Reshaping the Tele-master body

[ddhr]

Very cool ponticat. That size is what I had in mind.

Doug

 

[ponticat]

Brett, Jim, Boris & ddhr --
Many thanks for your comments on my Jazzmaster-style bass!
Ponticat

 

[boris bubbanov]

Ok.

A little surgery on the Shop Smith Mark V:

Still doesn't fit in a Strat case. :^)

 

[boris bubbanov]

The scraps add up to 5 ounces, alone. A lot of shaping followed, and there may be enough more to matter, also.

 

[Telenator]

That's a big improvement! The original body is just too long. You have made the proportions much more pleasing to the eye. Nice work.

 

[birddog01]

I was wondering if this project was done, nice work.
I agree with Telenator.

What I was gonna ask was, How does it hang or balance ?
What are you thinking on finish ?

Wally

 

[boris bubbanov]

That's a big improvement! The original body is just too long. You have made the proportions much more pleasing to the eye. Nice work.

Thank you kindly. I really had to sweat over the locale of the 90 degree jack bore. The chase is as deep in there as the boys could get it, but the chase comes right near the top of the bore when you slice the wood off. If I had my druthers, I would suggest to Tommy that they leave the bore and chase off until they know what the customer's intentions are. Or Tommy can reprogram the CNC and make them like this!!

I was wondering if this project was done, nice work.
I agree with Telenator.

What I was gonna ask was, How does it hang or balance ?
What are you thinking on finish ?

Wally

Thanks, Wally. This is a mock up, with no strap buttons; the neck ain't bolted on, and it has only a partial coat of grainfiller on it. I expect the balance to be great but I cannot lie; only time will prove this mod to be right or wrong. I am very confident, though.

 

[boris bubbanov]

Hmm, if you are going to cut it about, a thought, that whilst the sloped bottom of the jag/jazzmaster looks cool, I find that if you play seated with it between your knees (as I do) it has a nasty habit of of trying to deposit itself on the floor. I've thought that If I were to make another, I would fashion a recurve into the lower bout. I find an ergonomical guitar much more fun to play than one that wants a wrestling bout.

That's a very valid concern, thanks for mentioning that. Maybe, before returning to the finishing aspect of the body, I should assemble the guitar in a rough way and wire and string it up and give it a try. I wasn't giving a lot of deep thought to if I could make it play seated. I was thinking about all sorts of things, like finding a case for it, placing the bottom strap button askew so the guitar could balance against a wall - a million things. Part of the reason I took so long jumping on the Tele-Master bandwagon was, I was not at all certain I would really ever get used to playing this design while seated. It flat out just may never be fixable, in that regard.

Here's the amount of material that got bandsawed off. I glued the 4 biggest scraps back together:

 

[boris bubbanov]

Hi Boris, It looks to me like you will only reduce the weight about 7% at best.
The T master is about 189 sq. inches in area and a quick sketch of a modified version looks to be about 177 sq. in. more or less.
A Strat is about 165 ,a Tele about 163 ,if that is helpful.

I hope that will help in your decision process.
If you only want to reduce the size for artistic reasons ,I say have fun and enjoy your new guitar.

On the other hand ,the larger body gives more room for stickers and decals

And you're right on the money, of course.

The body actually reads 5 pounds 1 ounce in USACG pencil, or 81 ounces.

93% of 81 ounces is 75.33 ounces. Which is likely within an ounce of what the body now weighs (shall I buy a proper scale one day? maybe.)

Guys that know their math are always way ahead.

 

[Brett Faust]

Thanks for confirming my estimate,that helps me make more accurate predictions in the future.

 

[boris bubbanov]

it's a pinch under your arm kinda geetar, innit?

the control plate route is the limiting factor here, or you could pretty much do any shape you like within the bounds of the outline. Unfortunately, tightening the lower waist for proportion is out, unless you care to plug as shown in the JWells thread.

here's a marauderish end...

surface area 186.325368 to 168.397702

if nothing else, you can print it out and pencil in your own lines

In case anyone has not figured out why I could not simply adopt the sexy lines of Casual Reader's suggested shape, I had to work around the existing jack bore, which entered the body at right angles to the string path and involved a 1/4 inch or so chase from near the mouth of that bore, over to the control rout, at about a 45 degree angle. This meant I had to preserve a flat spot in that area and cut no more wood off the side of the lower rout than I did. If I'd taken off more, I'd have had to switch to a football style plate because even if I did not have an oval opening I'd have a cross section of both the bore and of the adjacent chase.

So I was stuck, unless I wanted to core the holes and do the sides of the guitar totally opaque.

So any remaining wood would have to come off the left lower bout. Not sure; probably just a little more sanding.

 

[boris bubbanov]

Looking at Ponticat and Casual Reader's gorgeous shapes, I knew I was not finished shaping yet.

How about an old german Black and Decker power planer? That works fast!
Ron Kirn would've spit out his favorite libation. That's not a good thing.
And the usual rasps, machine and hand sanding, and some more grain filler:

Picked up some scratches some way on the lower front, after I was at 280 grit; that's OK as there's more grain filling and sanding.

Uh-oh: My Behlens cans have dried up. Will I find more, since L. McFadden is sold?

 

[boris bubbanov]

If this second image is not a testament to a lot of new ash being removed. :^)

The first image shows how the jack bore binds your hands - not too much, careful!

 

[jkingma]

The body looks nice but I agree with newtwanger that the p/g needs to be bigger.

 

[tgfmike]

I think your final body contour looks very cool - way more pleasing than the original.

 

[boris bubbanov]

The body looks nice but I agree with newtwanger that the p/g needs to be bigger.

I apologize. I'm basically dead stop on the pickguard while I finalize the reshaping of the body. I can't actually decide the pickguard shape until I know what the profile of the body will be.

I think your final body contour looks very cool - way more pleasing than the original.

I am very excited. I was working like a mad idiot, planing BIG amounts of ash off in dramatic, deep passes. I dunno if I was lucky fool, or if I was guided by my mind's eye, but I finally visualized how the tummy cut and arm relief would marry together; and in this last round of reshaping probably took 3 hours where it could have taken 8, had I been cautious.

 

[boris bubbanov]

Here's a couple more images. It is a smaller hipped, more symmetrical form at this stage:

If I were to revise further, I think I'd bring in her waistline on the left side.

The other issue is, as you slim down her bottom and get her into a smaller and smaller jeans' size, then any dumpiness in the upper half of the body is further emphasized.

We tend to forget just exactly how damned perfect the Tele and the Strat are in many ways.

 

[boris bubbanov]

I took the neck pup, the pickguard and the control plate off, fastened the neck good, and installed some ferrules and strings.

In this chopped form, I can run the 2 No-caster bridge leads to the jack, solder them, install an electrosocket, a set of 11-49s and a basic setup and intonation (this Fatback VM Warmoth rosewood board neck has seen action on several Teles, and even a Squier 51) and this thing feels light-light like this.

And sounds like an Animal with the guitar plugged straight into a retubed and Blue Dogged Peavey Classic 50 2x12, EQ'd to 9 Bass, 7 Middle and 5 Treble. You can really dig in but there's not much guitar to hold unto, so far. The grain filler is kinda slippery.

 

[dennyman]

Here's a couple more images. It is a smaller hipped, more symmetrical form at this stage:

If I were to revise further, I think I'd bring in her waistline on the left side.

The other issue is, as you slim down her bottom and get her into a smaller and smaller jeans' size, then any dumpiness in the upper half of the body is further emphasized.

We tend to forget just exactly how damned perfect the Tele and the Strat are in many ways.

Hey Boris, I really like how it's shaping up. I also think you need to bring-in the top waist line some more. Then she'd be perfect!

 

[hackworth1]

Darn nice work. Very fine looking axe.