I'm building a guitar modeled after a Vintage '52 Telecaster. This is the second guitar for me. Here's how it all works out.
The body is Ash and I'm ordering most of the parts from
Stewmac. The neck is coming from
Warmoth.
I found Tele noiseless pickups at a bargain price from a local shop in NY.The licks will come from me.
Finished Product
The schematics, with a
Strat neck over top for perspective.
Here's the raw wood ready to move through a planer--this is my brother Rick. It's also his planer.
The wood is 2" thick at this point. After I glue and clamp the two pieces, I'll need to plane it down to its final thickness of 1.75".
Shameless Promotion: My brother is a master craftsman. If you like the cabinet my soon-to-be-guitar is sitting on, please see
www.ricktelep.com. Or contact me.
Clamped.
After a few days, I took off the clamps and planed the wood down to its final thickness. I put the outline of the
Tele schematics over top to get an idea of how the grain will represent itself. Here's the face.
I used poster board to get the outline of the
tele. This is what I'll use to trace the shape onto the wood before cutting.
The parts came yesterday, which is awesome. I still need a neck, tuners, and pickups. Unfortunately, those are not cheap and I don't want to tackle a neck in this build.
Kudos to Becca.
A quick glance in our second room tells you that I do
not need another guitar.
The neck just arrived from
Warmoth.
This is the second neck I've purchased from them--the first is AWESOME.
This one feels great too.
I need to figure out how to put a "Charles
Telepcaster" logo on the headstock.
I'd like people to look at the guitar and think it's a vintage '52 Fender. Then, upon further inspection, see that it is not.
Once the body is cut, I'll route the pickup and neck pockets.
Then sand ferociously.
I called
Rockler and asked if I could use their
bandsaw. The guy said no I could not. Then he said I could give it to him, and for $20, he'd do it.
Bandsaw's are tough to come by in the city, so I took him up on it and... voila. He did a nice job.
The grain on this piece of ash is phenomenal. The sides look like a Whole Foods salmon steak.
Here's the neck pocket to be. I'm using a drill press with various bits to hollow it out.
Tough to make it clean
A few chisels and a hammer should fix that
Fits like a glove!!
You can see that the drill press left quite a bit to finish with the chisel. It was actually pretty fun to work on the pockets though.
They came out clean and look great.
I had to chisel, then fit, then chisel, then fit to get a snug feel for the volume/tone knobs.
Here's the guitar with the pickups and hardware fit in.
Again--notice the pickups are in their homes.
Clamped the body to the workbench. Time to smooth the edges.
This is a sweet tool.
Came out nicely, with no chip outs.
After final sanding with 180, 220, and 320.
I'm applying an oil finish to the entire body, and needed a quick way to prop the guitar up to give even drying without smudging.
Super easy to put on. It's
Tru Oil by Birchwood Casey. 
It gives the wood a very nice antique finish--which is perfect for a '52 Tele--and apparently holds up really well over time.
Love the back. Complete with a racing stripe.
Either a racing stripe or a runway.
Propped up with 4 dry wall screws after the first coat.
After 4 or 5 coats, you can see the color really come to life! I'm a bit surprised that it's turning it brown, instead of yellowish. I like it better this way!!
After a week's time, it's cured and rock hard. Check out the reflection!!!
Time to get the logo on the headstock. From what I've read, Tru-oil would not dissolve the edges of the decal sticker. So, I'm masking everything off and lacquering the face of the headstock.
I'll spray 3-5 mist coats of lacquer, place the decal on the headstock, and then finish it off with another 8-10 coats of lacquer. Then buff/gloss
Here are the printed decals, one of which will be immortalized.
Bwahahaha! Hopefully Fender doesn't take me to court.
On the third try, I laid a good decal without too many air bubbles.
Ready to be lacquered.
With 6 double coats of rattle can Behler.
Time to set. up. the. Telepcaster.
Rick and Andrew are both here to help!!
Parts etc
Bridge with pickup mounted
I had to match the pre-drilled neck holes to the body, so I clipped four nails, taped them into the neck and pressed them in.
Before pressing, I quick put together a jog that let me know the neck was properly lined up
Once the holes were pressed into the body, I wanted to double check that they matched the neck plate.
Now, let's wire this puppy.
You couldn't ask for a better solder partner. My bro Andrew has high standards for quality. Rick and I are more inclined to go fast, which is not the right approach to soldering something extra special.
I absolutely LOVE this picture. Amos, we couldn't have done it without you!!!
Cool artsy-fartsy shot of the jack all wired up and ready to go.
Slightly less artsy shot of the control plate.
Time to mount the neck. In hindsight, I would have mounted the neck and
then finished the wiring.
First reaction to the neck installed: "Blink halfway through the picture." This was a pretty sweet moment though.
Looks good!!! Is there any chance it will sound great on the first strum????
Absolutely not. Let's try to intonate.
Rick doing his best to ensure an EPIC jam session before we hit the sack.
Alas, it didn't happen. The wiring job left a loud buzz and non-amplified bridge pickup. I'm taking it this weekend to a guy that knows way more about setting up a guitar than I do.
In the mean time, this has been a really really fun project and I'm looking forward to building another guitar soon enough.
