How common was it to shave down tele bodies and why?

[dsutton24]

It sounds like an Afinity body to me.

 

[Deeve]

I don't think anyone was doubting it had been shaved. Likely one of those caffeine-fueled Saturday morning projects that was not well thought out. These things happen, but it doesn't make it common. We were mostly commenting on its "provenance" and off the cuff esplanation. I too have heard of shaving necks, but not shaving bodies. Although manscaping is becoming more popular.

I was thinking along the same line - did it have a Brazilian 'board?
Sheesh

 

[Fiesta Red]

I’ve been playing since 1989.

I’m super curious about all the mods people do—good or bad—to their instruments, whether vintage, old, new or in-between, so I always ask questions and read/listen to any- and every-thing players have to say about the weird things we do to our guitars.

Taking a Telecaster and planing (belly cut, forearm) contours like a Strat?
Yeah, I’ve seen that one.

Shaving down a big neck?
I’ve seen that too.

Cutting a big 70’s Fender Strat headstock into a smaller or different shape?
My old band mate Rollo Smith turned a 70’s Stratocaster headstock into a small Telecaster headstock to put on his mutt partscaster Strat…so yeah, I’ve even seen that.

Routing out for humbuckers or P-90’s or even for weight relief?
Yep…seen that quite a bit.

I’ve even seen pictures of strange people that drilled out the back of a guitar with a hole saw a dozen times (to cut down on weight, I assume).

There was that one weirdo that hole-sawed all the way through the body and made his guitar look like Swiss cheese…

But in all that time, with all the weird and wacky and wild and sometimes downright stupid stuff I’ve seen people do, I have *never* ever ever (ever) heard of (much less seen) someone shaving a body down.

This sounds like a load of crap to me.

 

[Deeve]

I’ve been playing since 1989.

I’m super curious about all the mods people do—good or bad—to their instruments, whether vintage, old, new or in-between, so I always ask questions and read/listen to any- and every-thing players have to say about the weird things we do to our guitars.

Taking a Telecaster and planing (belly cut, forearm) contours like a Strat?
Yeah, I’ve seen that one.

Shaving down a big neck?
I’ve seen that too.

Cutting a big 70’s Fender Strat headstock into a smaller or different shape?
My old band mate Rollo Smith turned a 70’s Stratocaster headstock into a small Telecaster headstock to put on his mutt partscaster Strat…so yeah, I’ve even seen that.

Routing out for humbuckers or P-90’s or even for weight relief?
Yep…seen that quite a bit.

I’ve even seen pictures of strange people that drilled out the back of a guitar with a hole saw a dozen times (to cut down on weight, I assume).

There was that one weirdo that hole-sawed all the way through the body and made his guitar look like Swiss cheese…

But in all that time, with all the weird and wacky and wild and sometimes downright stupid stuff I’ve seen people do, I have *never* ever ever (ever) heard of (much less seen) someone shaving a body down.

This sounds like a load of crap to me.

I'm with you all the way, mate
But remember those ghastly images of the SG converted to "headless"?
Who could have imagined that?

<will scour for an example>

 

[Flyboy]

Not to be dork but if you shave the back the neck screws would have to be shortened and thus weaker connection neck to body, easily changing the sustain and overall strength. Top seems not any harder to achieve, you for sure had to take the guitar apart either side front or back shave.

I've seen a lot off old teles with the saddles standing on full extension on saddle screw feet and, this is important I always notice this on the real thing, I never see anyone talk about. The saddle are screwed way back toward the back of the ashtray the spring is mashed no space in the spring to see, in other wards the pickup is farther forward from where the intonation is set. The pickup is like 1/4 in farther forward from the saddle location. I always see this on original teles you can see the fake right away because of this fact. Ok hurl the nasty insults for saying this.

The bridge, saddles, and string height are the first things I look at on a guitar and, particularly, a bass, once the drooling session has subsided. In the attached examples, you can see the bridge grub screws are almost all the way out, indicating that the bridge is bottomed out in an attempt to acquire a low, or even acceptable, action. This is not peculiar to Rick basses of a certain era, but rather across the whole gamut. These to basses, a mapleglo V63, and a Fireglo 4003S, are twenty years apart!

 

[RLangham98]

It sounds like an Afinity body to me.

Not remotely. It was butchered and I’m not going to claim it was definitely a real 60’s body but it was old, heavy and (compared to an Affinity) high quality wood, maple I think. I feel like it was an opaque color originally, because the wood has some unevenness in color, but beautiful wood overall. And I would absolutely be able to tell the difference.

And I’ve handled Affinities from a range of manufacture times. They may be slightly thinner but they seem to deepen the neck pocket to compensate.

 

[msalama]

maple I think

Fender never mass-produced bodies out of maple, AFAIK, or at least, not Teles.

 

[jvin248]

Fender never mass-produced bodies out of maple, AFAIK, or at least, not Teles.

Alder can kinda look like maple, to the unwary.

Alder is used in many Squier Affinity Teles... At 1.5 inch thick instead of 1.75 inch of MIA models. They look planed on the top. Don't quite fit a MIA three way switch.

There have been stories of buyers parting vintage guitars into separate guitars with random other modern parts and trying to pass them off as original or near original except for some wacky mod. Stories tell that is profitable in favorable markets. Those guitars go through several hands and traceability vanishes.

.

 

[telemnemonics]

There's a lot of that chat been going about for decades, after Chris Squire took his famous RM1999 Rick bass to a London shop to get the wallpaper he'd plastered it with taken off. The luthier guy shaved off a few mm in the process, and applied a lacquer. The lighter body now supposedly, along with the lacquer, affected the tone.

'His tech applied a cream lacquer finish to the bass, which now weighed a bit less than a regular Rickenbacker: this was a factor in its sound, said Squire, although it’s unknown if this was ever professionally assessed. His signature 4001CS bass, when it was launched in 1991, didn’t sound exactly like the original, though, so maybe he was onto something.' - Guitarworld, 2022.

Similarly Mike Campbell is certain the gunk on his fingerboard is responsible for his nasty distortion.

 

[telemnemonics]

Actually read what I posted. No bogus claim was being made by the guitar store. The top was visibly shaved down, I mentioned it first and the employee realized I was right after I pointed out the bridge and the fingerboard relief.

And it’s not like I was about to be “fooled” into buying it, it’s about $1k out of my price range.

On the internet, we all have some fun and may even play rough.
Even if it’s your thread, it’s really not about you.
We love to rave and shake our fists even if no kittens were harmed.

 

[skunqesh]

"Shaved" = I hit it with a belt floor sander using 40 grit, and would have removed 4mm but the dust was hard to breath.

editted for snark

 

[Les Paul lover]

The only teles I've heard of being shaved where the hairy ones.
I suspect whoever did it liked it clean and smooth.

 

[The Craven]

I planned down a heavy ash body Harley Benton T style about 3/16" and routed cavities under the pg. It lost about 1.3 lbs- Now it's easy on the shoulder and no neck dive even with the big fat warmoth boatneck (carved to a pronounced and comfortable "V")

 

[JAB62]

I'll admit that I've thought about planing down the back of my parts caster to lighten it up. Might still. It's heavy ash.

 

[MrBassmans]

after additional research (a couple cans of Voodoo Ranger IPA) I discovered the modifications were actually the work of famous Nashville Luthier, Tom Fuulery …

Yes, Tom Fuulery also worked on this bassman:

 

[RLangham98]

I'll admit that I've thought about planing down the back of my parts caster to lighten it up. Might still. It's heavy ash.

Do the front if anything, someone raised a good point earlier, which is that planing the back would require shorter neck joint screws (and also, I note, weaken the pocket.)

 

[whiskeyjack59]

That'll be a new thing now. Shaved body, lighter weight and more resonant. Don't laugh, we had posts about freezing bodies and putting them in an oven, shaving sounds almost reasonable.

This might not translate well to uninitiated children of the guitar who visit here. 'Shaved body', 'lighter weight', 'freezing bodies and putting them in an oven', 'shaving almost sounds reasonable'. Yikes! Nightmares!

 

[Musekatcher]

Not remotely. It was butchered and I’m not going to claim it was definitely a real 60’s body but it was old, heavy and (compared to an Affinity) high quality wood, maple I think. I feel like it was an opaque color originally, because the wood has some unevenness in color, but beautiful wood overall. And I would absolutely be able to tell the difference.

And I’ve handled Affinities from a range of manufacture times. They may be slightly thinner but they seem to deepen the neck pocket to compensate.

My Affinity body is heavier then my MIM body. Its thinner, but denser still.

 

[aadvark]

the rich, kinda tightwound dude who bought this store a while ago was breathing down my neck for part of this story lol

lol I hear ya

 

[RLangham98]

lol I hear ya

Not a bad dude though, we have mutual friends vaguely.