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Genbloke's Tele Project


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Ok, he's my project:

Spec-

Body

Telecaster style body.

Swamp ash with flame maple top.

Rear routing for pickups, no pickguard.

Schecter style recessed controls.

Acoustic chambering.

I originally planned to have an arm and rib contour but abandoned the idea.

electrics

SD Quarter Pounder pick ups

Active Peizo pickup.

127-2770_IMG.JPG

Body chambered, battery compartment and wiring channels routed

links

body blank

Template

jigsawed body

Genbloke

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  • 1 month later...

Hi guys,

Got some more work done on my tele project. The flame maple top has been glued on, I've routed out the rear for the controls and a hole in the side for the battery holder.

My next job is to route out for the neck/bridge pick-ups and also for the piezo transducers that will go under the bridge.

128-2812_IMG.JPG

more images:

glueing top

another view of the top

genbloke

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The battery compartment hole was dead easy. This is how I did it:

1. Route out the "back" of the hole before glueing the maple cap on (see the pic at the beginning of this thread). Then I marked on the side of the guitar where to cut the hole once the cap is glued on.

2. Drill a large hole in the side using a forstner bit.

3. Open up the hole using one of those little drum sanders and a cutting disk in a dremel.

3. Square off the hole using a large file. Job done!

genbloke

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Beef (?), cheers.

Got some more work done last couple of days.

1. Routed out for the magnetic pickups and the peizo pickups. The piezos are going to be bonded to the base of the bridge and run through a tone control/preamp. This is quite experimental so I'm not sure how this will turn out.

2. Drilled out the holes for the controls and a (blue) power on LED and made the recesses using a cove cutter in a drill. I got a bit of tearout doing this but most of it should sand out to a reasonable level.

3. Grain filled the ash with epoxy then sanded back. I applied sanding sealer to both the ash and the maple (I know maple doesn't need this but the sealer seemed to bring out the flame very well!)

128-2817_IMG.jpg

My next job is to route out the recesses for the cavity covers to sit on. I'm going to use brass plates for the covers for improved RF screening and add back a bit of strength that I lost by rear routing the neck pickup . My brother can get them nickel plated for me so they should look OK.

to finish of I'll sand back to a high gloss (hopefully this will helf to 'pop' the flame more) then the final finish will be satin lacquer. There will be no staining, I'm aiming for a natural appearance.

genbloke

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OMG!!!

I didn't know you were going to put a <wavy voice> TREMOLO on it!

Hahahahaha!!!

Anyway, a few thoughts...

1) It looks like your tremolo is going to be AWFULLY close to your bridge pkp, which, if so, will make for an awfully thin and nasal bridge sound. Did you set the tremolo in place before you marked the location for the bridge pkp? Just curious...

2) If you're going for a completely natural appearance, I would REALLY recommend the use of Tru Oil for the most irridescencent look. Tru Oil has the ability to soak in and surround all the fibers of the grain and help enhance their appearance more than regular lacquer, or shellac, or whatever.

If you use lacquer over top of Tru-Oil, just be sure to give it two weeks or better to completely dry and give it a light scratch sanding to make sure you get the proper physical adhesion between dissimilar finishes, you're counting on a physical adhesion, not a chemically-induced adhesion, so you have to give it a light sanding to get a good bond. :D

Can't wait to see it done, although I am a normally more traditional Tele-Man myself. B)

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Hey Drak,

That route near the bridge pickup is actual for the peizo pickups under the HARD TAIL bridge (although at a glance it does look like a trem cavity!)- so nothing to worry about there :D. Combining a wammy with a tele isn't my cup of tea either.

I did think about using tru-oil but the "OIL" part of the name really put me off! I've sprayed car panels in the past and the worst enemy for bad adhesion were oil or wax. I've never been a fan of using disimilar finishes together. I trust your judgement so I'll try it out on my next poject if it's going to be another natural finish guitar B)

genbloke

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Latest update:

most of the guitar is put together, just a couple of pots (on the piezo side of the guitar) and the output jack to wire up, then the cavity covers and the control knobs to install. I'll have to increase the resistor on the power indicator LED 'coz it is currently WAY too bright!

I accidently drill through to the face when installing the neck pickup, aaaggghhh! It's not too bad but I know it's there :D . But overall I'm quite pleased on how it's turning out.

128-2829_IMG.jpg

genbloke

ps sorry for the low quality photos, the hosting site won't less images greater than 120kb in size.

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very cool man :D I realy like the power indicator LED I may try that on one of my guitar's

!!METAL MATT!!

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