ByronBlack

Cheers chunkielad, i'll probably sit down on the weekend and draw up a diagram - i'm going through the hiscock book and trying to work it all out!

Thanks for the advice Zoso, I think i'll spend a little time over the weekend doing as you suggested, its not only the soldering thats a worry to me it's the actual circuit and drawing a diagram, I really don't know how to approach this. However, I do have Hiscocks book and that has a section on the electrics, I'll read through that and see if I can work it out, if I do a diagram and post it here could some of you chaps look over it and see if it's correct?

Drak I love your choice of woods for the tele's, but i've not so far seen guitars of a different body shape, out of curiosity what other guitar-types have you built, or are you a strict tele guy? This is a genuine question by the way, not a dig at all, just interested to see what other gems you've given birth too.

Will do my good man, i'm hoping to cut the body shape tomorrow, the neck is already part-way completed (did a few in a batch). Over the weekend i'll be making a router table to trim up the neck taper to the fingerboard and i'm going to construct myka's excellent neck-pocket jig, this way I can complete the neck join for both this and my explorer build. Looks like i'm going to have a productive weekend! I've also received some nice ash which is going to be used to build a voodo LP with a difference!

The wood has knots and various 'undesirable' artifacts, but thats what I like about it, the wood is dried (10%) at last count from the supplier. I know it's dog-rough but I love working with wood thats as natural as possible, it may sound awful, but i'll never know until I build with it ;-)

wow, you guy's are loving the electical part of this project! Your fogetting 1 important factor, I barely know how to use a soldering iron let alone wire up all these exotic components, I do however love those thinline thumb-wheel type pots, not sure how I would mount them though. I also like the idea of the external box - however would this still make the pickup 'too' bright by hardwiring it to the jack plug?

Zoso - don't worry, the plane has the blade-retracted. It's actually a very old Record jack that is in the process of renovation, it's not actually being used at the moment, but hopefully in a couple of weeks when I get chance i'll get the renovations finished and will be able to start using it. I was thinking about the lipstik pickups, but I really want something more beefy. As for the side mounted pots, the reason these will only be done with a screwdriver is because I will very very rarely need to change them, I hardly every change the volume or tone pots when i'm playing. BUT i am currently thinking about using wooden-plugs that stand a little proud that will allow turning with a thumb.

Ok, here's a pic of the finished headstock: I'll be using 4 tuners at the top and 2 at the bottom.

I'm definitly going to go for the side-mounted pot idea, it allows me to keep the clean lines and have the flexibility if needed. Btw, here's some pics: Bad Maple Stock -Cracks and gouges, and being only 49mm means i can't use it for this project: This is the stock i'll be using instead: (English Yew 31mm Thick) I've also updated the photoset with shots of my cutting the central mahogany strip, jointing the edges and gluing together to create the body blank. More work will be done early next week when I have finalised the drawing for the body-shape.Updated Photoset

Time for a quick update. I was so annoyed about screwing up the scarf joint that I decided to cut it down to the body and build a new neck. I scrored three long pieces of mahogany that yielded enough wood for four necks, so when I received it I ripped it to size on the bandsaw and jointed the edges, glued together using titebond - 24 hours later I have 4 neck blanks, i'll be creating these necks all at the same time so i'll have them ready for my next projects. Here's the progress of the neck for the explorer: All I need to do is trim the excess flush to the fingerboard and shape the back for the neck, since this photograph I have sized the headstock and made it flat like a strat headstock with a curve upto the nut, i'll add a photo of that soon, i'm really pleased how it has come out. I have updated the photo-set: Updates + New Descriptions/Comments I will be doing more over the weekend, i'm building a Myka style neck-pocket jig and the templates for the pickup routes, if I get time i'll do the routing and also shape the neck profile.

Picture of the bandsaw, for those who are interested:

Good question, I was just about to post some updates. first of all though, thanks for the ideas on the electric side of things chaps, I like the idea of mouting the pots out the side/back of the guitar I can then cover the hole up with a wooden-cap and remove it if and when I need to make an adjustment - good idea! Ok, my update, things will be a little slow with this as i'm still building my explorer, and building a new workshop aswell as trying to change carears, so its hard finding the time at the moment, but anyways: I received the canadian maple today ready for re-sawing on my new bandsaw (pics coming soon) for those who are interested, I went for the 14" Jet (JWBS-14) instead of the scheppach. Anyway, the chap giving me the wood said it was 53mm and planned, when I received it there was some pretty serious cracks and some major warping, and it only measured 48mm thick, so it's going to be too-thin after re-sawing and the crack is going to be hard to get around. So its going to be cut-up for maple tops on other projects. So, after being a bit bummed out, I checked on my wood-stock which is alarmingly growing exponentially to my needs (damn wood-lust and ebay!). I have some 30mm English Yew and a mahogany off-cut, so i'm going to create a laminte body with the mahogany running down the middle with the Yew either side. After planning and sanding it should be about 28mm or so which should be perfect. I'm going to be gluing up the yew tonight and will finalise the drawing of the shape over the weekend ready for work during the week, the neck is almost ready as i'm building 4 at the same-time as I had to make a new neck for the explorer build. End of update (sorry for rambling).

Although i'm not really a fan of the guitar shape, I have to say after following this thread from day 1 i'm really impressed on the build, and I think its just great to see two guy's from this forum collaborating - I hope you'll be entering this for GOTM. I think it would be great to see some more collaborations!

Is there an electical trick I can do to warm the sound without using pots? I know very very little about electrics, something I must read up on. Any suggestion is most welcome

Gary, the routing is a little rough, but the main thing is that you've built it all the way through to completion, i'm still about half-way through mine and have made a few major mistakes, but I guess it's better to do them now and then vow to learn from your mistakes on the second one. However, i'm sure with a little chisel work you could neaten them up a bit. Good work though, lovely looking wood, i've recently purchased some black walnut and on seeing your guitar i'm looking forward to working with it! BB

Is the top spalted maple? I was a little unclear from you initial post - really nice wood, where did you get it? I'm finding it very difficult to get scary looking wood!

I would say it's an acceptable finish. Then I woke up and realised it was one of the most amazing looking git-rrs i've ever seen! (want to sell it??)

It depends, i've played a maple tele with upgraded hot humbuckers and that produce a really nice clear rythm tone, I'm thinking thrash metal (old metallica, slayer, etc..) rather than LP style rythm (GnR, Aerosmith etc). But, I shall build it and see, if it's really not suitable i'll convert it for use as a more pop/indie guitar..

Hmmmm, newcomer, eh? ← Aye, I am a newcomer and know very little of the 'WOD' and your habits.

hmm, have you been persauded to keep it afterall, or were you always going to keep it? (this doesn't nessacarily mean you need to cancel the naked virgins!)

Would this give enough output though? I'm wanting to use the guitar as a metal rythm beast. ← Hmm, not what a wimpy looking wafer-caster being doing playing metal? You're better off going the funky Dano --Reverend route... ← Just because it will be thin doesn't mean it will be wimpy! :-)

I have to say that i've very rarely used a vol pot, i've always had a volume pedal within my effects setup and have prefered that, and I quite like the idea of having a very clean looking guitar. I was even considering cutting the fretboard down to the 15th fret as I hardly ever play anything higher than that, but I think it would look a bit silly.

Or save them for bonfire night and create a pire and get some naked virgins to dance round it - a tribute to the guitar gods. Btw, if your american you might not know what bonfire night is, here in the UK we celebrate it as the day that we foiled Guy Fawkes from blowing up the houses of parliment. The bonfire represents his execution (hung, drawn, quatered, and then burnt - just to make sure!) End of history lesson. :-)

It would be cool to inlay the steerhead with real steer horns/antlers - these crop up on ebay quite often.

Hehe...toss the rejects up in the air and shoot at them with shotguns. ← Aye - perfect example of re-cycling!