bluesy

Telecasters used to be made from Pine if I remember rightly.

Yes they were, and there's tons of debate around and people making guitars from Pine. A quick google turns up some hits, including on this forum...

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/index.php

My first tryout of my pine-bodied (pine/ply/pine sandwich) guitar was very promising, despite the cheap single coil pickup mounted with double sided tape. I have just routed and mounted a humbucker, and after some more work, I'll reassemble it and try it again.

I built my first neck with cheap Tasmanian oak from bunnings warehouse...worked out quite well.

Thanks for the feedback, I hope mine works out as well.

MDF is much much softer, plus it has no grain direction so you'll be good. Don't hog it though, because it tears.

I would consider purchasing a shallower bit for future use plus adding a second bearing to the shank as long as the shank has sufficient length to accommodate one.

Yep, I'll be getting a shallow bit for sure. I do already have 2 bearings, I may get a third, however having 2 didn't help because it is getting the first bearing down to ride the template that was the problem. However, with the shallower bit, then the 2nd and 3rd bearings may come into play.

Recently i got my hands on a Squier tele that apparantly doesn't work,ive fixed up the input jack,and it finally sounds. I couldn't get any strings so i used my ACOUSTIC GUITAR STRINGS i already have.

- Nut problem, the nut that's holding the strings up are worned out, and the G string does funny things.

Might be partly being caused by the, presumably, heavier gauge acoustic strings, but also on my tele copy there are 2 string "trees" between the nut and the tuners for the E,B,G and D strings. These little devices hold the strings down lower to the pegboard and lined up with the nut. That will surely help stop them popping out.

I just picked up a nice piece of wood for a neck. I found a local timber shop that sells Tasmanian Oak. Seems it is a nice alternative to maple for a neck. This guy likes it anyway...

http://www.sheridanguitars.com.au/

The good thing is that it is less than $7 for a 900mm length of 19mmx93mm. Neck blanks of maple and mahogany can be $30 and up from luthier suppliers around here.

I don't usually like pointy bizarre shapes, but that one I like. I think it's the f-holes that make it good.

I also had imagined a guitar done in stone. I have some speaker boxes finished with it. It looks good on the guitar too.

Kill two birds with one stone - put a layer of 3/4" or 1" MDF between your template and your workpiece:

Cut the MDF close to the finished size. Screw through your top template into an area on the workpiece itself that will be routed out, such as pickup cavities, neck pocket etc. Enough so the template and the MDF are very very secure (4-6 screws). Then rout the MDF and your workpiece. You'll end up with a nice thick copy of the original template, plus you'll have a good start in the real workpiece. Remember your dust mask and as much extraction as you have on hand with the MDF however!

At first I thought "What a smart idea!" But then I realised I'd be taking a 1" deep cut in one go. Is mdf very much softer and easier on the bits than real wood, or would the advice on taking multiple passes still apply? If the latter, then we have the same problem, how to do the early shallow passes.

But if the mdf is soft on bits, then this will work out brilliantly.

Are you using a bandsaw to cut as much of the excess wood off, before you even attach the template and router it? When "depth of cut" is said, in that case it's not the up/down depth. It's how close to the edge of your template the bearing is.

No, I meant vertically, as in when I am cutting the pickup holes or the neck pocket. Depending on the wood, the full depth in one cut may be hard on the router bit, so recommendations are to take the hole down a bit deeper each time and use 2 or 3 passes.

I usually try to use 3/4" MDF for my templates. Sometimes I might start with a thinner template and use that to transfer to the 3/4" MDF. If need be you could still space it with something as you were talking about, but usually you'd be alright. I would mention also that I have some template bits with a shallower cut as well, maybe 1/2" depth in cut. It can be useful to have them for certain jobs like angled neck pockets or when cutting the ledge for the electronics cavity cover. With that shallow depth in cut, I can use my 3/4" MDF templates and route for the cavity cover easily. So, really you have a couple options, grab a shallower cutting template bit or transfer your templates to some 3/4" MDF. Honestly I'd do both since those bits work well for certain jobs anyways. Hope that helps some. I'm sure there are other ways as well. Best of luck. J

3/4" templates? Yes, I see how that would work, especially with a half inch depth bit. thanks

In all my reading and watching tutorials, there's something I am not sure about concerning the use of templates.

I have a 1/2" straight cutter with 1/2" bearings on it's shaft to follow the template. The bit cuts 1" deep max. My question concerns the need/desire to make multiple passes, going a little deeper each time. In fact, the problem starts on the first shallow cut. How do you do this?

Let me explain so you might see where I am going wrong. If the router is set to only take a shallow cut, and the template is stuck to the guitar surface, the follower bearing is way above the template. To get the bearing down to the template level, the bit is cutting the full 1" into the guitar.

My (difficult) solution has been to pack the template up with 3 bits of 5mm MDF and clamp it. I remove one bit of MDF for each pass or so. This is time consuming, plus the clamps end up in the way of the router base.

The only thing I have thought of, might be to make very thick template, but commercial templates I see for sale don't look very thick. So, what am I missing, or what's the trick?

So you more or less made a working guitar in two days? Well, I'm impressed.

If I had the electrical stuff, I suppose I'd have had time to route a few more holes for the pickups and wire it up properly, but of course there's all the finishing - sanding and painting - still to go.

but yeah, I am happy to get this far.

OK, so, anxious to hear it, I knocked up a quicky tailpiece from some hardwood and a kitchen cupboard hinge (no kidding). I used some double sided sticky to mount an old single coil pickup that I use to experiment, and tried it in a few positions from the neck to the bridge.

I suppose everyone says their first attempt sounds great? Well, I am quite happy with mine too I was surprised to find that no setup was required. Of course the neck had the right set in it already from using it on the tele, but bridge height, and intonation were very close to spot on. No rattles either. Seems my measurements and woodwork are pretty close. I just spent 45 minutes playing it and enjoying it!

Here's what it looks like now.

I'm not so much worried about string tension as I am the action at the bottom of the fretboard. The bridge is tall. Take a straight edge (or even a relatively straight piece of board that will extend from the nut to the bridge. That will give you a good indication of how high the strings will be at the higher frets. From the looks of things you will need a lot of neck angle for that bridge to work. If you take note, you notice that most guitars that use those bridges are arched topped guitars with neck angle or a relatively high set fretboard. You may find issues with this.

I see, well working in my favour is the fact that the body is a few millimetres thinner than the Tele body the neck came from, so, because I kept the same amount of wood under the neck so the screw length would be right, this means the neck is set fairly high relative to the body. A straight edge, as you suggested, indicates I am close, and will only need a small neck angle certainly within easy adjustment.

Who was it on here who did the junk wood tone post where they built a guitar from lesser quality lumber and then posted sound samples. I've always thought that pine could have the ability to make a nice tonewood given it was painted with a nice thick hardcoat to keep the body from denting easily. I've owned plywood guitars that sounded awesome and some pine has awesome grain patterns that could look really nice with a subnburst. My very first guitar was out of poplar and I'm glad I didn't kill a nice piece of black limba doing it so making one out of pine might not be that bad of an idea.

It does seem kind of funky seeing a Les Paul body with a telecaster headstock but we all started somewhere and my first guitar was a true disaster.

You are so right about pine denting easily. One of my learnings from my first day of building is to keep the worktop clean and flat. Mine had a couple of marks and glue spots that made some small dents in the wood. Just makes the filling and sanding harder.

As for sound, well, I'll go as far as I can with this one, certainly to the point of mounting a pickup and trying it out. Maybe I'll like the sound...

Loops like an LP Jr shape to me which is really cool. If you are planning on using that bridge you are going to need a hell of a lot of neck angle. I'd loose the base and mount the bridge directly to the body. Sort of like a Nashville style but use the wooden one instead.

Are you worried about the neck angle because there might not be enough string tension to hold the bridge down? Yes, I didn't think of that. OK, I can fix the bridge to the body, thanks for mentioning it.

As it happens, this morning's job is to manufacture a short tailpiece. Because the guitar is reduced in size, the tailpiece I have (from the same old guitar that the bridge came from) is too long. I am thinking of making one from wood. When I have it made, I will string the guitar and see what happens with bridges.

Also, check out this series of videos on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB6l-bssWzc...feature=related

also this one for acoustics

I believe this should be moved to the Projects in Progress section.

I can understand the temptation to build with 'cheap' wood. Especially for learning to use the tools. It's a good idea to practice on the pine, sure. But after you've practiced each step, why not repeat it, but this time using proper guitar wood?

Wood IS cheap. A decent quality blank will only set you back a few more bucks and you'll end up with a playable guitar at the end. Certainly the price of the wood is very little compared to the final cost.

It's partly the cost, it's also not wanting to ruin a nice piece of guitar wood. I really expected to completely screw this up as I have never used a router before. Hence I used stuff I had around the garage. There's also that pine looks nice and Fender did use pine for some early bodies, so maybe it'll actually work?

Just wanted to share aome pictures of my first attempts.

I have been reading howto's and watching some excellent instructional videos on youtube, so today I took the plunge and started a guitar project. Basically I need to learn how to use the tools as well as how to make a guitar, so I am taking it slow, and using cheap wood, just to "wet my feet".

I had some pine shelving that was only 290mm wide and 19mm thick. I decided to scale down a Les Paul shape to fit the 290mm width, and to glue the shelving to double the thickness to 38mm, then I had an idea to sandwich a piece of ply between them - to produce a nice stripe effect on the side, and take the depth up to 41mm or so.

So yesterday I made the sandwich, glueing them with titebond, and left it clamped overnight. This morning, I made a template, then rough cut the guitar body out with my jigsaw, then routed the exact shape. I also used the router to round over the edges. Next I made a template for the neck pocket (I will initially bolt on an old neck from a Telecaster copy. I might attempt to make my own neck later). I routed out the pocket and fit the tele neck.

Here's how it looks so far. I am thinking of playing around with a floating bridge as in the photo. Nothing is sanded yet, so it is still a bit rough.

Here's a detail shot of the stripe from the ply from the side - I think it looks great.

Edit: just realised I should probably have posted this in the forum for "in progress work". Not sure how to move it though.... sorry 'bout that

I didn't make this guitar. I need to reglue because the original one (it is an old guitar) is not good and the neck is not stable.

This guitar is not using a spanish foot. I don't know the correct term, but the neck is attached in "V" joint.

Do you mean a dovetail joint?

How much time do you think the router saves vs hand and/or DA sanding the edges?

I am thinking that the initial flush-cut of the basic shape will save only a little time, but further profiling of the edge, even just to produce the basic rounded edges using a shaping bit, will save quite a lot.

However I am new to this and still learning.

I wonder why nobody thought of carving the headstock before. It's one of those things that seem so obvious once it's done.

Looks good to me too.

I just had an idea, why not also create a logo or some embellishment on the headstock by carving a design right through the middle of the veneer to show the lighter wood underneath - like the old traffolite labels were done.

When you're cutting, I'd suggest doing some fan cuts. Just slice in, perpendicular to your lines. That way, as you start cutting close to the line, the chunks will fall off and help to keep your blade from binding or trapping in there. And it'll lighten the wood as you go around.

Another great idea. If I make the cuts at the points where the body shape is near the blank's edge, it'll be quick and easy to do as well.

"Yellow Glue" as far as I know generaly refers to what is in fact "Alphatic Resin" glue. Which I believe Titebond is. Around my part of the world we get Alcolin Professional which is an Alphatic Resin "yellow glue". According to Alcolin it is the equivalent of Titebond.

Did some software work in their factory a while back and that is what they told me at the time.

Hope that helps

Keith

Yes it does. I have been doing some googling and reading, and I am sure this is an equivalent product.

One thing that it is hard to find data about is the life of the glue. I have heard that a glue joint made with white glue, for example, will only last about 10 years. I would like to think a guitar would last a lot longer than that

Fear and doubt will probably drive me to get a supply of Titebond, but I have a bottle of this Triton stuff to experiment with as well.

I've cut out body blanks with a coping saw. It wasn't really that fun, although I had on arm like built like Popeye by the time I was done.

If you're using a jigsaw, I find relief cuts help a lot. (Although the drilling idea which is similar is a really cool approach to this as well.) Cutting away the extra offcuts as you go along helps too, as in many areas the jigsaw blade is binding in the back of the kerf against the offcut - remove this and you have a much easier time. I've actually used a circular saw (with caution) to remove a fair amount of the scrap wood before I went in with the jigsaw - made making relief cuts easier, and got stuff out of my way.

Some great tips in this thread. I'll be putting them into use this weekend !

Thanks...

Yea, but it friggin rocks, right?

Err, no, not exactly

But it is a good candidate for stuffing around and experimenting. Don't want to ruin a good instrument while I am learning.

I bought a cheap tele copy to experiment on, and the damn thing turned out to be a great guitar to play, and, after some fret cleanup, I use it as one of my regular guitars. It's often the story with me - I can't bear to use something for parts if it works OK to start with