

Thanks for the nice comments about my build. Just a few little details and it will be done. Just have to get home first.

I like the headstock reshape idea. Cool looking build man, bring the picks!

So i know its been forever since I have updated, but I finally got my phone working again to take some more pics. So here goes:
Top and body are glued up and shaped:
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0615_zpsd330d5b2.jpg
Walnut binding using Nosmo's #2 Ziricote method (i forgot to take pics of the process, its 19 pieces in all) Thanks for the idea Nosmo!
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0629_zpsd372af6f.jpg
I then put a roundover on the top and bottom to give it a "softer" feel.
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0631_zpsbdc5c939.jpg
And here's a closeup where you can see the "double binding" effect, there are lots of burn marks from my cheap router bits that i've yet to take care of :oops:
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0633_zps5924b99a.jpg
I then routed the control cavities on the back for the pots and switch. for some reason this picture looks very yellow, but it's not really like that in person.
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0630_zps9c62b5eb.jpg
I decided on walnut plate covers because I thought I would like the contrast. But now i'm not so sure. Hmmmm I'm also currently working on a walnut tone-bar that should be pretty cool as well.
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0634_zpseb1a41ee.jpg
And with some of the hardware on it, Its getting close :mrgreen:
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0632_zps92bf3601.jpg

Got the body sanded down to 320 last night. I'm trying to decide on a finish. I've been considering tru-oil, but am not opposed to other options. perhaps a poly, but I have no idea where to even start looking for poly finishes.
Anyone have experience with tru-oil?

(p.s. I want the finish to be pretty much clear, but to bring out the grain. The grain on the walnut stripe in the middle is very chaotic in person, but the photos don't quite capture it.)

...Walnut binding using Nosmo's #2 Ziricote method (i forgot to take pics of the process, its 19 pieces in all) Thanks for the idea Nosmo!
Glad I could contribute.

And here's a closeup where you can see the "double binding" effect, there are lots of burn marks from my cheap router bits that i've yet to take care of :oops:
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/IMG_0633_zps5924b99a.jpg
I like the way you have that light wood line. Now that's something I might steal :grin:

I decided on walnut plate covers because I thought I would like the contrast. But now i'm not so sure. Hmmmm I'm also currently working on a walnut tone-bar that should be pretty cool as well.
...
I think the Walnut looks good. I like natural wood & the contrast kind of brings it out. If you make a tone bar, check out Herb's thread. I don't have it offhand, but he put a link to it in the Ziricote build.

Tru-Oil would bring out the grain and it's a nice finish. Plenty of info here if you look for it.

Glad I could contribute.


I like the way you have that light wood line. Now that's something I might steal :grin:


I think the Walnut looks good. I like natural wood & the contrast kind of brings it out. If you make a tone bar, check out Herb's thread. I don't have it offhand, but he put a link to it in the Ziricote build.

Tru-Oil would bring out the grain and it's a nice finish. Plenty of info here if you look for it.

Go ahead and steal anything you like. The fact that someone even slightly admires any part of the build is something I wasn't expecting.

Yeah, I have Herb's thread, it's great!

I think I will go with the Tru-Oil, it was my first impression, so it must mean something. :cool:

The Tru-Oil is easy to apply. You can even get a pretty shiny finish. I think you have to spend more time & effort preparing the surface to get a really good finish, but it cures quickly and it really does make the grain look good.

PS - The whole thing is looking good. Keep it up!

For all of you watching this thread (probably nobody) I finally have another update :mrgreen:

Headstock reshaped and sanded.
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/guitar%20build/IMG_0638.jpg

Truss rod channel taped up and ready for the headstock veneer
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/guitar%20build/IMG_0642.jpg

The headstock veneer ready to be glued up
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/guitar%20build/IMG_0641.jpg

And here it is glued up, with my stupid woodburning logo accident. I had a completely different design that I had started burning. The problem was that I was watching a Real Salt Lake game while burning the logo, and I got excited and completely messed the design up. So I worked with what I had to make up this silly stupid thing. :oops:
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/guitar%20build/IMG_0647.jpg

The walnut tone-bar thingy:
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/guitar%20build/IMG_0644.jpg
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i429/FC-Sky11/guitar%20build/IMG_0643.jpg