Making A Telecaster

[thewongster]

Hey guys, i'm new here, and I think I need your help. First off, i'm really new with guitar building. That's partly why I came here. For a school project a teacher challenged us to make something big. Not in size but something not easy but challenging and I decided to make a guitar because this project is a HUGE project, plus I always wanted to have a telecaster. I would have liked not to start making a guitar from scratch because I have like no experience, but tt would be nice however. So can you tell me what I need to make a telecaster? Do any of you have any telecaster templates? Obviously, I doubt I have all the neccisary tools to make it, that's why I mgiht go to a local workshop, or maybe even visit a Luthier. Oh yah by the way you can call me Andy and i'm 15. I have about a little more then a year to complete the project (told you it was big ). Is it a lot harder to make a telecaster then a stratocaster? If its a bout the same or a tad bit harder I still REALLY want to make a telecaster. Thanks.

Peace.

-Andy

[wardd]

Andy,

First of all, welcome to the group, you will find a lot of good info and help here.

I'm a math teacher so I'm glad to see your teacher giving you a challenge project.

One thing I've been working on for the group is to develop a way to introduce new members in an effort to help them find the info they need.

Follow the link below and it will guide you to the tutorial sections etc. where you can find lots of good info.

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=22201

I think a telecaster would be a good starting project since they have a "flat" body that doesn't require carving.

And if you made it a single pickup version you wouldn't need fancy wiring.

Good Luck,

d ward

[al heeley]

Hi Andy and welcome! Wish I'd started at 15. I reckon a Tele is the best start you can make, it's pretty straghtforward as a guitar and it is a design icon. You might want to consider purchasing a neck and building the rest of it as it's your first. I'm very new here myself but I have the building bug, started with a beautiful QWarmoth 5-string bass from a kit, then onto ebay bits and pieces to put to geter a strat. I'm sure lots more experienced guys will add to your post. Good luck!

[thewongster]

Thanks soo much guys. I thought the same about that too. I havent been playing guitar for awhile, but my dream guitar has always been a telecaster. Obviously I just started, so my parents dont want me to really buy a brand new telecaster, cheap or not. But doing this as a project is great, because I actually might be able to own a telecaster in a year if this project turns out well. I live in Canada aswell, and there are not as many stores guitar related, and some of your online stores might not ship here. Where would be a place to get some wood? like would hardware stores sell guitar woods? if so ill pop into one and check? Not so sure if we have a Home Depot in Quebec, but we have alternatives. Can anyone tell me or get me a telecaster template like the stratocaster one Guitarfrenzy used? thanks sorry for all these questions.

-Andy

[Mattia]

Pretty much all online shops will ship to Canada, but you've got plenty (and I mean lots) of native wood places. Look for lumber yards in your yellow pages, heck, check eBay for various wood vendors. Lots of nice maple, cedar and spruce up there, at the very least. Finding some Alder shouldn't be the most difficult thing ever done, and a bit of rock maple, ditto.

As for templates, there are sites that sell them if you want to spend the 50 bucks or so. Or you can get a plan (I believe mimf.com sells one), photocopy it and make your templates from that. It's not hard, just a bit time consuming.

I did most of the work on a matched pair strat/tele about half a year ago, since been awaiting the finishing touches, but the pictures (no explanation for now) might help. Broswe this directory, obviously named files:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics4/

For parts, google GW Musical, might be a good place to get some stuff. Alternately, I can heartily reccomend StewMac.com (awesome customer service, decent prices), Warmoth.com (have some sharp prices on things like tuning machines, electronics, some hardware) and GuitarFetish (eBay seller, also GuitarFetish.com) for decent, low-priced hardware and pickups (although for tuning machines, I say buy Gotohs. They're cheap, they're good, nuff said).

[Muddd]

Hey Wongster,

Nice to meet you, we may be some use to eachother because I am also doing building a telecaster. Mine will be done in a month but let me try to answer some of your questions.

If you want a more subtle sound sort of more like a strat I would reccomend an alder body. If you want that really punchy classic tele sound go with swamp ash. The only problem with swamp ash is that it costs more and it is hard to cut.

If you plan on making the neck your in for a lot of work. There are many tools that you will need in order to properly make a neck from scratch. I have decided to buy the neck for my project since it will cost at lest another $200 if I wanted to make it myself.

Im guessing that you are going to be using the school wood shop for your work.

Everything that you need you can get from Stewmac's website except for a tele template which you need to get from Rons site.

http://www.guitarbuildingtemplates.com/teletemplates.htm

For me building the tele has not been cheap, I have spent quite a fortune. See if you can get your parents to pay for half.

[thewongster]

Thanks muddd. I'm pretty lucky because, I am not actually making it through a mediocre public school workshop. There is actually a public luthier workshop for making guitars not too far away, well actually more for making acoustics, but I can get a lot of help with the neck there I think. Umm, Also to cut the body out of the slab of wood, can I use a jig saw? For painting, I kind of want to make it a plain white. I read some of the tutorials already, but what would be the best idea. I think I can get an airbrush at the local luthier workshop and I also have one here. An old one. Im trying to get most of my parts locally, what type of stores should I purchase my woods fram? and my pickups and all? I have a couple of music stores, probably a little overpriced? is there other types of stores that sell equipment? like a pawn shop?

[thewongster]

Hey also, what is a recomended wood for a telecaster? I might be able to get a really good price lol. Isnt it kind of ironic that I can't find wood up here in canada

[Supernova9]

Hey also, what is a recomended wood for a telecaster? I might be able to get a really good price lol. Isnt it kind of ironic that I can't find wood up here in canada

Telecasters are usually made from alder, northern ash or swamp ash. If you're looking for parts, you can get them online at StewMac or try guitarfetish (he's a seller on ebay, with good deals on hardware/pickups etc).

And good luck! I'm just putting the finishing coats on my first guitar, which was a telecaster, it's a great project to start yourself off with - just measure 3x, cut once!

[Lostheart]

Pretty much all online shops will ship to Canada, but you've got plenty (and I mean lots) of native wood places. Look for lumber yards in your yellow pages, heck, check eBay for various wood vendors. Lots of nice maple, cedar and spruce up there, at the very least. Finding some Alder shouldn't be the most difficult thing ever done, and a bit of rock maple, ditto.

As for templates, there are sites that sell them if you want to spend the 50 bucks or so. Or you can get a plan (I believe mimf.com sells one), photocopy it and make your templates from that. It's not hard, just a bit time consuming.

I did most of the work on a matched pair strat/tele about half a year ago, since been awaiting the finishing touches, but the pictures (no explanation for now) might help. Broswe this directory, obviously named files:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics4/

For parts, google GW Musical, might be a good place to get some stuff. Alternately, I can heartily reccomend StewMac.com (awesome customer service, decent prices), Warmoth.com (have some sharp prices on things like tuning machines, electronics, some hardware) and GuitarFetish (eBay seller, also GuitarFetish.com) for decent, low-priced hardware and pickups (although for tuning machines, I say buy Gotohs. They're cheap, they're good, nuff said).

I've just been looking through the pics of the link you provided as well as valenteguitars.com and I must say that your photos are really inspiring and really want me to get something started as well!

[Mattia]

I've just been looking through the pics of the link you provided as well as valenteguitars.com and I must say that your photos are really inspiring and really want me to get something started as well!

Thanks! My work here is done.

(well, except for the fact there's actually almost nothing on my website...yet. Ahem.)

[thewongster]

What do you guys think of maple or oak or pinewoond for making a guitar?

[RGGR]

Bump!

Pine?

Use search button on this page and read-up about tonewood please.

[ihocky2]

Welcome, I am new to this myself so I can only offer the advice others have given me so far. Maple will give you a brighter sound, oak will give a nice sound but oak is fairly heavy compared to most of the other guitar woods. Pine is not a great idea since it is so soft. People have made guitars from pine before and get a pretty good sound except the wood likes to move a lot from it being so soft. I would recommend stopping in the reference and tutuorials section and reading some of the pinned topics, especially the do's and don'ts. There is a lot of information that will give you a great idea where to start and what you'll need. If you have any questions use the search function, if you have a question usually someone else has had it before and you'll gain a lot of knowledge by just reading through the past posts. I would recommend searching telecaster and I'm sure you'll get a ton of info. Good luck on your project.

[thewongster]

I am stuck yet with another problem! Does anybody know where I could get a ppicture or something that tells me the debt of the telecasters bridge cavities and neck and control cavities? Also which tools should I use to dig them up, and what tools woulld I need to make a tunnel to connect all the cavities together? Also another minor problem is what color hardware would you use for a solid white telecaster? chrome or black? Oh ya does anyone know where there is a place that sells pre made fretboards? so I can just attach it to a neck I would make?

[Supernova9]

I am stuck yet with another problem! Does anybody know where I could get a ppicture or something that tells me the debt of the telecasters bridge cavities and neck and control cavities? Also which tools should I use to dig them up, and what tools woulld I need to make a tunnel to connect all the cavities together? Also another minor problem is what color hardware would you use for a solid white telecaster? chrome or black? Oh ya does anyone know where there is a place that sells pre made fretboards? so I can just attach it to a neck I would make?

To cut the cavities, use a router + template to make it clean and consistent. To join the cavities, if you're using a one-piece body, get a long drill bit, and drill from the edge of the neck pocket straight down centre line of the guitar, connecting the neck and bridge cavities. Then, connect the bridge cavity to the control cavity using the drill bit slanted to get the angle right.

For pre-made fretboards, LMII or StewMac sell various options.

As for the colour choices, it's your decision to make, either would work. To check though, why not try Kisekae, (click the link), where you can make a mock-up of your chosen design to see what it would look like, helpful before you get started buying.

[thewongster]

Is there an alternative to having a router? because I dont have one and don't think I really want to purchase one. And what is a pot? guitarwise, not the one you cook with

[Mattia]

I wouldn't want to try building a guitar without a router. It's my one essential power tool to acutally own; you can always borrow time on a drill press for trem posts and/or tuning machine holes, as they're on-offs.

A pot is a potentiometer. The electronic doodad controlled by your volume/tone knobs.

[Muddd]

Is there an alternative to having a router? because I dont have one and don't think I really want to purchase one.

You can always use a chisel, but you don't want to do that.

[RGGR]

A router isn't such a huge investment. Try getting one like these.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/disp...temnumber=47937

I bought European version of this cheap Chinese router a couple of years ago. It has been dropped, used and abused and it still works like magic. Normally I'm not a fan of cheap tools, but this one is a real jem.

You can get your template router bits from:

http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc...rn_flush_anchor

I always use bit #6509. Works like magic.

Make your template out of 1/4"MFD, sand flush, and use template router bit (Pattern/Flush Trim Bits) to copy template to real body blank. Best to first rough cut body blank to size, so trim bit has lighter load to deal with.

[thewongster]

probably a dumb question but, what do you use a router for? I think you use it for cavities, but what else?

[tirapop]

If you had body templates, you'd use the router to trim the profile of the guitar. You'd also use a router to make the neck pocket, use a roundover bit to radius the edge of the body. Myka has a jig for using a router to rough the profile on the back side of the neck. The router can be used to put a radius on the fretboard. The router can be used to thickness tops. There aren't too many things routers don't do in making a solid body guitar.

[RGGR]

probably a dumb question but, what do you use a router for? I think you use it for cavities, but what else?

You need to start reading up in the tutorial section, and other build progress updates in the Progress area. You don't seem to have clue how to build a guitar. A good suggestion might be to buy this book

Cause guitar building without a router is like going duck hunting without a riffle!!!

(Disclaimer: Not promoting killing animals here!!!)

Edited April 26, 2006 by RGGR