New project, heaviness meets lightness

[HarpJim]

After learning the curves with my Learn o' caster (see http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home...first-try.html), I decided to go ahead with a real project! I don't have a name for it like (Putsomethinghere-caster) but I do exactly know what I'll be doing. Here is the pic of the thing



Ok ... I know there's 2 guitars but let me explain you why.

The first one is a guitar I have in my mind for about 3 years now. I had the idea to make the body out of maple. Many people tried to discourage me doing this because of the weight but decided to go my way, anyway. I like heavy instruments. I started playing music on a really heavy bass. It was a Ibanez Flying V ... just like the Gibson's guitars. Heavy as hell. I quit bass years ago, but I still like the feeling of some weight on my shoulder. Moreover, I use heavy strings (mostly 10s or 11s). I always feel a bit wierd playing with like gauge string. I don't know why. It's just like if there was nothing under my fingers.

Ok back to the body. There was still a little voice in my head telling my that a pine body would be cool too. So I bought me some light pine, just in case. After some thinking I decided to make another completely different project with it.

So, I'm aiming at doing a really heavy tele and a really light one, both with totally different sound.

Let's the fun begin!

[HarpJim]

Being in an apartment, I can't make too much noise. So last week I went to the country, found a shed and started making some noise!

Here are some pics of the surrounding




The snow have almost melt totally so I was able to work without too much cloth on my back!

[HarpJim]

After cutting my a brand new template, I laid it to the pine first



What do we have it? A lefty? Not really ... While examining the body I found that



So I was forced to find a way not to include it on the body. The chances that I'll have to fill holes on that project are quite high, so saving my one seemed to be a good idea to start with.

[HarpJim]

Having no band saw, I used my jigsaw to rough cut the exceeding wood.



The blade I used to cut the template was a bit to short for the 1.75" body so I had to use a longer one with bigger teeth. I was afraid of chipping the wood, but it turned out quite good.



I left more wood then less, just in case.

[HarpJim]

Then I realized one thing : pine and jigsaw are not friends.



It takes more to stop me, I will deal with it later. So I put the body on my spindle sander.

Second thing realized : pine and spindle sander are best friends!

So I took as much wood as I could to ease the work of the router

[HarpJim]

Before routing the body, I went on the maple plank. Take a look at these so perfectly matched pieces of wood.

Next time I'll ask the guys to glue me a two pieces teak/spruce body. Chances are it will be better matched then that!

[HarpJim]

Cutting that thing was really difficult!! Oh man, I had hard time keeping the blade in the wood. The jigsaw was getting so hot, I thought I was about to explode! It didn't, but the work kept me away from taking pictures. Do you have an idea of why it was so had to cut this wood? Going parallel with the grain was really painful, I had to lay my whole weight on the saw for it not to pop out of the wood!!!

But I finally made it!



Needless to say it was almost unsandable. Even with quite rough drums!

The positive side of it was that even it all the bumping and poping I had with the jig saw, there was no did on the body! Quite impressive how hard this wood can be!

[HarpJim]

Time to route the bodies! Here it a template well fastened



Then tried to remove some wood



Did I try to remove too much stuff at the same time??

Look what it did, burns and roughness!

[HarpJim]

I then switched the router bit with for another one.


Look at all those burns! What caused that? Bad router bit?

I did all the process for the maple body with the same result

[HarpJim]

Then I did put the routing template back on and routed the cavities.




The first body went all good, but I noticed something bad happen with the second one, and I don't know how to explain the thing. Any idea of what could have caused that?

[HarpJim]

The day came to an end so I packed up my stuff and went back home. There's still some routing to do. Tomorrow I have a day off, guess what I'll be doing

I was curious to see what would be the weight of each body so I laid em on a scale.

Here is the maple one, almost 6 pounds



and here is the pine on, a bit less than 3.5 pounds



More to come soon!

[edd677]

Very cool Jim, Cant wait to see the finished products, especially the bigsby. I think your right about the totally different sounds. By the way, what part of this fine country are you from? Looks like ontario but I could be very wrong.

[HarpJim]

Originally Posted by edd677

Very cool Jim, Cant wait to see the finished products, especially the bigsby. I think your right about the totally different sounds. By the way, what part of this fine country are you from? Looks like ontario but I could be very wrong.

Hmm ... yes you are wrong ... I'm in Québec

[HarpJim]

Here are some updates!

First I had to make a neck pocket template





This was for the 1/4" mdf... the master

[HarpJim]

I then used the master to trace some lines





Test fit ...



Perfect!

[HarpJim]

I then try to route my "Lean o'caster" first... just in case.

So I fastened the template to the body


Remove some wood



Test fit told me to go ahead with the real thing!

[HarpJim]

Took the pine body and drilled neck mounting holes first



Seems ok



Fasten the template



Got the router ready for the first pass.... Here I said to myself that I really should get a shorter bit. This one is hugging too much wood on the first pass... that maybe why I have so much problem with burning the wood.

[HarpJim]

After some more routing




Bridge holes are drilled

[HarpJim]

Can't wait to remove the template and see the result!

Voila!



Nice! but the strings holes seem to give me a reverse smile

It's confirmed from a look at the back... I have a sad Telecaster



But the neck fits in really well!

[HarpJim]

Time to drill the jack hole!

Target first!



Aligning is quite easy. It doesn't shows on the picture but this drill is equipped with a GPS system which helped me to get the job done right.





Here is the mouse doorway.