started another telecaster build today x12

[motor_city_tele]

I trued up both edges of 24 slabs of ash.
will glue 2-up for each body
I matched them up and labled each piece.
Rough cut 1 neck out of maple.
sliced up some rosewood leftover from my last build into 12) 1/4 inch + pieces.
marked and cut 12 rosewood skunk stripes.

these will all be some type of blackguard telecaster or esquire.

[Mike Simpson]

12 at a time?

[crazydave911]

Darn, I was hoping for a 12-string build..........
But hey, they're Tele's, it's all good :-)

Dave

[motor_city_tele]

Now that All of my Ash and Maple have been edge cut matched, I got it ready to start my production of Telecaster and Esquire Blackguard guitars. I found a few pieces of pine in the dumpster across the street and thought while I was ripping the Ash, I might as well add a pine body to the mix. I guess before the summer of 1950, Fender made their guitar bodies out of Pine wood. It sure is much lighter than the Ash I've been lugging around.

Here is a photo of the maple and Ash. I have enough flamed maple to build four necks. The remaining necks will be fabricated out of regular figured maple. I do have one more rosewood neck blank left over from the challenge, that may look good on one of the bodies.


Here is a close-up of the flamed maple. My rule of thumb is to try not to spend more than $10.00 per neck and 15.00 per body (including shipping).


that's all I got for now. maybe I'll start gluing up some of the bodies in the coming few days. The weather forecast does not look promising though.

tootles - jb

[TheZ]

This is cool and quite an undertaking. Are you going to be building 13 complete guitars or sell them as bodies and necks?

[motor_city_tele]

originally the plan was to create a dozen bodies only. Got some Ash. Then I saw some nice neck wood for a decent price. Bought enough for a dozen of those. Then thought I might add something a bit different to the bodies, picked up some veneer for marquetry. It all snowballed from there - McMaster-Carr had the garolite for pick guards. Midwest metals had 1018 steel rods for truss rods. I eventually stopped when I had enough materials, hardware, and electronics for 6 guitars. So to answer the question, I will probably build 6 complete instruments, and 7 bodies and 7 necks, plus an archtop rebuild I've already started.

tootles - jb

[guitbusy]

I am in the Detroit area also, where do you get your wood?

[motor_city_tele]

They are located just NorthEast of the Milford proving grounds
they sell all kinds of good stuff. They will mill the top and bottom while you wait.

That is where I got my Ash from. Maple and Rosewood for the tele 210 challenge were obtained on ebay.

I just heard this past weekend of another place on US 12 in Jackson that might be a source for hardwood - Waltons Millworks is the name, Anyone heard about them?

tootles - jb

[guitbusy]

I was at Johnson's Lumber in Charlotte over the weekend, and they had a lot of good stuff. http://www.theworkbench.com/

I am fairly new to woodworking, but they seemed to have decent prices and a lot of selection, was just looking for something more close to Detroit area. They seemed to me to be worth the drive.

[guitbusy]

I have also been to Public Lumber Company on 7 Mile in Detroit http://www.publiclumber.com but they didn't have much in stock when I was in there. I spoke with a guy there and he said just keep checking back...

[Picton]

You're in Detroit. What's wrong with a little mass-production?

[motor_city_tele]

*** I was just looking for something more close to Detroit area. They seemed to me to be worth the drive.***

Me too. started at Plymouth - no ash in stock. could order it special for about 500.00 for 35bf - get real buddy.

then it was Northville - no Ash, but a very helpful salesman pointed me to Armstrong, even let me use their internet hookup to get the contact info.

WoodCraft of Canton has some 8/4 but once again - too expensive and not enough.

last stop was Mans in Canton - no 8/4 of anything - If it aint gonna be made into a floor, we can't help you.

The following week is when I went to Armstrong, It was so cold that day that I didn't want to do anything but get in, get my ash, and get back into a warm car. The out buildings where most of the inventory is kept are not heated.

tootles - jb

This where I spent most of my visit. In the slot where the 8/4 ash lives.


I picked out 3) 12 footers and proceeded to the heated area where the boards were cross-cut in half then planed to 1.75 inches thick. The final result.

[motor_city_tele]

With two solid days of no rain, I was able to make some progress on the blackguard esquire and telecaster builds. It was an all day affair on both Saturday and Sunday in between checking on the BBQ grill. I started the day by gluing and clamping a set of Ash blanks for the body and set it aside. While that was setting up, I took my neck template and outlined as many as I could on the 5 pieces of maple I purchased for this project. When I was happy with the orientation of the necks, I proceeded to slowly work my way through all five pieces of maple. I would cut, maybe two of three then take a break and glue-up another body. By Sunday Afternoon, I had 7 bodies glued up and 16 neck blanks cut out.

Two more days of rain and wind kept me inside but the weather finally broke and the sun came out from hiding. I put in a few more hours after work this evening and glued up another body and dug out my great big sheet of garolite. I layed out 12 pickguard blanks and started cutting them out with my Dremel moto tool. I originally tried using my band saw to cut them out but gave up after breaking my blade about two seconds into the first cut. That stuff is tough.

Once I secure the blank to the template with some small flat head wood screws, I'll be able to use my router table to finish them up. The key to working with this stuff is brute force. The carbide router bits cut through it like butter.


Here is a couple of the neck blanks. I ended up with 10 of the plain maple necks and 6 of the flamed maple. Once again, securing these to the neck template and using the router table will complete the final neck shape.


here is a close up of one of the flamed maple head stocks.


I hear the weather is supposed to be decent for the next few days so I should be updating this post with pictures of my neck jig thingy in action. I'd like to get all of the truss rod channels routed and maybe a radius or two.

tootles - jb

[motor_city_tele]

Now that I'm on my regular lawn mowing schedule of Saturdays, I decided I might have a couple hours to work on some telecaster/esquire black bakelite pick guards. I dragged the router table out of the shed, and removed the neck blanks that were sitting on it. but first, a snapshot.


But wait, you know the drill. Before doing anything, glue up another body. btw, this is way too much glue. I think maybe half of that is what I ended up spreading evenly.


clamp, clamp, clamp and move it outta da way.


The key to any type of production consistency is of course, accurate templates. Here is my MDF pick guard template that I will use for all of the pick guards. All of the garolite blanks have been pre-drilled and countersunk prior to any shaping.


The pre-drilled holes are just the ticket for securing the blank to the template. I'm using some small flat head wood screws. Two would probably work, but just in case I'll use four. One on each corner.


Now with the carbide router bit installed and the height adjusted so the bearing rides along the edge of the template, I can guide the blank through nice and easy. I like to keep the blank between me and the router bit for consistency and for safety.


This what you get. it's a decent edge, but still only as good as the template. I'll remove this one and screw on the next blank until all 12 pick guards have been cut out. In a perfect world I'd move to my other router table where the roundover bit would be installed for beveling the edges before changing blanks but I don't have another router table.


As far as routing out the neck pickup slot, I'm gonna wait till I know exactly how many of these bodies will be telecasters and how many will be esquires before committing to anything.


Do you see a Flower missing a pedal, a saw blade missing a tooth, or 12 esquire pick guards missing the rest of the guitars.


thanks for looking, and I'll be back at it tomorrow.

till next time - jb

[Jason Jillard]

i can't wait until i get a chance to make a large quantity of a guitar.

[ColeRyan]

Originally Posted by Picton

You're in Detroit. What's wrong with a little mass-production?

Sorry to go O.T. here but I grew up on Tennyson Road by the High School at the intersection of Forest and Main.

How ironic.

---

Back on topic, that's a crazy picture of pickguards. I wish I could make enough guitars to fill the needs of that!

[Gareth John]

Great build thread motor city tele. Are you planning on keeping all the guitars you build or sell some? Have you thought about colours yet? Can't wait to see more of this :)

[motor_city_tele]

My goal is to have an assortment of finished components and configurations to display at the Michigan Fall guitar show. I'm still trying to organize a plan where someone can pick a body, neck, configuration and I should be able to assemble it right there. I don't know. It's just a thought. First thing is to build the components. It maybe a bit of a stretch assembling while you wait guitars but heck, my day job is sorta like that but with cars and trucks.

tootles - jb

[mgdesigns]

Hey, motor city tele - where abouts in Detroit are you located? I have a son who's living in a house he bought out in Sterling Twp. (15 mi. and Gratiot). He's just completed a welding certifictaion course, and is really inot truck mods. Low riders, etc. Let me know.

[motor_city_tele]

It's a Saturday afternoon and in Michigan - gotta mow somethin'. The grass is a little too wet to cut so I'll cut(rout) some necks. I set things up in a sorta production line environment.

Station 1. The necks come in already rough cut on the band saw. Each neck is placed onto a flat surface and the template is placed over the blank. Two small indentations are placed onto each neck. They are marked with a drill bit with only the slightest pressure - no electricity here. The marks are on the back of the neck, where the skunk stripe slot begins and ends.


Station 2. Before drilling the small holes, the depth is set correctly on the drill press.


All of the holes are drilled and the drill press get retooled for another process down the line.


Station 3. The template gets secured to the neck and the fit is checked before advancing the neck to station 4.


Mandatory Safety Class. Each operator of Station 4 must take and pass the mandatory safety class. Certification is required.


Stations 4. Each piece is quickly marked with the cutting direction and the neck is slowly guided along the bearing. 1/2 of the cut is taken in the first pass.


Station 5. The tuning hole guides and radius jig mounting holes are drilled prior to removing the template.


Station 6. The template is now removed and the neck is sent on to the next station.


Station 7. A new longer router bit is installed in the router table. This time the guide bearing is located on top.

Station 8. The finished neck blanks are passed through Quality Control and are inventoried for a future production process.



In the time it took to actually write this entry, A brand new car has gone from it's raw materials to driving off the line.

tootles - see you tomorrow - jb