Flamed Walnut/cherrywood Thinline Tele-ish.

[Moodivarius]

We started this back in the end of May.

My youngest son wanted a Jazzmaster, but loves the Tele body. So he came up with a Frankin-Tele-Jazz.
We used an online design, website, then I cloned some other hardware to make it look like it should.

Thinline Tele body, Jazzmaster trem, & bridge pickup, Filtertron neck pickup.

I posted a few pics on “What’s on Your Workbench”, but thought I might as well make a complete post of the build.


The body was cut out of 3-piece cherrywood.

My dad gave me some walnut, & on board had some flame figuring in it. We sawed it to make a book match top.

Glued it together.

Scott

 

[Moodivarius]

We then cut a flamed maple F-hole.
Made it 0.080 larger than the actual F-hole.

Then cut the F-hole out of the guitar top.

Glued in the flamed maple insert, into the walnut top, with CA glue.

Then routed out the F-hole to the proper size, removing the middle, & leaving a flamed maple binding.

The top was routed 0.080 smaller all the way around, to create a binding channel.

A bit of naphtha to enhance the flamed grain.

Fits perfect on the cherry body.

I had some spare hardware to set on, & see how it would look.
This one will be getting gold hardware though.


Scott

 

[Freeman Keller]

I like the f-hole binding trick

 

[Moodivarius]

Next, he had a roasted flamed maple neck blank, so tried routing that out on the CNC, with new spindle router.
First neck on the CNC.

Wenge fingerboard.

Scott

 

[Moodivarius]

I like the f-hole binding trick

Made it soooooo simple.

 

[Moodivarius]

Today we glued the top to the body, & installed the flamed maple binding.

Binding wanted to splinter, so had to moisten to work it around the iron.

Test fit, then CA glue & accelerator.

After sanding flush.

Some naphtha to make the grain “pop”.

Turned out pretty good.


Scott

 

[RobRiggs]

Beautiful. You sir, are a craftsman.

 

[RickyRicardo]

Awesome! Nice job!

 

[1bad914]

Very nice work. Great out of the box thinking on the f-hole binding!

 

[Jim_in_PA]

Spectacular instrument!

 

[Moodivarius]

A bit more work this evening.

Routed the neck pocket with a 1deg angle.

Fit the neck, drilled the holes to mount the neck with the neck plate & screws. Mounted neck.

Set in pickups & trem. The neck will get a gold Filtertron.

Drill pot holes, switch slot, and fingerboard next.


Scott

 

[Pullshocks]

That F hole binding is really eye-catching. Nice.

 

[stratisfied]

That is a work of art.

 

[Moodivarius]

Cut the wenge fingerboard on the CNC this evening.

Taped on the binding to have a look.

Scott

 

[Cali Dude]

Wow! That is some amazing workmanship. It's turning out to be a beautiful guitar. Congrats.

 

[Moodivarius]

Some hardware showed up, so mocked it up to have a look.

The Gretsch neck pickup had a wider bottom plate than the cover, so had to trim it to fit in the routed cavity.

Coming along nice.



Scott

 

[Moodivarius]

Had some time this afternoon to make & install the brass marker dots on the wedge fingerboard. Also glued the fingerboard on the neck.

I cut small dowels from the leftover fingerboard stock on CNC, tapped them into the centre of the brass pipe, glued with CA, & cut off about 1/8” long. Then glued the into the fingerboard, trying to keep the grain going the same direction.

Most worked good, but 1st fret, slightly skewed.

All, in all, turned out pretty nice.

Binding the fingerboard next.


Scott

 

[Jim_in_PA]

THAT is a very sharp look!

Here's your "skill building" assignment for using the brass pipe next time...cut the circular recess to fit the tubing without having to infill it separately. (perfect grain match inside the ring since it's contiguous with the fretboard) You'll just need tooling that is a proverbial hair wider than the wall thickness of the tubing. And a lot of shallow passes. LOL

 

[Maricopa]

Great idea on the dots! Beautiful work.

 

[Moodivarius]

THAT is a very sharp look!

Here's your "skill building" assignment for using the brass pipe next time...cut the circular recess to fit the tubing without having to infill it separately. (perfect grain match inside the ring since it's contiguous with the fretboard) You'll just need tooling that is a proverbial hair wider than the wall thickness of the tubing. And a lot of shallow passes. LOL

Maybe my 0.023 fret bit.


Scott