Charlie H 72

Thanks biz! You are so right about that.. I just joined a maker space in my city (open bench project in Portland Maine) and they have all kinds of good stuff! A small CNC included so I think I’ll be going that route on a few things. I just got the body blank glued up and it turned out great. Excited to see this getting off the ground

Hmm. Which part is the hardest? is it the pointed tip? maybe putting a tiny radius on it would help. Otherwise I dont know what to say. Xacto knife? Or cut the inlay oversized and glue it in with ebony dust so there is a consistent (ish) black line? progress is looking good! I think two at a time is a great way to go. On another note-what drafting software do you use? I have been using a trial of Rhino--ok, my sixth "trial" of rhino-- but the newest version is no longer compatible with my computer (Mac osx 10.11) so I'm looking for something I can use. Might need to take the comp. in and have apple upgrade the OS as I'm so out of date I can no longer update it myself. I just found out that I have access to a CNC so I'm changing the way I'm approaching my current build. Edit: looking closer now-is it just illustrator with the grid on? mind if I ask how you work with specific dimensions in Ai? I am familiar with the program but I've always had a hard time with that part.

Biz you always come in with the drawings like an MS paint guru. love it. Dowels plus string pressure to lock it in place-now we’re talking! The screw was, as you guessed, an afterthought. Locating dowels provide a much more elegant solution. Not sure about the acoustic ramp, but I will have to see how trial #1 comes out. Your section drawing makes me realize that I could probably put the whole pickup under the “plate” and still get it close enough to the strings for good output. As I am using a microcoil I could also raise the pole pieces a touch and have them poking thru.

Thanks for the feedback biz-it got me thinking that a wooden tele bridge is kind of asking to have my cake and eat it too. If I have to put metal inserts all over the place it will just become fussy-not the esquire vibe! So I took some Danelectro juice and tried out a different design. Still the same footprint, still string through, but with a fixed & intonated (bone, brass, aluminum, rosewood, ebony?) saddle. It will also be a recessed hunk of wood rather than a plate. Something about very thin wood throws me off... don’t ask why, I couldn’t tell you! Trial run hopefully coming soon.

Ok thinking out loud here-as usual. What if I did a maple bridge plate with string thru (and still used brass saddles?) the bridge plate itself doesn’t take on that much stress, and it would allow me to move the pickup wherever I want (and do it lefty too). It could look really cool, and match the neck nicely. Any thoughts? Good reference points? Maybe it needs a really hard finish too, epoxy or something. I do see some wooden tele bridge plates out there but they are more like remakes of the original design rather than a reimagining. I also see some homemade metal bridges but I think with my measly setup that’s not going to turn out nicely.

Whew! Awesome!

Got some wood-8/4 ash planed to 1-5/8” and a piece of 5/4 maple for the neck. Could probably get 2 necks out of it. All for a grand total of $35! Woo! The ash is heavy so maybe there will be some chambering? I went in looking for pine but they had none above 1x so-no luck there. Pretty stoked about this ash anyway though.

Sweet! Carve looks great, and that color is intense. Looking forward to seeing it on the body too.

I think I’m settling on a few things. Really just posting here to make them “official” it will be a 19 fret-17 threw the design off too much, but 19 will be easy enough to do. After seeing a few blonde pine tele bodies I think that’s what I’ll go for. Now to source some nice pine.. And I am considering a one piece maple neck-they just look so good! I know truss rod adjustment can be a pain but no seam on the neck is in keeping with the whole minimal theme. Still considering here and I’d be happy to be swayed in either direction. I want to make the maple as light as possible and then match the body paint to it. I recall somebody here used a ceramic coating for their maple neck and it was gorgeous, matte/satin, and looked quite simple to apply - who was that?

Hm-beautiful top and beautiful shape, not sure it needs another beautiful thing! I would be concerned that the tenon would distract from the other great elements.

Gorgeous!

(And I can’t wait to see it with some clear on it)

Looks great! The burst really works with the carve now

Pop some tuners in there and see what you think. Maybe it will change things. I see how it’s not perfect but I am not offended either. With clearcoat, tuners, strings, etc. it will not be so visible.

Good question-and thanks for the reference! Always found Danos to be cool. I was imagining shifting the whole neck up a few frets and the bridge back correspondingly, so the actual center of gravity moves towards the nut, but that would make normally accessible frets a bit harder to reach. So maybe a compromise-neck “tenon” under pickguard and a little neck shift.

Ok so microcoil and q filter it is, as well as that Rutters bridge. As I was playing I realized that I could get a much sweeter tone if I pick around the 18th fret-so maybe I will make a 17 fret neck and push it into the body a little more for greater picking range. Don’t think I’ll miss those top frets. Anybody know of guitars that have shorter fretboards like that?

Yup. What Scott said!

I like it! It’s a yes from me, for sure.

I like that carve idea! Given all that’s gone into this already, try a practice horn first and see what you think. It could be awesome, but the form you have is already so nice it might not want all that embellishment.

Thanks drak! Yup so true on the phone call thing. Even if I have to go thru some crazy menu I prefer to pick up the phone if I can talk to a real person. I hadn’t heard of that Wilde forum til you posted it-there were actually some good answers there already. People recommend a microcoil and a q filter for esquires, which I am game to try. It seems a little out there/non-traditional, but in the worst case I can swap it out and try something else.

https://www.facebook.com/billnbecky/videos/vb.1077413075/4938235768520/?type=3&theater this is interesting-bill lawrence's rundown of a Q filter and "using the neck pickup as a filter for the bridge" which sounds quite interesting-but I can't make sense of the wiring diagrams in the comments section

This has been fun to read through! You gotta be brave to start cutting into an acoustic. Looks like all is going well, and I bet the final product will be a great player.

These came out so great. I’m not usually a gold hardware guy but it just works so well with the oak. Your finishing is always top notch too. Probably the part of guitar building I have least patience for.

Thanks drak. Yes I noticed that-lots more room behind the saddles but ferrules still line up. There are some modern sized top loading bridges (by Rutters and some others) which would open up that extra length for saddle adjustment.