Tele prototype 3 template question

[gregkwallace]

Is there such thing as a prototype 3 template standard?
I want to make a prototype 3 with the short hotdog route with the 51 p bass plate.

From what I can tell from photos and doing Photoshop overlays, the route has nothing in common to the standard hotdog route.

Just wing it?

 

[Steve Holt]

Yeah, if I couldn't find anything online I'd use the plate to try to make a template. Trace the plate onto mdf, and then draw a cavity under that that's big enough to house your components and small enough not to emerge out from under the plate. Then it'll look nice on the final guitar, and you can test fit your plate with your pots etc attached and make sure they'll have no issues fitting.

 

[Silverface]

Is there such thing as a prototype 3 template standard?

Could you post a picture of what you are referring to? I've never heard of a "prototype 3" nor a "hotdog route", and I've been building/modding finishing since 1971.

Are you building a guitar...or a bass?

 

[Peegoo]

Why bother with the hotdog rout? You can get a 1/4" aircraft drill that will reach from the neck pocket to the control rout.

 

[peterg]

I think the OP is referring to the control cavity. The first and second prototypes only had volume and tone controls - no switch - so the cavity was shorter.

Below are photos of the second prototype from the book Fender: the golden age 1946-1970. I’ve never heard of a third prototype but Fender and others make models with volume and tone controls mounted in an early p bass plate in the regular Tele location.

 

[peterg]

More on the elusive third prototype…,

Picture of the third Tele prototype

My wife and I went to the Experience Music Project the other day and checked out the cool stuff they had. They had what they said was the third Tele prototype and my wife snapped a picture of it through the glass. I'm not so certain the bridge is orginal. The other prototypes that I've seen...

www.tdpri.com

 

[gregkwallace]

Could you post a picture of what you are referring to? I've never heard of a "prototype 3" nor a "hotdog route", and I've been building/modding finishing since 1971.

Are you building a guitar...or a bass?

 

[gregkwallace]

Yeah, if I couldn't find anything online I'd use the plate to try to make a template. Trace the plate onto mdf, and then draw a cavity under that that's big enough to house your components and small enough not to emerge out from under the plate. Then it'll look nice on the final guitar, and you can test fit your plate with your pots etc attached and make sure they'll have no issues fitting.

I'm over thinking it. Any pickguard that has to match the control route would have to be custom made anyhow. I wanted to know if there were exact templates people use if I were to sell it unfinished.

 

[gregkwallace]

Why bother with the hotdog rout? You can get a 1/4" aircraft drill that will reach from the neck pocket to the control rout.

I was reffering to the control route shaped like a hotdog

 

[gregkwallace]

I think the OP is referring to the control cavity. The first and second prototypes only had volume and tone controls - no switch - so the cavity was shorter.

Below are photos of the second prototype from the book Fender: the golden age 1946-1970. I’ve never heard of a third prototype but Fender and others make models with volume and tone controls mounted in an early p bass plate in the regular Tele location. View attachment 998963

Nailed it. The third prototype has the same route as 2, but closer to the now standard position. I may be wrong in calling the 3rd prototype, but google doesn't think so

 

[guitarbuilder]

Interesting video....kind of related.

 

[David Barnett]

BTW the '51 P Bass control plate on Prototype #2 is a replacement, the guitar originally had a football-shaped plate. I don't think the '51 P Bass plate existed as a part until Fender started making Precision Basses.

 

[gregkwallace]

BTW the '51 P Bass control plate on Prototype #2 is a replacement, the guitar originally had a football-shaped plate. I don't think the '51 P Bass plate existed as a part until Fender started making Precision Basses.

Great info. Is there a picture of the football plate somewhere? Maybe it's not as ugly in that position

 

[gregkwallace]

Interesting video....kind of related.

Great video. Did you cringe as bad a I did when he drug it across the case?!

 

[Silverface]

Are you looking for this?

early Fender control plate copy

The Experience Music Project has assigned numbers? I find that curious considering the number of similar experimental guitars Leo & his small crew made during that time period.

I think I saw 4 or 5 switched in and out at the Fullerton Museum Center's Leo Fender exhibit - they rotated quite a few guitars, lap steels, amps and all sorts of documents during the time I was either visiting or playing at Fender party gigs there. I'm guessing the "project" numbered them just to keep track of what they had.

It's kinda funny that in my 55-some years of playing, inspecting, repairing, authenticating and building Tele-style guitars I'd never heard he term "hot dog rout" until yesterday

 

[peterg]

View attachment 999256

Nope. Not a third prototype. It’s the second prototype photoshopped to show the control plate in the different position. Compare the wood grain and wear marks to each other.

 

[gregkwallace]

Nope. Not a third prototype. It’s the second prototype photoshopped to show the control plate in the different position. Compare the wood grain and wear marks to each other.
View attachment 999301

How did I miss that!

 

[gregkwallace]

Nope. Not a third prototype. It’s the second prototype photoshopped to show the control plate in the different position. Compare the wood grain and wear marks to each other.
View attachment 999301

Billy Gibbons guitar

 

[nnieman]

When I made one I used the regular control route - but made it shorter.
The pickguard has to be custom cut to fit the plate anyway.
I looked but I can’t find any pictures of my build (it was on an old laptop that died).

Nathan

 

[peterg]

View attachment 999334
Billy Gibbons guitar

He came to mind when I read this thread. He has a few of teles in the same style. Most are built by John Bolin.

Bolin Guitars: Hand-Crafted Guitars, Bass, Boise, ID

For 25 years, John Bolin and his staff at Bolin Guitars have made some of the most remarkable guitars and basses in rock history for clients such as Steve

bolinguitars.com