Telecaster Rescue!

[Elias Graves]

This guitar already has a long story behind it and it isn't even finished yet. My father in law gave me a big stash of black walnut last year, so I, of course, began thinking about a build. I moved a couple of years ago and lost most of my shop space, so most of my tools went into storage, leaving me with access to only hand tools.
I hooked up with a local builder who was to do the heavy work, then return the pieces to me to complete myself. Well, the guy called me up a while back and said I need to come pick up my parts, as he was moving away.
The original specs were to be a 1 3/4" thick chambered walnut body with bookmatched walnut top, walnut neck with rosewood fingerboard.
What he returned to me was 1 3/8" thick and terribly mismatched in terms of grain and color. The neck was to be a fat V carve.
Here's what I got.







He did install the maple binding, but it was sanded through around the cutaway horn.
Sigh.

Time to get to work, I suppose.

EG

[Elias Graves]

An inventory of problems:

Neck:
Way thinner than requested
Neck carve not complete
Fretboard attached in wrong location

Body:
Mismatched grain, color
Too thin to even use a standard tele switch
Neck pocket is crooked

As you can see here, the fretboard lines up between the 15th and 16th frets and there's a long gap between the nut space and the end of the neck.



To hit in the right spot, I have to move the neck out like so.



It looks like he cut the neck pocket and realized it was a couple of degrees off, so he hogged out one corner to make it fit.

EG

[RogerC]

That bites. If it was me (doing the work for someone), I would've definitley called you up when I made the first mistake. It looks like he's one of those, "eh, good enough" kind of guys.

Mind telling me who the builder was? You can pm me if you don't want to post it on this thread.

[Elias Graves]

Not sure what happened. He made one for my son that's a killer guitar.

Now, on to the neck. Stay with me here, folks, as I'm gonna be doing some highly unorthodox stuff here. My attitude with this one is that it's essentially firewood, so I'm going for broke. If it works out, great. If not, oh well; I'm no worse off than before.
Another thing I'm trying to do here is avoiding spending any more money on it. I already sold one guitar to buy the hardware and guts, so I'm not too keen on dropping more into it. I'm proceeding with attitude of working with what I have on hand for the most part.

Here's my solution for the neck. After finishing the neck carve, the thickness went all the way down to 3/4" at the nut and barely more than that at the 12th fret.
Off comes the rosewood.


Oh, here, you can see how far down the fretboard was attached.




EG

[Elias Graves]

Here we see the proper fretboard placement.


This is a bit of a problem.

Additionally, the truss rod is set just a bit deep and there's a little gap. There's no filler strip around the nut.


EG

[flatfive]

Originally Posted by Elias Graves

Stay with me here, folks, as I'm gonna be doing some highly unorthodox stuff here. My attitude with this one is that it's essentially firewood, so I'm going for broke. If it works out, great. If not, oh well; I'm no worse off than before.

Elias, that looks like nice wood, and it's cool that you're trying
to fix things up yourself. But there's no need to do anything
"highly unorthodox" just because it's potentially firewood. Take
your time and do things as well as you can -- you will learn more
and get a better result. There are many folks here who can help
you with any hurdles you face.

[Elias Graves]

Thanks flatfive. Yes, the wood is terrific. My father in law bought a LOT of it from a mill in Missouri over 20 years ago. It's been in storage since. Very well seasoned stuff.


One filler strip.



EG

[robt57]

Looks like he placed the fretboard for a Gibson glue on style nut setup, lot of guitars except Fender Electric been doing that for decades to be sure.

It all looks pretty salvageable to me. ;)

To bad about the binding, but it is what it is. Get out the heat gun...

[Elias Graves]

And here goes one of my unorthodox tricks. The neck is just too darn skinny and has too much flex.
I'm stealing a page from the Gibson playbook and am going to do a laminated fretboard of sorts.
I cut a 1/8" thick piece of walnut and ebonized it. It's going between the neck and fretboard.


EG

[Elias Graves]

Setting the filler strip.



And attaching my "neck fattener."




If it works, it works. We shall see.

EG

[CptRyg]

You've got your work cut out for you. Best of luck. If all "unorthodoxidness" fails here are 2 suggestions. Stick some number on it and a clock motor through the back and hang it in your shop. The other would be to carve an arse contour into the face and put some bar stool legs on it for a shop seat.

[Elias Graves]

Now with 1/8" fatter neck!








You can see the unfinished neck carve in that last pic. It actually gets fatter towards the nut. :D

EG

[OpenG Capo4]

If that body is super thin like that I'd think you could route out the neck pocket and glue in a block new wood, then chamber it from the top and install a drop top to cover everything. You could do bursted sides to hide all the seams.

[Elias Graves]

Originally Posted by OpenG Capo4

If that body is super thin like that I'd think you could route out the neck pocket and glue in a block new wood, then chamber it from the top and install a drop top to cover everything. You could do bursted sides to hide all the seams.

You must be psychic.
Stay tuned.

Reinstalling the fretboard.




EG

[Elias Graves]

Since my fretboard came off cleanly, I'm going to reuse it. Of course, it's a bit short now after the 21st fret. Here's my solution: Use it as a design element. I made up another little piece of walnut, ebonized it and glued that bad boy right on there.



EG

[tylermoss]

great save!

[tiskit86]

Question: Are the fret slots in the right places for a 25.5" scale? At first I almost thought he put a 24.75" fingerboard on a 25.5" scale neck.

[Muzikp]

Wow this is going to be fun to watch, wait...just this part so far has been fun to watch.

I agree with whoever said to chamber and add a cap. I've got some walnut and it's...well, heavy as #$@&%$. But what about the binding channel that's already there? Are you going to fill that somehow or just make really tall binding?

Anyway looking forward to seeing this develop.

[Fenderfiend]

Originally Posted by Muzikp

...looking forward to seeing this develop.

Me, too.

I think it takes more creativity and expertise to rehabilitate a build gone wrong than an original straightforward build
-therefore more interesting to watch unfold.

[Elias Graves]

Thanks for the encouragement!


Frets are going in.


Maybe these need trimmed a bit? :)



I bought Fender brand frets. 24 precut, prebent fretwires in a package. How handy is that for those of us without the tools?



EG