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Project Open Telecaster


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The open telecaster thread...

Telecasters Among Us

Tres Telecasters

Neck : Maple

Fretboard : Maple

Scale : 25.5

Frets : 22

Trussrod : Double Expanding Truss Rod

Body : Ash

Tuners : Tone-Pros

Pickups : Custom Hand Wound Vintage Telecasters

Bridge : Gotoh Telecaster

Electronics : Vol/Tone/3-way

Getting started on 3 identical telecasters. These are just laying the groundwork for future telecasters. I am building up all the templates I need for telecasters. These have a more modern neck than a real telecaster. Instead of one piece I an building a 2 piece with the adjustment at the heal. I will work on my one piece necks soon. The bodies are from a deal with a friend and will end up butterscotch. Some other telecasters in this line will be thin line and have some modern twists.

I started with a centerline and my new telecaster headstock template. I then routed the trussrod channel. On the first one I cut all the way through the end. I didn't like the look so on the next 2 I stopped short. And drilled a 3/16" hole in from the end.

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Of course after finishing the first neck profile and making it perfect... I decided to use it as a template. This went bad thanks to my favorite router bit. The triblade template bit was humming along making the greatest clean cuts. When WAM... tear out right on the headstock. Got the template and the blank. I hate routers.

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I am going to think about how to proceed. I might just start over since maple is relatively cheap and Any attempt to patch this will look bad. I have my templates made now so I will not lose much time starting over. We will see... I may use these for another project.

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Ok I have thought about it. For now I am starting over with new blanks. I also decided to cut fretboards from the same boards... 6/4 solid rock maple. This has to be one of the hardest pieces I have ever had. I am going to try and clean up the other blanks later but the headstocks will not be perfect telecasters so I will use them on some other Ts I am going to build this year.

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Had to fix my tools to get going. The maple was so hard my regular resaw fence didn't work. The blade keep drifting so I built a single point resaw fence. It worked ok but you really have to pay attention as you run through or you will destroy a blank.

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New router table. New spiral upcut bit. New router accidents. I broke my double flute carbide 1/4" bit I had had for 20 years so I switched to a new spiral upcut. Well I was afraid I was feeding it to fast so on the first neck I went slow. The lack of pressure on the spiral caused it to vibrate. The vibration loosened the collar and the bit rode up and cut through... The solution is a skunk stripe. That is why I am building 4. I test on the first one then do the other three after I am sure that is how I want to proceed.

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So rather than a traditional T neck I decide to use double expanding rods and put a fretboard on the necks. For me it is just easier to not modify my process to much. I will attempt some classic one piece T necks later but for now this is how the trussrods were installed.

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On the necks that had the accident... I was able to clean up all the tear out and now have several necks to finish. On the one that the bit rode through and I decided on a skunk stripe. I learned some interesting things about skunk stripes and double action trussrods.

DON'T DO IT.

When you make a skunk stripe and it is really tight it squeezes the glue out as you press it in. Then the first time you try to adjust your Double Action Trussrod it presses against the glue starved skunk stripe and BAM! It pops out the back... Thank you TDPRI. I thought it was a silly idea when I was looking at it but was glad to confirm my thoughts. On this skunk stripe it does not go all the way through except in a small spot. It also is not as long as a regular stripe so I should be ok. The strip was not overly tight and it had 3 sides to glue to instead of just 2. So in retrospect if you add a skunk stripe and are using a double action trussrod do not route the channel all the way through. I figure the skunk stripe to be a nice 1/8" thick when I am done.

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I covered this in the V thread but here it is again. I radiused and slotted 10 fretboards in 3 hours Sunday. Got real boring but at least it is done. I radiused all the tele fretboards with my 16" radius bit (thanks SJE). I squared up a 4x4 and draw a center line on it. Next I center and double sided tape the fretboard to the block. Set the bearing to ride on the center line and make a pass. Flip the block and make another pass. Done rough radius in 5 minutes. I might change the radii to a more traditional radius on some but most will stay flat. These are going to be supped up Teles.

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