johnsilver

Nice stuff BigD. Can't have too many Teles for me. ++ on the black binding. After scraping white binding for quite a while yesterday, I may try black next. Going for black hardware on the spalt top?

Stewmac sells pigments for either water based or nitro based lacquer. Stewmac I used some of the black pigment in nitro to make an opaque finish and sprayed it on. I also used some white and black pigment together in nitro to make a grey primer before applying the black. Worked well. Stewmac also sells a finishing video in which the instructor mixes and sprays a strat with grey pigment and then a final color in PINK!!! You may want to look at that here

SWEEEEEEEEET!

Thanks Southpa. I'll go along with you and Melvyn.

I use various of these Grizzly bits for making guitars e.g. roundover, laminate, pattern cutting, straight, etc. I've had good success with them.

Hiscock says in his book that he levels and crowns frets after finishing a set neck guitar so the mess it makes won't get into bare wood. What is your preferred sequence once the guitar is assembled and fretted - finish and then level/crown or the other way around?

My suggestion is that you contact Lew here. He sells pickups of course and is a tone master and a Tele guy. I've bought some pickups from him and he is happy to suggest pickups for your specific application i.e. walnut and maple.

Are those mahogany bolt on necks folks are talking about flatsawn or quartersawn?

I'm left handed. I've driven manuals and autos over the years. To me, the enjoyment depends on the driving you will do. Driving a manual through country roads, particularly when I lived in England (Surrey), was the best. Not so good driving in rush hour in Houston. By the way, when I drove a manual in England, the stick was on my left side so I had to shift left handed (I'm right handed). It was no problem to get used to it. Clutch was still on the left and the shipt pattern was the same.

Been there, done that. (Except for the snow part - after all, this is Houston). Hang in there brother.

The Hartville Tool site is good. Thanks. In looking at some of these links, I haven't seen a microplane like mine that has a handle at both ends. I found that the two handle style really adds an element of control, and I can use the microplane on either a push or pull stroke. I got mine at Woodcraft, but even their site doesn't show a two-handled version. I think it's worth looking for.

Not exactly responsive to the questions, but I have ordered several ebony fretboards from LMI (slotted but not radiused so I had to radius them - I can attest to their thickness). Every one was beautiful, dense and black ebony with no streaks. Really nice.

Mattia, thanks for the tip on pushing too hard. And I bought a smaller one for my wife - she uses it to shave parmesan cheese. Works equally well. Ninoman123 - Microplane is the brand as Mattia pointed out. That's it sitting on my bench to the left of the neck. They aren't that expensive and replacement blades are available also. Thanks for the compliment on the neck thus far. Here is a pic of the front of the neck. The nut is a placeholder and still more work to do. Installed frets yesterday but no pics yet.

I usually use rasps to get a neck carve started at the head and heel, then connect using a spokeshave. I love the feel of cutting with a sharp spokeshave. However, for Christmas, I got a flat microplane with 8" blade and a handle on both ends. I used it yesterday to carve a neck from mahogany. OMG!! It cut so easily and quickly. I could cut on the pull or push using very light strokes without binding or chattering and I felt totally in control. Shaped the neck in much less time than usual for me. Heres a pic of the back of the neck just press fit into the body. Heel isn't shaped and more work to do.

Godin,

FWIW, I've used a Dremel with Stewmac's router base and edge guide to bind a couple of guitars, including a LP style with 7 layer binding on the front, 5 layer binding on the back and 3 layer binding on the headstock. It worked ok, but I did make numerous passes - it didn't take very long and I wasn't in a hurry. I ended up having to use it with the edge guide on the LP because I carved the top before I cut the binding channel (which was stupid).

Its cyanoacrylate glue, commonly known as super glue. For example: Stewmac Grizzly

Hey Godin, my son goes to college in San Antonio so when I come to visit him I may have to bring some unfinished guitar bodies with me. Seriously, that's a serious booth. Hope it works out well for you.

Stewmac's finishing book (here) contains a section on Fender sunbursts including recipes for the yellow pigment.

+1 to both Russ and Setch. A variable speed router will give you more long term flexibility for general woodworking, furniture making (e.g. raised panel doors), use in a router table, etc. For guitar making, I think a single speed is fine. I tend to use the router for cleaning up pickup cavities, neck pockets, electronics cavities, etc after drilling out most of the waste first, and for cutting truss rod channels, rounding over edges, etc. For that work, the bits aren't large and I haven't had any problems with a single speed. I know others use a router for more e.g. flattening the surface of body blanks, initial shaping of neck contours, etc. I'll defer to those who do that.

Try silver supplies You may also want to PM Craig Lavin (Clavin). He is an inlay master and knows lots of suppliers.

great finishing book

Congratulations to you all. HiTone = Classic. Got my vote.

I recently made a pickguard for a Tele style guitar. I made it from laminated w/b/w material purchased from StewMac or Grizzly (can't remember - both have it). StewMac has some instructions on their site. Best I can recall, here are the steps I did. 1) made a posterboard template to size and shape and marked location of pickups, pots, switch, screw holes, etc. 2) made an MDF template using the posterboard template as a guide. 3) trimmed the blank pickguard material to rough size with a jig saw 4) attached the blank to the MDF template with double stick tape 5) routed the edge to the template using a straight template bit in my router 6) routed out the cutout for the pups using the same bit (after drilling a hole for the bit to fit in) 7) routed the edge again using a 45 degree template bit in my router 8) drilled holes for the pots, switch and screw holes on my drill press 9) beveled the screw holes using a countersink bit 10) cleaned up the line of holes I drilled for the switch with a file (haven't finished that yet so its still a little rough) 11) used a small scraper to clean up some of the edges Here is a pic of the pickguard sitting on the MDF template and the tools I used. The pickguard still has the protective plastic cover on it. I used my router at regular speed (its not variable speed). I had no problems with melting the material. Cut like butter. Hope this helps.

The one I'm working on now, based on the plans above, is already over 6 pounds just the body and neck without fretboard, hardware, pups, etc. It has a carved curly maple top and a 1/4" curly maple back. The rest is mahogany as is the neck.