1st tele build- Catalpa body-hence called "The Cat"

[gonzo]

Travis Franklin of Franklin Guitars (Ft. Worth area) put this together for me; provided custom finish and did all contours and further neck shaping.
This is my first Telecaster style guitar, and it plays like a dream.

*Catalpa body with contours: Tummy Contour, Forearm Contour, Contoured Heel (Woodtech via reverb)
*1-piece flame maple 2A- thin neck, black top markers, rolled edges, 6150 size frets, modern tuner holes, hipshot locking tuners, truss rod at headstock, gibson scale length conversion (Musikraft)
*Gotoh Modern Bridge
*Rock Rabbit control plate, master vol/tone 500k.
*Fralin tele split blade bridge, blues output.; Fralin P-92 humbucker sized p-90 in neck.
*push pull vol with series wiring on pull

 

[brookdalebill]

Gorgeous!

 

[T-bone Ted]

Absolutely beautiful! How much does she weigh?

 

[gonzo]

Absolutely beautiful! How much does she weigh?

You know, i haven't had a chance to weigh it since finish...
the body at the start, was 3.5 lbs.
it is the lightest guitar i own now.
and very vibrant, lots of acoustic energy...
it sounds GREAT unplugged! heheh

 

[gonzo]

Gorgeous!

thanks brookdalebill!
the purists prolly aren't gonna dig it, tho! LOL

 

[badscrew_projects]

Love it

 

[peteycaster]

Beautiful guitar.

 

[Rat City]

Looks great.

 

[howardlo]

Looks great. My grandmother had a couple of catalpa trees in her front yard in NE Indians,years ago. We used to have fun throwing those long seed pods. I have done a lot of woodworking but never considered using catalpa.

 

[stratisfied]

Stunner

 

[old wrench]

Woodtech sure did a nice job matching up the pieces in your body, and the finish really shows off the beautiful grain of the Catalpa

Your guitar neck has a lot of features that I like too - one-piece maple neck, Gibson scale, medium-jumbo fret wire

For the second Tele I built I used a hard-to-find one-piece Catalpa blank - Catalpa is an excellent wood for a guitar body

Catalpa works very much like "Swamp" Ash and finishes very similar too.

Most folks have a tough time telling the difference between Catalpa and Swamp Ash

.

 

[ahiddentableau]

Woodtech sure did a nice job matching up the pieces in your body, and the finish really shows off the beautiful grain of the Catalpa

Your guitar neck has a lot of features that I like too - one-piece maple neck, Gibson scale, medium-jumbo fret wire

This.

The body is matched up beautifully, and I dig the neck specs. Nice.

Enjoy your tele day.

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

Wow, I never knew catalpa was so beautiful. It looks a lot like swamp ash. Cool guitar, I bet it plays as good as it looks.

 

[old wrench]

Looks great. My grandmother had a couple of catalpa trees in her front yard in NE Indians,years ago. We used to have fun throwing those long seed pods. I have done a lot of woodworking but never considered using catalpa.

When I was a kid we used to call the Catalpa seed-pods "lady cigars" and the kids would pretend to smoke them

Catalpa is a nice wood to work with - it has many of the characteristics of good light-weight Swamp Ash - it's open-pored, but not quite as open as Swamp Ash

You can see on Gonzo's guitar how the grain has been emphasized and high-lighted, much the same way as we do with Swamp Ash.

Catalpa lumber turns up every now and then, but it's hard to find single pieces wide and thick enough for a guitar body because most of the Catalpa trees don't grow to a very large size - you're better off looking for suitable pieces for a two-piece body

There are a good number of domestic woods that make excellent guitar bodies, but we tend to under-value and under-use them - it doesn't have to be Honduran Mahogany, or Swamp Ash, or Alder to be good - lots of good alternatives, especially if you can incorporate some weight-relief into your body design

.

 

[mexicanyella]

That is a stunner!

When I first read “catalpa body” I had this image of fretboard inlays that looked like little catalpa seed pods.

Really cool grain and finish!

 

[gonzo]

Absolutely beautiful! How much does she weigh?

hi tbone!
i asked the luthier if he managed to weigh it before he shipped it,
i don't have an accurate scale at home or work...

he said it was about in the mid 6lbs range.
the body was 3.5 lbs, i think the only thing that actually adds any substantial weight, is the gotoh bridge. it's heavy.
but actually works quite well, to somewhat center the tone from the middle of the body.
that's actually how it feels to play it. the guitar itself just feels like not much of anything!

 

[gonzo]

Love it

Beautiful guitar.

Looks great.

thanks guys/girls?
heheh,
i'm finding really rich tones in this thing.

i'm playing it thru a Strymon Iridium,
so i'm trying the fender, vox and marshall flavors out.

seems to bond with the vox AC30 tones the best.
but the marshall tones just rock with the split blade.
no high treble shrills, just clarity.
i can run the treble down more on the amp, and still get all the chime i want.
it's very interesting to me,
my first tele.

 

[39martind18]

Saweet! Catalpa trees also have caterpillars, "catalpa worms," that make GREAT catfish bait.

 

[gonzo]

Looks great. My grandmother had a couple of catalpa trees in her front yard in NE Indians,years ago. We used to have fun throwing those long seed pods. I have done a lot of woodworking but never considered using catalpa.

howdy ho howardlo!

yea, i had never heard of catalpa, til i started this tele project.
i like the idea that it's sustainable wood, and north american wood!

 

[gonzo]

Stunner

thanks stratisfied.
i wanted it somewhat unique, tho i played many teles while deciding, even an old blackguard... all the new fender teles, the high end models.
i was really on the fence about the bridge (barrel vs 6 saddle) but finally decided, and i'm glad, it's an awesome bridge.

Woodtech sure did a nice job matching up the pieces in your body, and the finish really shows off the beautiful grain of the Catalpa

Your guitar neck has a lot of features that I like too - one-piece maple neck, Gibson scale, medium-jumbo fret wire

For the second Tele I built I used a hard-to-find one-piece Catalpa blank - Catalpa is an excellent wood for a guitar body

Catalpa works very much like "Swamp" Ash and finishes very similar too.

Most folks have a tough time telling the difference between Catalpa and Swamp Ash

yea, i know what you mean now!
the swamp ash tele i played, which was a warmoth build, didn't really feel or sound like this one, but was light and had a nice acoustic ring to it.
this one is really a joy to play unplugged.

the single piece maple, responds differently than my other guitars that are all maple with different fingerboards (pau ferro, ebony)

i can't begin to decide why it's different, but it does feel different.