The Teiscocaster: Ikeacaster Thinline project

[tuuur]

Well, after having succesfully made a guitar out of an Ikea shelf, now it's up to the second installment. This time I'll try to make a thinline. Sort of like this mockup:



It's going to be black. I'd like to try and make it a double bound one, but that depends on how well the build goes and how much patience I have...

I'll use some of the hardware of this poor old short scale Teisco.





I do like the sound of the pickup and I do like the neck, but something doesn't feel right; and that is the body. It's only about 3 cm thin and feels very flimsy.
Also, I don't like that headstock shape. That was easily adjusted... I won't show how though, minding the build thread of Ron Kirn.

[tuuur]

There's two bodyparts to be got from one 79cm plank, and another plank yields the third:



I separated them with a jigsaw, and then sawed the inner parts' chambers.



This time I tried to hollow the outer parts out first by using a forstner drill bit from a 10 euro set of bits. That didn't go too well; the bit repeatedly stuck. I ended up doing most with the router itself.

Then, again with a jigsaw, I made the f-hole.



It's very crude still, will need a bit more shaping.

[6942]

Wow!!
I have almost the same Teisco at home.
Although mine is badged a Norma.
Not the greatest body in the world.
But I do like the tone from the Gold Foil pickup!

Steve

[tuuur]

Originally Posted by 6942

Wow!!
I have almost the same Teisco at home.
Although mine is badged a Norma.
Not the greatest body in the world.

Well, I call it a Teisco, but actually this one has no name... could be a Norma, a Kawai, a Sakai, an Egmond, a Klinor for all I know. They are not that rare.

Originally Posted by 6942

But I do like the tone from the Gold Foil pickup!

Yep, those things sounds great. Ry Cooder thinks so too!

[Buckocaster51]

Looks like official Dutch ingenuity!

Good work!

[tuuur]

Went on on Christmas day sawing out the body.
Mounted the bridge and started on the route for the tremolo unit.



Drilling...



Then, I tried to position the neck using a clamp.



Seemed allright to me...

so...

[tuuur]

... on go the strings!



Tremolo, bridge and f-hole closer up:



Together with the Tryggvecaster:



Sound is nice, sort of thinnish, a bit dobro like. When you cover the f-hole it is clear that that thing does something to the sound as well!

[tuuur]

Now for the not so good things.

Firstly, I was too Ebenezer Scroogeish on the amount of wood. There is not enough on the upper bout:



And there isn't enough on the lower horn...
I'm not that satisfied with the shape of the cutaway either. But there is still a lot of sanding and reshaping to do, not much harm done there.



As the neck is only 5 cm wide, I cannot use a default pickguard... so I am about to make one myself.

[tuuur]

So, work on this project is on hold.

December 28th I miscalculated a step. Result: broken ankle and broken bone in foot... that's some two months of gips for me if I'm lucky.

See you guys again after some time, and thanks for the comments.
This board keeps building the most fun!

[Tedecaster]

Wishes for a speedy recovery.

I have to say, that whammy bar looks like the lever for the 3-point hitch on my Ford tractor!

[Bob Marlec]

broken ankle and broken bone in foot

So, work on this project is on hold.

So you build guitars with your feet?

I'm kidding and i hope for you a fast recovery and i'm waiting for your new posts about your work with simple materials. Simple is beautiful, specially for the Telecaster.

[bluesjuke]

Wishi you a good recovery tuuur!
Keep up the exotic work!

[Ippon]

Originally Posted by Bob Marlec

So you build guitars with your feet?....

+ X^0 Can't imagine better therapy!

Speedy recovery!

[Steve G]

Get better quick, I want to see what you come up with next!

[tuuur]

Thanks all for the nice comments...

Had to undergo surgery, a tendon (if that's the correct word) had to be reattached to a bone that was not broken, but partially crushed. My leg has to be in gyps for some 6 weeks. Luckily, I will get some with which I will be able to sort of walk.

In the meantime I'll be practicing guitarskillz, maybe write some songs...

[bobthecanadian]

hey tuuur,

hang in there friend. get well soon and keep up to speed on how you are doing.

bob

[Fatmanstratman]

Sorry to hear about your fall, tuuur - was it alcohol-assisted?.....

Get a few strong beers down your neck - that'll do the trick. Nothing like a few bottles of "Milk of Amnesia" to help you forget your troubles.....

[bobthecanadian]

I'm feeling inspired. The wife, kid and I are off to IKEA to buy a plank... or two!

[bobthecanadian]

Okay, we got back from the local IKEA (Yes, Taiwan actually has a few of these). Bought three short Tryggve planks.

I won't hijack this thread anymore....

check for the new IKEAcaster build.

Bob

[ibobunot]

Originally Posted by Steve G

Get better quick, I want to see what you come up with next!

You can see more pictures
HERE

...

[tuuur]

Originally Posted by Fatmanstratman

Sorry to hear about your fall, tuuur - was it alcohol-assisted?.....

Nah, just some stupid miscalculation when I entered a shop to buy some parts for this here Teiscocaster... Thought it was just badly bruised, so drove the 50 km back to my home... Hurt like hell, but what did I know?

Originally Posted by Fatmanstratman

Get a few strong beers down your neck - that'll do the trick. Nothing like a few bottles of "Milk of Amnesia" to help you forget your troubles.....

Ha, well, thanks for the advice!!!
But alas.... I get an anti-trombosis shot every day, and the doctor said that alcohol doesn't really agree with that stuff. Completely sober since december 27th...

[tuuur]

Originally Posted by bobthecanadian

Okay, we got back from the local IKEA (Yes, Taiwan actually has a few of these). Bought three short Tryggve planks.

I won't hijack this thread anymore....

check for the new IKEAcaster build.

Bob

Hey Bob,

Just found your thread! I'm amazed, very curious how that one will turn out!

Things will remain somewhat low profile around here. I am able to move a bit more around the house, so one of these days I plan to mount the pickup and controls. I have some pickguard material; not sure about the shape yet. Maybe sort of a mongrel between a 69 thinline with the horn of a normal PG.

I'd really love to do a binding on this one, but I am a bit scared to do so. On the other hand... not much lost if it goes wrong. But that is something for when the gyps is off my leg.

[bobthecanadian]

hi tuuur,

having a little down time will give you some more time to plan the next phase of production. who know, maybe you will come up with something even more cool that what you have been thinking.

good luck and here's wishing you a speedy recovery.

bob

[6942]

I'm curious about what pots you are using with that Teisco Gold Foil PU?
Teisco used a 100K volume and a 500K tone pot with a .006 (?) ceramic cap.
I once built a partscaster (old Kent body & neck) with the Teisco PU in the neck & an old Magnaflux split-coil HB in the bridge.
I ended up with two volume pots (100K & 500K) and NO tone pot.

Steve

[tuuur]

Originally Posted by 6942

I'm curious about what pots you are using with that Teisco Gold Foil PU?
Teisco used a 100K volume and a 500K tone pot with a .006 (?) ceramic cap.
I once built a partscaster (old Kent body & neck) with the Teisco PU in the neck & an old Magnaflux split-coil HB in the bridge.
I ended up with two volume pots (100K & 500K) and NO tone pot.

I think there are two 100k pots on the original pickguard assembly. They were creaky as heck, if I recall correctly. I'll try to get some pics up.
Anyway, I was planning to use two 250k CTS Allparts pots. Don't know how that would sound with a goldfoil of course, as I got no electronical knowledge whatsoever. Though I am able to solder a bit and know which wire goes where...

[tuuur]

Well, I checked the pots.
On this one it seems to be a 50k volume and 100k tone pot:



Cap seems to be .05:

[tuuur]

OK, I have had it stringed up for some time and it plays alright. Some things bother me a bit though:

- The more I look at the placing of that tremolo unit, the more I think I had better placed it at the back of the body. I could fill the route, make another one further back and place the unit there. Will be a heap of work, not sure if that is worth it.
Maybe it'd be worth the experience.

- Those missing bits on the bouts are not good either. I could try to glue wood on or use automotive repair stuff (with which I haven't got the slightest experience). Or I could leave it like this and use a bigger roundover bit to make a body with a wider radius; I don't know what that would look like with a thinline. Or, I could make a new body.

- The frets on the neck are _really_ worn. there are dents of maybe a mm in the first few frets. Maybe I should consider a refret. That would be the first time, of course. It's a cheap neck, but it's a '60s one... I don't think I would be messing up something irreplacable or extremely wonderful. On the other hand, the neck feels very nice... I'd hate to mess it up.

Any thoughts? What would you do?

[bobthecanadian]

Keep working on it. It will be a great experience. Take pictures and show how you do it so we can learn along with you.

Bob

[voided3]

I'd say try your hand at re-fretting it. Worse case scenario, you buy another donor Teisco for $50 or less. If you haven't re-fretted before, you might want to practice on a scrap neck first.

[beach bob]

What the heck is a scrap neck???

Very cool build; hope you sort out the stumbling blocks and can pull her together! The devil is in the details ...

[voided3]

What the heck is a scrap neck???

Well, for example, I have a cheap Strat neck with a broken truss rod and cracked fingerboard from the 18th fret to the heel at my house (a friend of mine tried mounting it on a Epiphone SG body and put a screw in the middle of the neck like on the three-bolt Fenders; unfortunately, this didn't work as planned and pushed the truss rod through the fretboard....). Not really useful as a part of an instrument anymore, good for practicing fretwork and nutwork. But yes, if a neck is still usable, it's a SPARE neck and not a SCRAP neck!

[JasonRobert]

Originally Posted by tuuur

OK, I have had it stringed up for some time and it plays alright. Some things bother me a bit though:

- The more I look at the placing of that tremolo unit, the more I think I had better placed it at the back of the body. I could fill the route, make another one further back and place the unit there. Will be a heap of work, not sure if that is worth it.
Maybe it'd be worth the experience.

- Those missing bits on the bouts are not good either. I could try to glue wood on or use automotive repair stuff (with which I haven't got the slightest experience). Or I could leave it like this and use a bigger roundover bit to make a body with a wider radius; I don't know what that would look like with a thinline. Or, I could make a new body.

- The frets on the neck are _really_ worn. there are dents of maybe a mm in the first few frets. Maybe I should consider a refret. That would be the first time, of course. It's a cheap neck, but it's a '60s one... I don't think I would be messing up something irreplacable or extremely wonderful. On the other hand, the neck feels very nice... I'd hate to mess it up.

Any thoughts? What would you do?

for the missing bits I would glue a bit of wood on the back side, and use automotive filler on the front side. I have used automotive filler in the past. It is filler and hardner, and you just mix a bit of hardner with the filler and apply it to the guitar, it dries very quickly. But if you are going to do a natural finish, I would try to glue a small piece of wood to the front.

EDIT:
oh and by the way after reading this thread I went to my local B and Q shop and got a couple of those shelving boards to see how making a body out of them works out. I have glued them together and I will be cutting out a guitar from them tomorrow.

[tuuur]

Thanks for the comments!
I think I leave the frets be. I got a scrap neck from an old acoustic, maybe I try on that one first if I ever feel the urge.

I am able to sort of almost walk right now, so I have been busy a bit again.

First I rounded the edges. I'm still not ready for binding; I feel the body shape has to be as perfect tele shaped as possible, or else binding could be looking a bit awkward. As I am still not working with a template and a router, that's not the case.
Then I made a pickguard. Thinline pickguards always look to me like the horn has been amputated, so I made one with a horn.



I reshaped the horn, because of the shortage of wood there, so it might be a bit shorter than it should be.
For the same reason I had to reshape the shoulder. This is how that turned out:



Overview of the back:



I bought some stuff at the local (german) store called "Beize". I guess it is some sort of stain... in the color of mahogany. This is the back after two layers of staining:



I am really happy to be building again! :)

[tuuur]

I put the pickguard on the back, and mirrored the pic, to see how the wood and the pg would match. I vote good!



I stained the front today, 1 layer:



I'm thinking of making it a tobacco burst... would that work when you do the black with automotive rattle can lacquer?

[tuuur]

A first taste of what it will look like:

[jclark]

I wasn't sure about that color at first, but now I think it's looking really good.

[tuuur]

Assembled it again; the neck looks to be well positioned in the pocket, so I am happy with that.

But the bridge is 4.5 mm off... in the pic you can see that the bass string is barely above the fretboard. I have to reposition the bridge, and the tremolo as well... I hope the tremolo unit routing will allow some repositioning.

Furthermore I tried some beeswax as finishing method. It's not visibly different from before the waxing: dull, slightly more weathered look. Certainly no gloss.

I guess this is the moment to learn how to use a rattlecan. But the wax (though invisible) might have to come off first.

[tuuur]

Just a quick update... it' almost done.

The things that are to be done are:

- making a decal. Since it has got but one pickup I think it will be called the Teisquire.

- finishing the headstock. Problem: finish it as the body, or leave it natural? Advantage of natural: Decal can be printed and applied; disadvantage of dark finish: how to get a gold tinted decal? My gold tip pencil's ink won't hold...

- attaching the jack

And now, on to the pics!

[spankdplank]

Great thread, Tuuur. A very creative and resourceful build. How does the pickup sound and does the whammy work and stay in tune?

[tuuur]

Thanks spankdplank! The PU sounds and is old, a bit like my old Sears Silvertone. Sort of a hollow, middy, bluesy tone. The tremolo works, returns in tune, but does so with an audible clunk. I don't really use it...