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Burl Maple Tele


WezV

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just started this, shouldnt take too long to get done

body1.jpg

the filler i used to stabilise the burl went a little cloudy but its all being sprayed trans blue so i am not too worried about that, somethign to watch out for next time though

its having a 1 piece neck made from perfectly quartersawn mac ebony

XL804260.jpg

wilkinson trem, sperzel tuners, 2x BKP humbuckers - that kind of thing

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yeah, it will have a skunk stripe - just trying to decide what wood... the last rosewood one i did had a maple skunk stripe and i was happy with the fender negative image look so might go for it again. The other options are to do it in jet black ebony or bloodwood

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I did a burl/rosewood guitar earlier this year...

that is gorgeous! - - shame my burl is only 1/4" :D I think prostheta has a matching set to mine

has anyone tried a solid ebony neck... i must admit its something i have been wary of but i got these two pieces and they were screaming out to be 1-piece necks. weight could be an issue but i figure a tele balances well enough for that not to be a problem and if it is, well i guess i will scrap the idea and make something more conventional

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well i got a lot done on the body today

body2.jpg

left to do is the controls, some comfortcontours on tehback and i will probably contour the heel as well - then the whole thing can be tidied up and sent for spraying

i also started on the neck, its had its truss rod slot routed out, had the fret slots sawn and been cut to shape. i need to glue in a skunk stripe and cut the headstock out before carving and radiusing it. The mac ebony black wasnt quite wide enough so i have stuck an offcut onto the bottom edge to give me room for the headstock - with it being perfectly quartersawn the join should be well hidden

here it is with random hardware thrown into place

mockup2.jpg

mockup1.jpg

in reality it will proably have brushed chrome rings with zebra or black or brushed chrome pickups

still trying to decide on controls - i will probably go with a traditional telel layout but toggle switch instead of blade and a rear route rather than front control plate

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  • 2 weeks later...

indeed, that is kind of the whole point of building them, doing it the way you want.... and for those who think a fulcrum trem on a tele is just plain wrong - - - well fender did do a small number of mid-70's tele deluxes with strat trems and necks

604444iu6.jpg

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I wasn't trying to suggest the trem looked wrong, just wondering about the choice to use one at all. The style of trem you've chosen fits the body very well. For my eyes, natural wood (not painted) guitars are more reserved, as are most fulcrum trems, so it's the natural choice. A hard tail or a TOM would have been just as appropriate.

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just seemed a strange question i suppose since a wilkinson trem is a pretty standard choice

This guitar will be trans blue by the way... hopefully in a colour that goes particularly well with satin look of the wilko bridge and sperzel tuners.. and i think it will look good against the rich darkness of the ebony neck

i am going to go against the grain and not do faux (or real for that matter) binding though. I am just going to have the top quite translucent and the back a darker but still slightly translucent blue that maybe bursts slightly onto the top. This tele needs a nice roundover and the binding looks better as a squarer edge

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  • 1 month later...
just seemed a strange question i suppose since a wilkinson trem is a pretty standard choice

This guitar will be trans blue by the way... hopefully in a colour that goes particularly well with satin look of the wilko bridge and sperzel tuners.. and i think it will look good against the rich darkness of the ebony neck

i am going to go against the grain and not do faux (or real for that matter) binding though. I am just going to have the top quite translucent and the back a darker but still slightly translucent blue that maybe bursts slightly onto the top. This tele needs a nice roundover and the binding looks better as a squarer edge

Any update?

I want to see the trans blue.

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It's no secret I love Teles -and- Burls, so I'm digging this one Wez. B)

And truth be known, even though a solid burl guitar looks great, I prefer to have it as just a cap, my personal (and worthless) opinion is that burl is typically not the best tone wood, since there is no continuous grain for sound transmissions along the body, and best left for caps (unless of course your client wants a solid burl body, then opinions don't matter) :D

...Do you fill in the bark inclusions before sending it out for finish or does your finish guy deal with them?

Either way, how are you filling them? There are various ways, just curious how you like to do it.

Rocks! :D

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i fill the bark incursions and finish sand before sending them to Mike, this one had quite a few incursions so i did a fill after glueing the top on to stabilise it all, and then i had to do a bit more around the edges after radiusing

the fill didnt go perfectly on this because i fiddled with it, its done with west systems epoxy and my impatience sent it slightly cloudy, i havnt done enough burl tops to have 'my way' of doing it, i tried something on this that didnt quite work. I would be miffed if it was going to be natural but the top will be a blue colour.

this one is a slow burner at the moment as its a non-profit charity build. i did the control cavity the other day, standard tele but routed from the back and drilled for a toggle rather than blade switch

i think choosing to do a solid burl body is like choosing any other body wood.... take each piece as it comes, if you have a 2" thick slab of burl that rings nicely when tapped and you can afford not to chop it up into 6 seperate bookmatched tops then why not use it for a solid body :D of course, in most cases with burl, that just aint gonna happen!!

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