DrummerDude

Yes, I do like them. Actually I am completely Telecaster-crazy at the moment. Used to hate Telecasters back in the days when Metal preferences dictated me that if a guitar is not poity as hell, then it's not worth having it. Now I know how wrong I was. Telecasters rule.

Try making an accurate plan out of this: I do not intend to start arguements about PhotoShopping angled images. It simply des not work in terms of accuracy. I'd like to hear the opinion of someone who could actually help me with my self-made Telecaster plan.

Thanks for the reply, Greg. No, I will not buy the parts before I have a body. And since I have never built one before, I am not skilled at routing, (have no routing experience at all) I don't have any router jigs and I don't have a test-proven guitar plan yet. Jeezuz, I don't have a router yet! Intend to rent one for the job. No, I will not buy all those expensive parts just to find out that I can't build the body. Don't need a pile of guitar parts and I don't wan to be forced to buy a replacement body for them just because it turned out that I can't make one myself. I don't want to spend money on suspicious eBay plans and templates too. But we discussed this already several posts back. About the calculating method you described - this is exactly what I did. I used the basic body measurements (got them from Marty) and I scaled the Warmoth photo so it fit them. This does not guarantee me anything. Maybe the photo was angled, maybe my Imperial to Metric conversion was not precise, maybe I just did something wrong and so on... That's why I need someone to check if my plan is OK. I need to know this for sure before I start it all.

Hey guys I think I just made myself an accurate Telecaster Plan!!! I used the pic marksound posted to make it. Click here for the fulll-size plan. I still need someone to compare it with an original plan and check if the values, shown on the pic below match with those on my self-made plan. Pic: By the way, does anyone have these values? I could use them and make my plan absolutely precise. Then everybody could use it for free and no more Google nightmares. Thanks!

Thanks, marksound The frontal pic looks big enough. Camera angle is well centered too. Let's see if this pic is really big enough for a precise scale. Meanwhile if you guys come across a bigger photo, please post the link here. TY!

Thanks, jnewman. I just checked Fender.com out and unfortunately there were no photos of a stripped Telecaster body with all the cavities seen. Maybe I missed that section of the site. Do you have a direct link to a Tele body photo? Thank you

Thanks, Greg. I substituted the link for a direct image. Didn't get the "overhead projector" part. Wish my English was better. You mean take a photo of a Tele and resize it to fit the exact measurements? If this is what you meant, then I've done it a million times. There are no quality photos of stripped to the bone Classic Telecasters and even if there are any, they are always angled, meaning that the guy who took the picture was not holding the camera in the absolute front of the Tele body. Or maybe you had in mind another method? Thanks!

This Telecaster project of mine is going to be my first experiment in guitar body-building. I am trying to make my own template using the CAD drawing from guitarbuild.com and the measurements I got from mdw3332. Still, I am lacking several critically important details about pickup and brdge placement. The easiest way to get them would be to buy all the needed parts and do all the routing on the body acording to their dimensions but I don't want to spend like 300-400 bucks for a neck, pickups, bridge and electronics just to find out that I am not skilled enough to make the body. That would force me to spend some extra 150-200 bucks on a Warmoth replacement body and it will kill the whole body-building idea. So, I am trying to make the body first. I need a decent template or additional information to make my own. I've been searching the Internet for ages already and I've came across many free routing plans - RGs, Strats, Explorers, Flying Vs... and I swear that there are no free Telecaster plans. I couldn't belive it but it is true. I was considering spending $50 on one of those eBay templates but now you guys made me think twice. And what about these? (see pic) They are cheap but don't give any information about the exact positioning of the cavities. PS: About Metric vs Imperial - open a new topic, please.

Any idea how to make one of these myself? LINK By the way are they any good? The guy who sells them seems to know his stuff but still... Anyone tried them? Seen cheaper ones? Thanks!

Thank you, Devon Headen, now I know exactly what a forstner bit is. We call it "frezenk" here. They are really cheap where I live.

OK, what I get is (see my signature): Use a forstner bit and route the cavity a little shallower. Then use another kind of routing bit to remove the holes left from the frostner bit and to reach the desired depth. Did I get it right? My question is: what are the advantages of forstner bits? Why not start routing directly with the other kind of bit (the one that doesn't leave any holes at all)? When using forstner bits is it possible to move the router in all desired directions or does the tip of the forstner bit stick it to one fixed position only?

Hey, I don't want my guitar's pickup and neck cavities to have any holes at the bottom!

Yes! Absolutely! The beginning is wonderful, please finish it!

Guys, what is better when routing cavities: starting from the edges and contouring the shape with a small diameter bit first OR roughly removing the wood in the middle first and after that contouring the edges of the cavity? Pics: OR Thanks!

1. Sound is above all. I wouldn't care if the guitar weighs a ton if it has a good sound. Actually in most cases light weight means soft and porous body tonewood and this is not a good thing (IMHO). I simply can't stand muddy palm mutings and dull leads and I guess it goes for all of us metalheads Other people just love the soft sound of Ibanez guitars... Good sound means good pickups too. 2. Sustain. I am putting it in a different section because I am just totally sustain crazy. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night bathed in sweat and shouting "Sustaaaaaain!" Then I realize that it was just a bad dream and everything is OK and totally neck-through. 3. Comfort - In the previous post idch described a rather annoying situation with Stratocasters (volume knob makes it a nightmare to play harder). Actually it's the same with most of the Strato-shaped guitars. Nothing should bother me while I am performing live. I don't want to lose my concentration thinking about the knobs or other guitar parts that could be a hurdle lying on my hand's way. The guitar should be well-balanced and the neck should stay in position (many of them try to go down all the time) The strap and the strap locks must be of good quality too. Their importance increases dramatically on stage. 4. Playability - Faster necks are welcome. They should also be rock-solid. I also prefer wider fingerboards. Somehow they prevent me from making too many mistakes on stage. 5. Look - Oh man, all those chicks in the audience... you don't want to lose their attention just because your otherwise great guitar looks like a piece of junk, do you? A nicely finished and well cleaned guitar without fingerprints on the front pane would do the trick.

Hmmm...

OK, UncleJ's method sounds nice but what about drilling the other wire route? It looks kinda hard too.

Hahaha! No it's not. It is not even a real thing. I drew it in PhotoShop and I positioned it over the photo of the body to describe the method in a graphical way. By the way on the original photo this same body used to have a groove for the wire. I couldn't find a photo of a tele body without the groove so I removed it using PhotoShop. Now the body from the pic looks exactly the way I am about to make my Tele's body. The post from the forum I read about using long drill bits said that one should use the metal base of a coat-hanger. You should flatten its tip and then sand it sharp. The guy claimed that it works for that particular kind of drilling.

Seems that it's a matter of personal preferences... That's what I got from your posts, guys. Thanks!

I suppose you are right but theoretically a hole in the base of the neck socket lessens the contact between the neck and its socket, making the tone and sustain worse. But I am sustain-crazy anyway. My question was about Original Classic telecasters. How is the wire drilling done on them?

Yeah, hi, it's me and my Telecaster project again. Is this the right way to drill a cable hole? (see picture) I read a thread on a forum and it adviced people to make their own loooong drill bit and drill the body this way (I PhotoShopped the drill bit): Is it a right thing to do? I think it's not OK because the neck socket has to be drilled too. What is the Real Right Way? Do classic Telecasters have a drill hole on the bottom of the neck socket? Thanks!

What is the best way, guys? Rout the pickup & neck socket cavities in the blank and then cut out the shape of the body OR first cut out the shape of the body and then rout the cavities??? I've seen tutorials showing both methods. Which one of them is better? Or maybe it all depends on the body shape? Please note that I want to make a classic Telecaster and I would like to choose the better way. Here is a tutorial by a guy from the forum (guitarfrenzy) who apparently prefers the "first-cut-and-only-after-that-rout" method. http://www.guitarfrenzy.com/Strat01.htm Thanks!

ZoSo_Spencer, don't forget that those Les Pauls used to have new parts back in the 70's when they were manufactured. I don't think that they looked like "SH*T" when they were with their new, still-not-worn parts on them. Sorry for the offtopic or more likely for the "semi-topic" but is there a chemical that can create a protective coat of dark oxide on the surface of objects made of iron, brass etc? I think the English word for such protective coat is "blueing". I know an acid that makes that to iron but it needs to transform the existent feroxide, i.e. the iron must be rusty to get "blued" How to make this to a non-rusty iron or brass object? Thanks!

I support this idea. I've seen a ton of guitar building tutorials and they always kind of skip the routing part. Does anybody know a good and detailed pickup & neck socket routing pictorial?

Sparky is a Russian company that makes awesome tools. Their handheld saws are Totally Vigorous. They bought the former Bulgarian power tool company "Eltos" (which used to make the most solid long-lasting tools known to humanity) and now Sparky's Bulgarian line of tools is siply astonishing. Actually I just dumped the cheap router idea and decided that I will go for a Sparky router. Their factory is only 90 kilometers away from me.