On to the next one, Butternut/Spalted Maple Tele

[axedaddy]

So the contest is done and I have sort of recovered. What a great experience!!! I felt very fortunate to be a part of it. Congrats to EVERYONE who participated, finish or not, it was awesome!

I was a little worried toward the end. I was pushing to get it done, 5am starts, working all day at the day job, then back in the shop until I couldn't stay awake, that I would be burned and not want to get back in the shop. But I am glad to say I couldn't wait and I am already working on 2 more builds. One is another walnut Tele just like the build guitar, except we will be using Seymor Duncan Hotstack Tele pups. I will use the 2nd neck I started for the contest build and a one piece walnut body, from the same board as the contest guitar, but not nearly as figured. I will document that in an upcoming build thread.

For this one the specs are as follows:
Lightweight butternut body with a belly cut
1/4" one piece spalted maple top.
Tru Oil finish
Either black or white binding (to be determined) around the top
Kinman Broadcaster pickups (same as the contest guitar)
Babicz full contact bridge.
Chrome hardware.
Neck is to be determined, I want to use a really sweet 2 piece, 1/4 sawn blister maple (blister maple is pretty rare, it is the bottom 8' or so of really old sugar maples. The weight compresses the wood, it is very dense and sounds incredible) blank I have with a figured maple board, but the customer is thinking of a darker neck. I am meeting with him tomorrow and will bring some different neck & fb blanks for him. He mentioned a bubinga neck, I have some really nice 1/4 sawn bubinga stock, so I guess we'll see.

This guitar is one I have been wanting to build ever since I scored some really nice butternut (white walnut). One board in particular was super light and resonant, so I glued it up into a 3 piece body blank. I think it will be less than 4lbs with the top when done.





Then I found a really nice 5/4 spalted maple board in the stack.

[axedaddy]

Figured I needed to build another superclamp for gluing tops down. Thanks again to preeb for the idea.

I had some 3/4 birch plywood that I doubled up and glued together for a shelf. I don't use the shelf anymore, so it is made into a superclamp. I covered the insides with packing tape so the glue won't stick.



Screwed the top and bottom together and traced a tele outline.



I measured about 1" from the line, 3/4" close to the edges for holes. Commenced drilling.



Recessed the bottom holes for the bolt heads.



Separated the top and put the bolts in.



Put the cut out body in.

[axedaddy]

I had to figure out what top I was going to use, so I traced a bunch of bodies on the board to see what I thought looked best.

[axedaddy]

I chose one and resawed the board. I have a Laguna bandsaw with a 1" blade that will do 14" resaw capacity, but I have to say, it is not for the faint of heart. I sawed the 5/4 in half, planed it down to about 3/8", cut the rough shape and sanded it flat. Put the glue on and into the superclamp to dry.

[axedaddy]

Here is the blister maple neck blank and birdseye/flame fretboard I would like to use.





I also have a 1/4 sawn paduk neck blank I might bring to the meeting.





No pics of the bubinga one yet.

[hockeygoon]

In! I don't normally like spalted anything (too many punky firewood memories), but that looks pretty cool.

Always wanted to work with butternut, but it has been tough to find.

[axedaddy]

Originally Posted by hockeygoon

In! I don't normally like spalted anything (too many punky firewood memories), but that looks pretty cool.

Always wanted to work with butternut, but it has been tough to find.

Thanks! I have the same feeling about spalted maple, but I came across a local sawyer that specializes in it. The board this top came from yielded 6, 5/4 boards. For a carved top I can get one each, for a drop top I can get 2 tops per piece. I picked the pile to come up with no punkiness. He also does a lot with butternut. I bought out his 8/4 stock, nothing wide enough for 1 piece bodies. But he has a bunch of really, really big trees on his lot to saw out and I have put dibs in for all the 8/4, 14"+ wide boards he can cut. This board was much lighter than the rest, but all of it is pretty sweet, to me anyway. I am anxious to see how it sounds, it is certainly a joy to work with.

[axedaddy]

A quick side note. I usually try to source my lumber to do one piece bodies if I can. So this 3 piece is a bit different. This wood was so light and resonant that I had to give a try. It was the only board like that and it wasn't wide enough for less than 3 pieces.

[volowv]

i've been meaning to drop you a line about the paduak. you posted on my challenge thread right before it got locked...

have you used it before? in case you don't know it doesn't stay that color. it oxidizes and turns a purple-red rust color. i don't mind it but cjfearn posted on my build thread that he didn't like the look of it. the dust stains too. vacuum a lot when radiusing. i use it because its not on the CITES list of endangered wood species, like so many other fretboard woods grown outside the US.

i'm not too keen on spalted maple either but i have faith in you. the binding will certainly help make it right.

[axedaddy]

Originally Posted by volowv

i've been meaning to drop you a line about the paduak. you posted on my challenge thread right before it got locked...

have you used it before? in case you don't know it doesn't stay that color. it oxidizes and turns a purple-red rust color. i don't mind it but cjfearn posted on my build thread that he didn't like the look of it. the dust stains too. vacuum a lot when radiusing. i use it because its not on the CITES list of endangered wood species, like so many other fretboard woods grown outside the US.

i'm not too keen on spalted maple either but i have faith in you. the binding will certainly help make it right.

Thanks for the vote of confidence!!

As for Paduk, I have not used it yet, but I knew it changes colors. What is the feel like on a fb? I bought this piece because it was perfectly 1/4 sawn and I think it looks amazing. The dust was a bit irritating when I re-sawed it, dust mask (wenge protocol) is a must. I am not sure I will use it on this build. In another long story that I won't get into now, I have an almost endless supply of 25-50 year old paduk (as well as zebra wood, purple heart and a few other species of exotic wood) for free. So I am going to be using it, it is just a matter of when.

[volowv]

i think it feels alright, i like it. in the grand scheme the pore/grain structure is similar to rosewood, more than wenge for example. for what its worth, "they" say it sounds like maple. the janka rating is about the same, around 1500 IIRC. it's pretty soft for african wood (i think iroko is lower but thats the only one i can think of off the top of my head.) i think it would be a suitable replacement for hard maple in necks. if i had a ton of it that's probably what i would use it for.

i like the smell of the dust. i think i read somewhere that women have used it for perfume.

[axedaddy]

Originally Posted by volowv

i think it feels alright, i like it. in the grand scheme the pore/grain structure is similar to rosewood, more than wenge for example. for what its worth, "they" say it sounds like maple. the janka rating is about the same, around 1500 IIRC. it's pretty soft for african wood (i think iroko is lower but thats the only one i can think of off the top of my head.) i think it would be a suitable replacement for hard maple in necks. if i had a ton of it that's probably what i would use it for.

i like the smell of the dust. i think i read somewhere that women have used it for perfume.

Cool. I am anxious to use it. Some of the boards I have are really wide, so I may have to make use of some of it as tops, maybe. So many woods, so little time!! I guess the other issue is that guitar players are so traditional. I personally LOVE the use of alternative woods (ie Walnut, Honey Locust, Butternut, Etc) but to some guys if it is not maple, alder and rosewood, it just isn't right. I guess that's also the advantage of being a small builder, I can do what I want I didn't realize this until I delivered the challenge guitar, but Rik Barron had asked several companies he is an endorser for to build walnut neck instruments, and nobody would do it for him.

I actually really in love with wenge fb's right now. I am amazed at how silky smooth it is to the touch, but it looks kind of rough.

[Mojotron]

Bubinga is an awesome neck wood - a little heavy, but it's stiffness and hardness makes it one of the most useful fretboard/structural accent woods I know. The price of Bubinga is really good too. IMO, Bubinga has a little more attack than Maple when used as a fretboard.

I'm planning on making one of those superclamps as well - one for bodies as well as one for necks.

I'll be watching.

[CapnCrunch]

Looks like you've got a good one started. Be careful with the spalted maple though. I have a friend who runs a saw mill, and he was cutting figured maple and spalted maple on the side for a little extra cash. The spalted maple landed him in the hospital (almost killed him). It can be really toxic for some people, so take care. It's cool looking though.

[paulRH]

Hey i like spalted maple. I think it could look really good. Interesting about the allergy to the fungus though.

[axedaddy]

Originally Posted by CapnCrunch

Looks like you've got a good one started. Be careful with the spalted maple though. I have a friend who runs a saw mill, and he was cutting figured maple and spalted maple on the side for a little extra cash. The spalted maple landed him in the hospital (almost killed him). It can be really toxic for some people, so take care. It's cool looking though.

Cool, thanks for the tip. I am not always as cautious with the dust mask as I should be.

[axedaddy]

Quick update, the body and top, with no routing is 4lbs 6.8oz. Pics tommorow.

[jkingma]

Looks great so far. Nice work.

BTW - your challenge entry was one of my favourites. Its a gorgeous guitar.

[axedaddy]

Originally Posted by jkingma

Looks great so far. Nice work.

BTW - your challenge entry was one of my favourites. Its a gorgeous guitar.

Thank you very much, I really appreciate it! It is hard to screw up a piece of wood that nice. It was a rare find, I was fortunate it fell to me.

[axedaddy]

Originally Posted by Mojotron

Bubinga is an awesome neck wood - a little heavy, but it's stiffness and hardness makes it one of the most useful fretboard/structural accent woods I know. The price of Bubinga is really good too. IMO, Bubinga has a little more attack than Maple when used as a fretboard.

I'm planning on making one of those superclamps as well - one for bodies as well as one for necks.

I'll be watching.

Hey Mojo,

Great build you got going BTW. I am glad you have continued, we all would have been missing out if you didn't.

I love Bubinga to, I use it on every neck as a filler strip under the fretboard. I have not built a whole neck with it yet, but I will be eventually. I have used it as a fretboard, but I was not in love with the pressure needed to seat a fret. Maybe it was just the piece I was using, it was quartersawn, so maybe that was it.

I have been very happy with the superclamps. They take all the worry, guess work and fear of a gapped joint out of the glue up process. At first I was worried about maybe starving the joint of glue, but an article in the May 2010 fine woodworking basically proved scientifically that you can't provide enough pressure to actually stave a glue joint. So I tighten away and have had very good results. Thanks again to preeb!!