Building a telecaster

Hi! I'm new here and this is my first post, so be nice!
I'm going to start ninth grade after this summer (in Sweden that means you're 15 years old) and at my "handicrafts" (google translate) I have decided to build my own electric guitar! The guitar will be a telecaster deluxe or a les Paul in the electronics but the body and neck will be a modified telecaster! I'll probably buy a neck from some website, but I'm going to build the body from scratch! The thing I wonder is how I'm going to do with placing the bridge and neck right so it won't be the wrong tones and so on.... And of course the wire! How do I wire the guitar? I'm new to this stuff so please answer in a way I might understand! Thanks! :)

Welcome, you are in the right place for sure. You can do some simple searches here and find numerous examples of bodies in construction. Also, the Challenge builds of the last several years are a wealth of info for you too.

When you get to wiring down the road, there are several threads on wiring a Tele, there are maybe? 4-5 good ways to go there.

Keep the group informed hopefully with some pics as you go, and that way several fellas will add comments and help you solve problems as you go. Have realistic but high expectations of the end result. Probably a good idea to buy a neck ready to go, saves time and gives you a starting point. Look at the vendors on the site for some idea of costs, and then there are classified with good buys sometimes.

good luck

Far out! You have definitely found the right place. This forum is a wealth of knowledge. I've never gone so far a to build a body from scratch, I'm willing to bet that after that the wiring will be a snap!

It's good to see young folks interested in guitars without pointy headstocks, haha! Welcome aboard, and good luck with your build! Make sure to post pics!

The thing I wonder is how I'm going to do with placing the bridge and neck right so it won't be the wrong tones and so on
If you haven't already done so, download the pdf file for the telecaster body. It has the vital measurements you will need.

Haha! Thanks to all the response!! The most "exotic" guitar that I like is the firebird! I won't be able to start building it till middle of August when school starts! During the summer I'll be buying the electronics and the neck and starting to really decide what it will look like! I'll be uploading pics. :)

And no, I haven't downloaded the PDF. Where can I found it? :S

Thought I knew where it was but not anymore. Do a search for: t downs tele PDF . That should get you there

Right here: http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/74504-d-size-tele-body-blueprint-files-here.html#post799613

I got an idea on how to make a good looking bridge kind of thing. How about making the strings go trough the body without the classic tele bridge and make it go from the wood to a string thing like on the les Paul. The les Paul bridge is made from to parts as you know (not sure if they are booth called "bridge"), one that attach the strings to the guitar and one that holds them in the right position. Kinda like on a Jaguar. So if you haven't figured it out yet, I want to replace the bride part that attach the string on the guitar with six holes trough the body! What would I need to make this possible? Something tells me that making the strings bend to the body isn't the brightest idea.... Maybe putting in some kind of small metal tube or something would fix this? I'll upload some drawing of what I had in mind when I get some paper!

I got an idea on how to make a good looking bridge kind of thing. How about making the strings go trough the body without the classic tele bridge and make it go from the wood to a string thing like on the les Paul. The les Paul bridge is made from to parts as you know (not sure if they are booth called "bridge"), one that attach the strings to the guitar and one that holds them in the right position. Kinda like on a Jaguar. So if you haven't figured it out yet, I want to replace the bride part that attach the string on the guitar with six holes trough the body! What would I need to make this possible? Something tells me that making the strings bend to the body isn't the brightest idea.... Maybe putting in some kind of small metal tube or something would fix this? I'll upload some drawing of what I had in mind when I get some paper!

I know what you are trying to say. You want to replace the so called 'stoptail' with string holes. I have seen this on several guitars (I think Dean does this on some of their guitars?) so I'm pretty sure this would work. And I also think it would look pretty strange but still cool on a tele. Good luck!

They make string ferrules for the top also.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Hardware,_parts/Electric_guitar:_Ferrules/String-thru_Top_Ferrules.html?actn=100101&xst=3&xsr=1749

That idea should be doable. You should probably check before you get too far along on what that means for the neck pocket depth. I'm not sure how tall a tune-o-matic bridge is.

So, if the iPhone app works you should see a pic of my idea. I'm not done but it will look something like this! (I think) :)

Hi!
It sounds interesting! I believe that it is something like this you plan to do?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Bridge_string_thru_body.jpg/220px-Bridge_string_thru_body.jpg

And yeah, as "diffeecult" mentioned, you will have to make a tilted neck pocket or something to compensate for the taller bridge.

Good luck!

Yeah, exactly! Would it be possible to raise the neck instead of lowering the bridge? For some reason it seams easier.... Not sure of how it would effect the guitars body and balance do... :/

Hvorfor dusjer svensker med paraply? Fordi de ikke vil bli våte ;)
I'm from Norway! When i was in 9.th grade i made a ukulele in woodworking on my school. The teacher was very impressed.
My tip for you is to make it "simple" don't modify it to much, its your first build. I would use a regular tele bridge instead of les paul style. When making it LP-style, the neckpocket must be routed at an angle. If you use telebridge, you can just route a normal pocket. Much more simple!

Also, the electronics. Make it simple. "less is more", and it saves time! Make sure you have a schematic of the electronic too. You can find lots of schematic on seymor duncans website.

Good luck with your guitar

@ollis, you know that the Swedes tell the exact same jokes about us, right? :p

But I have to agree about the simplicity. For a first build, it's probably a bad idea to go wild with advanced and twisted solutions. If you keep it simple (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle), you're much less likely to be disappointed with the result (or even worse, fail completely). And you will still have a ton of experience that you can use to make your next build more advanced.

Man må lære å krype før man kan gå. = One must learn how to crawl before one can learn how to walk.

Varför tar norrmän med sig en bildörr ut i öknen? För att dom ska kunna veva ner rutan! ;)
I've been on a small semester, there for the long time to reply! I must say it's quite smart to build it simple.... I don't know.... It have felt like I was going to end up with a tele bridge! But is the strat neck the same scale as the tele neck? I'd like to have a strat neck which I would be able to recut a little bit. Since the body (which I probably save and use for my later build) is not really telecaster all trough I don't really want the neck to be telecaster, or stratocaster all trough either!

Yes, the both necks are the same scale but the heel shape is a bit different. The Tele heel shape is almost square and the Strat heel shape is more round.

hei danti,
i had a good laugh about the jokes you traded with the norwegian guys (-;
so you are about to start on your project soon, LYKKE TIL !
the advice given to you was sound and if you are happy to proceed with a simpler first build you can still get creative with bodyshape, shape of pickguard, headstock o.s.v.