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Franken-tele Will This Work?


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I totally effed up a tele body when i stripped it, i left in the stripper and then decided that i didnt have time to deal with it then, so let it sit over night,

fingerandcrack.jpg

well the next morning that crack appeared, darn cold front blew in, then i zapped in a box with a hairdryer on low to stop anyfurther destruction which caused some dryness cracks, oh well the closed once it sat out for a few days. Now I'm going to use it as template and use this for the body

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...p;rd=1&rd=1

I will cut that in half stack it trace the outline on to each side, mark all the areas on each side to be chambered and chamber my heart out, I will chamber each half leaving the back or top on each part then glue them together, will that work and if so does the joint need some sort of reinforcement? Ie do i need to bind the joint the whole perimeter of the guitar. I will also cut a F-hole or my version of. in the top. put the original Gibson 57 hum,. in the neck, seymour 59 in the middle, Texas Special in the bridge, run the holes for the string through approach,(or use my accidental second bridge i purchased no through body) I will use one 500k volume one 500k tone, eventually wire in a varitone on the control plate between the knobs, and use a 5 way strat switch for pickup selecting, the neck is a mighty mite birseye maple neck. of course a tortoise pickguard since i dont want to buy another, then tung oil it to finish it off, I might stain it to make it darker to go with the pickguard, i'll test that on some scrap first.

Thoughts and some comments are welcome especially on the whole body construction idea

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it's gonna look sweet. I like what you're doing with the electronics. You should be fine with the chambering stability as long as you leave the center block(where the bridge and pickups are) unchambered. If you didn't chamber it that thing would weight a ton!

Good Luck! Make sure you post picture when you finish.

Edited by Maiden69
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Ha ha. Lives and learns, as they say.

Obviously I'm not sure what the rest of the body is like, but you could fix that crack (sort of). It would be good practice at repairing too.

You could make a couple of butterfly keys and inlay them in to stop it opening up anymore. Fill the gap and start sanding. Obviuosly it's a little more complex than that, but you've got nothing to loose really. You'll need a solid finish though.

What sort of body is it? Has it got a cap on it.

Good luck anyway mate and welcome to the boards :D

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well is a WD Tele body, that needs alot of sanding to remove the rest of the paint and nicks, I love oil finishes so I will not be using this guitar anymore I guess. I will see if my buddy wants me to build him one off that body and we will paint it, or i'd be willing to sell it to someone on here (I've spent alot recovering and gettting parts for this project) Also it is just a two piece Former Sunburst WD body, no cap.

As far as routing the chambers i got a Dremel tool(http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=56055-353-565&lpage=none) thats the base for cutting but i have router bits an will rig a piece of ply across the body rest the tool on that which will keep me routing at the same height across the guitar, screw driver, and small table top belt sander, a circular saw and thats it, my chisels a few files a rasp, hand saws, and my hands,

I will need to somehow rout the pickup areas so they can be installed, so structurally i will leave two big support areas running neck to butt and leave the bridge area solid minus bridge pickup area also i will leave two supports between the pickups,

The big thing i need answered is will stacking and gluing using Titebond work, or do i need some sort of support or binding on the seam.

Help me please, if bigd reads this I will be getting one of your varitones off ebay or your store, as soon as i sell some parts

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Sorry, what exactly is the question? Is there any way to salvage that mess of a body? :D

Is it just me or in addition to the numerous other points of contention, does the neck pocket not look out of wack?

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no, no thats just the camera angle i just threw a neck in and checked it, The question im concerned about is a bodies integrity if i take two pieces and layer them like a sandwhich and glue that together will that even work, and second does the seam need some kind of reinforcement, along the whole rim of the guitar body.

Taking two pieces of wood like a two quarters and stacking them. Will it work?

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What is this POS photo service you're using? It bugs everything up...and I've got a pretty fast connection. Please reduce the sizes of your photos or, better yet, just give the links like you're supposed (or at least use thumbnails). Photobucket works great for that. I just can't stand watching my screen freeze up every time I try to look at this thread, so I just don't bother. Sorry for the rant, that's the Scotch...

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that peice of wood is only 10.5" wide and 33" long, not really enough to get two tele's onto it so you can glue them together.

As for the messed up body, if you want to save it you could cut it inhalf down the seam, re join the two halfs and glue back together. You would have to add a thin peice of wood to down the middle to replace the lost wood from sawing and joining so the neck still fit and the string-thru holes were still in the right place. Personally i would be more tempted to scrap it.

And if the neck came from WD with a chip then send it back, if its not there fault then you can probably get a little bit of rosewood glued on there and reshape it to match the current fretboard.

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ok. i am using photo bucket and this forum automatically re sizes the phots down to the size I AM VIEWING them at, and i LOVE SINGLE MALT SCOTCH, anyways according to the measurements i got going off that body that would is just fine, i talked to the guy and that cut in it will be fine it leaves the wood just thick enough to act like a routed chamber, which is what will happen anyways, so 15"x33.5" with a "precut chamber"is good by me, sorry had a few scotches tonight as well, dont mean to sound angry, also dont worry bout the neck i am gonna fill the body paint it and put that neck on there for a client

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I dont understand what you are saying about a pre-cut chamber but i guess that just the scotch, something i am guilty off sometimes as well.

On the ebay link you gave us it says 7/8x15x33.5 at the top. but it then says it s 10.5x 33.5 in the description.

If it is actually 15 wide, which i guess you checked, then you will be able to get two telecasters to fit onto that peice of wood, although it will be a tight fit. Then, from what you are saying, i guess you will cut two telecaster shaped peices of wood 7/8" thick and you plan on gluing these togther to make a body 1 3/4" thick. Thats fine and should work. If you want to route out each half of the body before you glue them together to make chambers, that will also work. So where does the pre-cut chamber come in!

It is possible to make a guitar this way but it is not going to be easy and made out of soild maple it probably wont sound great either, but thats down to preference.

It seems like you are going about this in a very difficult way.

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I still dont get it but i am sure its clear in your head.

The wood will effect the sound of an electric guitar, but we wont get into the whole debate about how much it affects it. I find maple makes a guitar that is too bright for my tastes.

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I've been measuring making templates double checking everything before i touch this wood, infact the whole house smells like sharpie, I am now trying to think of the best way to make a templat efor bridge placement and where my main cavity will be, as well as thinking of how to modify the pickguard to show off the wood and be out of the f-holes way, just an update, input is welcome

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  • 5 weeks later...

OK UPDATE, I have sanded out the interior as nice as it is going to be, i rough cut the routing areas by drilling a drill bit perimeter then using my dremel dry wall cutter to cut out the perimeter, leaving me with a rough area for the router to clean up, i got that cheap router from harbor freight, sorry if im not allow to say the store name,

while removing i got a split with the grain near neck pocket, so i glued that up, i glued the two together clamped the areas that needed clamps then rubberbanded the rest just because i only have two clamps, huge and small. once they are dry tommorow i will try to route the neck pocket :D :D

ANY TIPS?

also Any Tips on how to route my F-hole, I am new to my router and routing and these are important steps,

here it is clamped up

DSC00670.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i137/gtrmn768/DSC00671.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i137/gtrmn768/DSC00668.jpg

and the crack

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i137/gtrmn768/DSC00673.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i137/gtrmn768/DSC00677.jpg

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