Sapele / Maple Thinline Build

I picked up this piece of quarter sawn sapele a couple months ago with the intention of building a tele. I prepped the body blank about a month ago.

 

Use the router to joint the body halves.







Cleaned up the faces a bit.



Glued up.

 

Thinned to 1.5". Gonna have a 1/4" maple cap.



This side has nicer grain so this will be the back.



Cut out and sanded to the line on the new second hand ROSS.

 

Crap, I can't find the glue line anywhere



This end was no help either. Managed to see a bit of it on the front of the body and marked the centerline.



Screwed the template down and routed. Took it real easy with the routing to avoid tearout. Made several light passes.

 

Thanks Mark. I was really careful this time with the jointing. I made sure the seam was light tight along the entire length before gluing.

Looks like it's just over 6 lbs 4 oz. It'll lose a substantial amount after chambering though. Then gain a little with the maple top.

 

I think I'll use the leftover maple from my previous build. The small piece is neck size and the other one should be big enough for a bookmatched top. This board ended up having really good figure so I think it will work alright for this build as well.

 

Thanks Steve, they have a bunch at Windsor Plywood and the price is pretty good. I'm thinking I should probably pick up some more. I've been reading lots of LP threads lately.

Thanks Chris, I hope so! I learned so much from the previous build that I'm going to roll into this one, such as how to properly joint a 2 piece body.

 

Hey thanks Mike, I had never heard of sapele until Herb's Elpee thread. I guess it's a type of mahogany. Smells like mahogany when I cut it.

 

According to this they're in the same family:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapele

I agree, it really is nice wood regardless of the name. I can see myself building quite a few guitars with it.

 

I made this chambering template earlier (I love the ROSS).



Lines marked and started hogging.





It already feels quite a bit lighter. It'll be interesting to see how much weight it loses after the chambers are done.

I'm going to leave the back around 1/4 inch thick. I'm drilling to about 1.1" with the forstener not including the tip. Should have a nice clean bottom to the chambers after routing.