April 2020

Guitar Of The Month - April 2020

When everyone at the party is arriving with jeans and Hawaiian shirts, there'll always be someone who fronts up wearing a full tuxedo. Lookin' sharp this month is @mistermikev and his take on the traditional Telecaster, with more quilted maple and classy looks than you can throw a top hat at.

The Tuxedo

DESCRIPTION:
This is build #6 for me. Frequently I look at other builder's amazing projects and think "how will I ever get there?" So with that goal in mind, and for each build, I do my best to add elements that will push me beyond my comfort zone. For this build, there were two such milestones for me - first time doing a radius top with a radius back, and first multi-piece neck.

This guitar has a lot of similarities to my prior radius top Strats, so in some sense I feel a little disappointed that I didn't push far enough beyond that. On the bright side, I'm starting to see little glimpses of my own style when I look at it. That style is, of course, a reflection of all I have learned from folks here, so thank you all for that!

MATERIALS:

Body is two piece northern ash sourced from Peterman Lumber (local)
Neck is three piece - flamed maple/wenge/flamed maple, also from Peterman
Top and headstock overlay are quilted maple sourced from Elmwood Music on Etsy
Fretboard is ebony sourced from Alleng Guitar (online)
Inlays are from ebay user jnnpearlinlay

HARDWARE:
Frets Jescar wide / low
Gotoh Auto Locking vintage tuners
Trem King Tremolo
Graphtech Nut

SPECS:
10 deg headstock angle
24 3/4" scale length
1 11/16 Nut Width, .78" thick at the first, .81" at the 12th
12" Radius Fret board
30" Radius Top and Back, 1 1/2" body thickness with 2 1/8" overall thickness

Body is semi hollow, 7lbs 2oz weight