Telemaster build

[Tele-brewer]

So I've started to build me a Telemaster. It's my second build. I've started a few months back, had to make a pause and now I'm making progress again.









The body is Marupá, neck and fretboard are Marfin, all brazilian woods.

[Tele-brewer]

[Tele-brewer]

That's when the whole body/neck alignment debacle started.

I thought there would be no difficulties to it, that I would just align the body and neck, mark, drill, assemble and that's it.







I've even tried that:



Turned out I had to try over and over. And I still didn't get it. At least I'm not confident to do it to actual guitar parts. I want to nail it with the templates and be able to reproduce them accurately.

I'll have to come back to that.

[Tele-brewer]

[Tele-brewer]

[jnepo1]

Originally Posted by Tele-brewer

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Is that how the contoured back is actually done? I always thought it was straight up using a sander.

[Tele-brewer]

[Tele-brewer]

[Jupiter]

Originally Posted by jnepo1

Is that how the contoured back is actually done? I always thought it was straight up using a sander.

There's more than one way to skin a cat.

[Tele-brewer]

Originally Posted by jnepo1

Is that how the contoured back is actually done?

No, it's not.

Originally Posted by jnepo1

I always thought it was straight up using a sander.

That's right. A belt sander.

With an orbital sander it would take about a week.

It's an alternative, since I don't have a belt sander.

[Jupiter]

Some guys use a rasp.

[Colt W. Knight]

That tummy cut came out nice. When I saw you going at it with a saw, I had my doubts, but it looks great.

[dr_zaius]

Originally Posted by Jupiter

Some guys use a rasp.

That's how I do mine. Rasp out the basics of the contour, then I use the drum sander attachment on my power drill to flesh it out a little more, then I spray cheap rattlecan red on the contour and sand with 80 grit on a flat stick in a cross hatch pattern until all the red is gone. Takes about two hours to do it that way, but it yields good results. Heck, judging from the pictures, doing it with a saw works pretty good too :)

[Blacque Jacque]

Last time I did the belly cut I went with the 4 1/2" angle grinder with a 36grit sanding disk. It took me about an hour to get a good basic shape in hard maple.

[Tele-brewer]

Originally Posted by Colt W. Knight

That tummy cut came out nice. When I saw you going at it with a saw, I had my doubts, but it looks great.

Thanks a lot.

[Tele-brewer]

Originally Posted by dr_zaius

Heck, judging from the pictures, doing it with a saw works pretty good too :)

Thanks a lot, too.

[Tele-brewer]

Okay!

Time for the binding rout.

[Tele-brewer]

And for gluing the binding.

[Tele-brewer]

Woops!



That's the same spot.

[Tele-brewer]

That's the spot I screwed up. I actually got worse, cause the gap got filled with binding dust.



This is another spot, at the other horn, that didn't turn out very good.