Filthy McNasty Posted July 19, 2020 Report Share Posted July 19, 2020 After my first attempt to build acoustic and electric guitar way back in 2006. (at my friends shop who actually taught me how to do it) , https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipNoa2iRUleogrUm-WF_Bvi9AmY0T0q7U-5VLWbO https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipPFgk7uvgQopoyrDvtFh_Jsfd6hxBhzspeyPw4Y https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMtLkRZBVo2kiV4HJ9mWbR7YPWFB3tbez7BN49I https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipNyGs2Vm7bDfCrpcNVN5JpywB_lvAaCwYi_nanJ I finally moved to a house where I set up a small shop with some basic tools, so this build is quite challenging as I am using only router as far as power tools, everything else is pretty much hand made. Telecaster was not full build as I used original Fender neck (only headstock is shaped by me). I am not investing too much money is this build as it is kind of trial to see how it is gonna turn out, if ok I might upgrade pickups, tuning pegs etc....... wood is also some scrap stuff , body made of oak table top (picked at garage sale for free), top is left over maple, still trying to figure out what to use for neck and fingerboard , I have some really hard/heavy wood that I do not know what it is (piece that came from some old piano). The only downside so far is guitar is quite heavy (oak body) even though it is hollow , lower bout is 13-3/4" (350mm) , upper 10" (250mm) Anyways, all suggestions are welcome , ......... I am still learning ........... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filthy McNasty Posted July 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2020 (edited) So this is template, in the meantime I made some updates ..... Rough cut from oak table top Edited July 19, 2020 by Filthy McNasty 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filthy McNasty Posted July 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2020 Question for moderators, how do I post photos here , thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filthy McNasty Posted July 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2020 Then rough cut inside, could be cleaner but didn`t want to spend too much time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filthy McNasty Posted July 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2020 This was real pain the in the ass, rip cut 1" thick maple board with hand saw for the top Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filthy McNasty Posted July 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2020 (edited) I took a looong time to do it, messy at the end so it required lots of leveling/sending to get to approx 10mm thickness .... Edited July 19, 2020 by Filthy McNasty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filthy McNasty Posted July 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2020 I used table placemat for holes 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filthy McNasty Posted July 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2020 Top glued, after some router job and sending and carving ....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filthy McNasty Posted July 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2020 Still working on tailpiece ........ and cover plate, might keep one made of PL record, also considering brass one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted July 19, 2020 Report Share Posted July 19, 2020 1 hour ago, Filthy McNasty said: Question for moderators, how do I post photos here , thanks I presume this is solved? She is a narrow waisted thing isn't she? I love the carves, and the F-holes. I'll be watching this one. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filthy McNasty Posted July 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2020 (edited) 16 minutes ago, ScottR said: I presume this is solved? She is a narrow waisted thing isn't she? I love the carves, and the F-holes. I'll be watching this one. SR Very narrow waist, only around 150mm , transition (intentionally) from lower to upper bout not curve shape as you can see on the template (dimensions in mm) . Around 440mm long Edited July 19, 2020 by Filthy McNasty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filthy McNasty Posted July 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2020 Any suggestion how to cut neck using only router without any template. It is gonna be 24.75 scale, 1-11/16" (43mm) nut , end at 22nd fret around 2.2" (~56mm). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted July 20, 2020 Report Share Posted July 20, 2020 gotta admit... had my doubts when I saw you cuttiin' wood from mom's table... but the proof is in the puddin' and love the curves and the carves. nice work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted July 20, 2020 Report Share Posted July 20, 2020 Nice curves on the top, the silhouette is also very sexy! For some reason I started thinking about women's clothing from the 40's-50's era... Regarding the neck... A router is a pretty versatile tool as you can use it for thicknessing, leveling and shaping. Templates aren't necessary, a lot can be done with fences and rails. For inspiration this is my favourite video of using the minimal tool set for building guitars: https://youtu.be/51VDJt-Qm5Q Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusader Posted July 20, 2020 Report Share Posted July 20, 2020 11 hours ago, Filthy McNasty said: Very narrow waist, only around 150mm Very sexy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayT Posted July 23, 2020 Report Share Posted July 23, 2020 Ooo...this thing is looking very nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted July 25, 2020 Report Share Posted July 25, 2020 I'm still speechless at the hand saw rip cut! Those carve curves are gorgeous Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted July 30, 2020 Report Share Posted July 30, 2020 Very nicely done! I'm trying to score myself a nice cherry top table for a build Looking great, will follow to see how it ends! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filthy McNasty Posted August 17, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2020 Thanks guys for all your comments .......... after nearly 2 weeks being sick in the middle of summer (hate that), I am back to the shop, new challenge - building neck. So I checked my garage sale/scrap solid wood leftovers trying to find some nice wood for the neck, I believe is this black walnut , part of some table I guess. For fretboard I found some old piano piece which I am not sure what kind of wood it is, quite hard. Since I do not have band saw, I made a jig for cutting scarf joint with mitre saw, 15-ish angle. It required some leveling/sanding later on but it worked pretty well. Similar idea for fretboard jig, I wasn`t sure if this is gonna work since the cut is much longer so the width was a bit too much around 11-12mm (later on it took lots of leveling/sanding to get it to right thickness of around 7mm). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filthy McNasty Posted August 17, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2020 Cutting fret slots was a real pain the ass. I do not have a proper (Japanese) saw , I accidentally found this one (picked at some garage sale recently) among many saws in the box, that have right thickness of approx. 0.023". So, after making first cut with a razor knife, I had to be extremely careful and stay on the line since this saw blade is very flexible in both directions. Painful part was applying pressure with my left hand holding this small piece of wood at the center of the fretboard (due to vertical blade bending) while doing only pull strokes at the same time. Push/pull strokes were out of question for two reasons, due to blade flexibility I might accidentally ruin the slot, the other problem was slot width, I tried on a scrap piece of wood before cutting the fretboard and with push/pull strokes the slot was too wide. At the end everything was ok, it took several hours to complete the job, and both hands in quite a bit of pain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted August 17, 2020 Report Share Posted August 17, 2020 You've come up with several clever solutions to problems here. I'm looking forward to seeing this completed. Take your time though. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filthy McNasty Posted August 17, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2020 Truss rod in place, covered with thin piece of wood. Rough shape of the headstock. I decided to make a neck template as I was afraid of attempting router/rail technique. Added some 2mm on original 43mm nut width later for adjustments if necessary. After some routing ........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filthy McNasty Posted August 17, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2020 Back pocket and cover done. Previous attempt of making tailpiece wasn`t successful, too narrow, couldn`t fit string holes. This time instead of maple I used walnut. Since I do not have binding router bit , I got an idea to something around the edge so this was an experiment with 2.5mm wholes (hand drilled) that were filled with some wood filler. Applied same idea to the body. Never done it before so it was a bit scary not to make any mistake as it would ruing the top. This was quite messy and also tedious job as I had to fill the wholes several times, not easy to push filler in such small holes all the way. So after first application, I had to wait a bit for filler to harden, than clean it with chisel, and apply filler again, maybe 3-4 rounds total. Final clean up and sanding. Looks pretty cool, will see how it looks like after applying final finish. Found some really interesting aluminum sheet for cover plate .... rough shape 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filthy McNasty Posted August 17, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2020 Fretboard glued, lots of sanding to get 12" radius. Fake binding using masking tape .... this was also experiment mixing some black walnut gel stain and some kids water based dark red/burgundy color. Now I have to figure out what kind of fretboard inlay to do. Never done any hand inlay carving before so I am a bit concerned ........ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted August 17, 2020 Report Share Posted August 17, 2020 That thing is going to end up looking like hand tooled leather. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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