*Designing And Building A Mini-Telecaster*

[Jack Wells]

Compare these two charts made using the StewMac Fret Calculator. See how the 25.5 scale fret to fret beginning on the second fret compares with the 22.75 scale fret to fret beginning at the nut. The numbers only differ by 1 or 2 thousandths.

......

Another way to look at it........... On the 25.5 scale 2nd fret is 2.782 from the nut. Twelve frets from the 2nd fret ...... the 14th fret is 14.141 from the nut. The difference: 11.359. Double that......... 22.718 .......... not exactly what I was hoping for but close...... 32 thousandths short of 22.75 ...... about the gap on your spark plugs. I'm going to blame it on the StewMac calculator.

As the picture below shows, if I line the mini neck nut up with the first fret of the 25.5 neck, the frets don't line up further down the neck. Compare it to the earlier picture where I lined the mini neck nut with the 2nd fret.

......

Originally Posted by Buckocaster51

my nephew has a son really interested in guitar...maybe for next Christmas...

Steve ....... I started the maple mini neck quite some time back and patterned it after the Mini-Strat neck ie. 20 frets. If I were doing it over I would probably make it a 21 fret neck. This would put the nut further from the body, and could allow a normal 3 in. neck pocket without setting the bridge plate too far back on the body.

[mowcheeba]

Amazing thread.....I´ve been waiting for this one a long time. Hope to get
some time to build a Mini Tele for my son this year so this build thread came
at a right time.
Thanks for posting Jack, looks great.

[otterhound]

Great build . During my research on guitar design , I remember reading that scale is determined by measuring from the nut to the twelfth fret , then doubling that distance . not by measuring from the nut to a specified distance . Is my memory failing me ? I think that it would look funky with the rear set bridge . If you don't want that template , may I have it ?

[jimd]

Great stuff as usual Jack. thank you!

[Superc_1]

Jack, Thanks! I figured that out after I made that last post. I'd went to Stewmac and typed in the scale lenght and then I saw what I'd done wrong. Thanks again for a great thread. Hows the build coming along?

[mowcheeba]

I was thinking about doing a 1-piece maple neck without truss rod on
my MiniTele. I can't imagine a .009 or .008 set pulling a 22.75 scale neck
all that much.....
What do you think, Jack?

[Jack Wells]

The 22.75 scale Squier Mini-Strats do have a truss rod. You're right that 9s or 8s on such a guitar wouldn't create much bow on the neck. Squier does supply the Mini-Strats with 9s but they do play better and maintain tune better with heavier strings. I've put 11s on a few Mini-Strats I've refinished.

Since the scale length is short, when turned to concert pitch, there's not as much tension in the strings as a full sized guitar. Using light guage strings, there's even less tension. With 8's the strings would be very slack.

Fender Japan made some ultra-mini Strats and Teles back around 1993. The scale length was something like 18 in. These had no truss rod. I think I put 12s on them.

You could go ahead and build the neck without a truss rod. It would probably be fine. If not it could probably be added later. If it works OK without a truss rod, it would surely make building a Mini-Telecaster easier. Let us know how it works out.

[mowcheeba]

Originally Posted by jwells393

The 22.75 scale Squier Mini-Strats do have a truss rod. You're right that 9s or 8s on such a guitar wouldn't create much bow on the neck. Squier does supply the Mini-Strats with 9s but they do play better and maintain tune better with heavier strings. I've put 11s on a few Mini-Strats I've refinished.

Since the scale length is short, when turned to concert pitch, there's not as much tension in the strings as a full sized guitar. Using light guage strings, there's even less tension. With 8's the strings would be very slack.

Fender Japan made some ultra-mini Strats and Teles back around 1993. The scale length was something like 18 in. These had no truss rod. I think I put 12s on them.

You could go ahead and build the neck without a truss rod. It would probably be fine. If not it could probably be added later. If it works OK without a truss rod, it would surely make building a Mini-Telecaster easier. Let us know how it works out.

Thanks, Jack! Guess 8s would be very sloppy on such a short scale, I'll
try 9s or 10s. I am definitely trying a neck without truss rod, only problem
is I can't make it to fat since it is for my 5 year old son. But like you say,
one could always add a truss rod later if problems occur.

[hardlock]

Originally Posted by jwells393

Many moons ago I set about building a Mini-Telecaster that would use a 22.75 in. scale neck as used on the Squier Mini-Strats.. Don't remember how I chose the body size but I cut the body too small. As the picture below shows, This places the bridge too far back to look right.

Any chance you still have that too small body you might want to get rid of?

Great build thread BTW! Learning loads of good info here!

[spyderxxx]

Originally Posted by Superc_1

Jack? To get the 22.75" scale don't you just move the nut up to the first or second fret position of the 25.5" scale on a reg. tele? Seems I read that somewhere? Also I took TDowns autocad drawing and made all the changes of your thread into a new drawing. If you want a copy I can send you a dwg or pdf of it?

Uoperc 1

I would love a copy of this drawing. Either format or both.

Thanks

[stratman1966]

Originally Posted by spyderxxx

Uoperc 1

I would love a copy of this drawing. Either format or both.

Thanks

Great build. I would like a file too. thanks

[hardlock]

Jack, how is the mini coming?

I'd still be interested in your undersized body if available also.

[irishtele]

Im really interested in building a mini guitar!!
I have the perfect piece of rosewood for it!.
Any chance of getting the pdf for the undersized body!
Looks great jack!

[Jack Wells]

With regard to the PDF, I don't have a PDF. It's appears Superc_1 has one.

I cropped the body outline in Terry's drawing using the Snapshot Tool, pasted it into IrfanView, reduced the length to 14.5 in.. I then cropped than Jpeg into four overlapping quadrants printed the quadrants and taped the four sheets together to make my pattern....... sort of a cave man method.

All my guitar work has been on a back burner for the past few weeks. I've got a few projects going. I need to get back to them and update the threads.

Hardlock .............. that undersized body only has the neck pocket routed. Location of other cavities would depend the scale length of the neck used. Would you want it as is?

[JimmyJam]

Jwells is da man indeed. Nice work. Wish I had the talent and tools...

[Jack Wells]

Pulled this little guy off a back burner earlier this evening. Looks like it's been over a year since I did anything on this project. (One of many I've started and not finished.) Took about a half hour to find the neck. It had fallen behind a workbench. I fretted the neck, drilled the ferrule holes and fit the neck to the pocket. I'll try to get it finished before another year passes.

......

[bottled]

Brilliant! So cool.

[hardlock]

Originally Posted by Jack Wells

Hardlock .............. that undersized body only has the neck pocket routed. Location of other cavities would depend the scale length of the neck used. Would you want it as is?

Sure! Sorry I didn't see this earlier. Anyway email or PM for arrangements if you want to unload it. It will save me some time and I can add the rest of the routes no problem.

[CptRyg]

I bought a flame maple blank for a neck but it's about three inches short for a full size. I'd considered a scaled down travel size. Now I know I can do it!

[treadwm]

Thx, Jack! Just what I needed.... inspiration for yet another guitar project. :-)

Was fun to re-read this thread though. Thx for sharing.