2022 chambered Tele Brotherhood build

[ghostchord]

What have we got so far:

A chambered body I made from my found SPF and a flame maple top.
A nice figured/birdseye maple neck blank.
Salvage hardwood flooring for a fretboard (supposedly bullet wood, same I've been using in my other builds).

The body is based on but isn't exactly the traditional shape. Fairly close.

This should be a "sister" guitar to the maple top Strat that was my last project. Same colours.

I have some parts but not everything.

My first step is probably turning that piece of hardwood flooring into a fretboard blank, then radius, then fret it.

 

[Steve Holt]

Looking great so far! Can't wait to see more!

 

[ghostchord]

I've managed to not start work on this one very successfully ... but alas some progress is being made. I've ordered the rest of the parts needed for the guitar, pickups (went with Fender Tex-Mex 'cause the price was right and I guess should get some sort of Tele tones), tuners, truss rod. I think that's pretty much all the parts between what I got and what I've ordered, I'm sure as usual I'll find something I forgot down the road.

I decided to finally learn a little bit more about 3d printing and have printed some routing templates. I'm actually pretty happy with how easy this is and the resulting part looks really good:

There's a fairly limited printing area but you can make it work. These are the control cavity and the pickup/neck pocket routes. I might make a matching neck routing template or I might just wing it on the neck as usual.

 

[erix]

That’s cool, making templates from 3D prints. I have to do a pair of thin line f-holes soon…..

 

[ghostchord]

voila:

No neck pocket yet. My follower bit is too long to route this over a 5mm thick template.
It's nice that I put in wiring channels under the maple top...

Also I already realized I need to buy more "stuff". fret wire and input jack.

 

[crazydave911]

Nice start

 

[TN Tele]

I am very impressed with the idea of 3d printing your own guitar templates. Over the years I have spent so much money on acrylic and mdf templates that now hang unused on my workshop wall. Going forward I think that the garage luthier investing in a small cnc machine and training will supersede the need for most templates. CNC technology continues to get cheeper, faster and more accurate, and is here to stay.

As for your build I like it very much. Beautiful wood. I will look forwards to your updates and photos.

 

[ghostchord]

I think someone in the forum once said that until you've put your truss rod in you haven't really got a neck:

I managed to drill a fairly decent access hole in the heel vs. my previous total botch. Some hand routing imperfections there can be a secret between us once they're under the fretboard.

this stuff I used to dread seems pretty easy now... I'm sure transitions and fretwork are still gonna be my bane.

Also ordered fret wire and an input jack ... now what else am I forgetting?

 

[ghostchord]

Neck pocket routed:

And cut a belly carve with my Shinto rasp and orbital sander, yeah I know it's a Telecaster but hey:

 

[BB]

Very, very cool!! I love a chambered tele. Great work.

My avatar tele is a most wonderful 21 year old, chambered Mahogany body (and KILLER neck) from USACG when Tommy was going strong. Absolutely the best tele (for my needs) ever.

 

[ghostchord]

A little more work on this one, I dyed the top with the first darker layer:

Sanded back and masked off the edge so I can clear coat the rest of the guitar body:

That should protect the rest of the wood when I come back and dye the top and sides of the maple. The sharp eyed will notice I rounded up the pocket the more "modern" way and I'm going to go with a matching plate rather than ferrules on this one.

I feel like the only way I'm ever going to be able to do a good job sanding the sides is if I buy all the grits for the ROSS and use the belts and spindles. Otherwise this combination of the orbital sander and sanding by hand never seems to yield perfect results especially given how soft this wood is. But I gave it a try at least.

More work on the neck:

I established the top surface/thickness of the headstock by plunging the router in. I'm going to use the entire thickness of my blank so I get a slightly lower headstock for a better break angle on the strings, it's just a little lower than it'd normally be. On the back side of the neck I similarly established the heel's surface and some first approximation of the taper by plunging from the other side. Then I did a first pass at rough cutting it on the bandsaw.

The fretboard was thicknessed using the router and it's approximately the correct thickness and size now. Next step is probably cutting slots, then radius, then inserting frets. I'm gonna go again with the full assembly of the fretboard before glue-up for better or worse.

 

[ghostchord]

And more work on that top, I did get a little bit of leakage from my maple edge and I'll have another go at cleaning that up later down the road:

I did a darker ring around the back and on the "binding", then went with red around that.

Then I filled and blended with yellow/orange:

I'm fairly happy with the result. The clearcoat should pop it up a little more.

 

[ghostchord]

With some poly on top, now to wait 2 weeks before I can try and polish it:

I did clean up some of the "binding" line but it's not perfect (this photo shows the better side )...

Gotta work on the neck now.

 

[ghostchord]

Working on the fretboard:

Next is radius, then clean up the slots a little, then frets...

 

[Peegoo]

Looking good!

 

[TN Tele]

Love a nice burst! It's coming along nicely.

 

[ghostchord]

Some elbow grease later radiusing almost done:

There is one slot in there that decided to go a little sideways (at the 9th fret). The slots aren't full depth yet so I should still be able to correct that. Not like my ear would likely notice the intonation impact but it's off enough that the eye picks it up...

 

[ghostchord]

Started fretting:

Also the back of the guitar also got some more poly:

I really like how the body turned out. Hopefully polishing this will go well.

 

[erix]

That sunburst looks great! Did you use alcohol dyes?

 

[ghostchord]

That sunburst looks great! Did you use alcohol dyes?

I used Keda dyes. They can be dissolved in either alcohol or water, in my case it was sort of a mix, the base layer was water IIRC, then the other colors were with some alcohol (maybe 60%?). Not sure it makes a huge difference. YMMV. I diluted with alcohol mostly to reduce the water I get into the wood. I think it has some impact on how well the dyes can "move" in the wood as well when blending but not an expert.