RVA

12 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said:

Wow that bit of walnut came up nice.  Nice work. 

Thank you!

9 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Opinions seem to vary on that subject! Making a neck isn't basically more difficult but finessing the shape can be frustrating.

9 hours ago, nakedzen said:

IME making a neck is much easier than the body, don't be intimidated to make your own.

Thank you both for the encouragement and advice. So I can get started on wood selection, what are the appropriate neck blank dimensions? Many I see are only 1 inch thick, which would seem to be too thin, even with a healthy fretboard.

I had to go back and take more wood off the pocket. Better than having to add it!!

After wet sanding, cutting and buffing. It is still wavy, but better than previous builds since this is the first time I did any sealing.

You may notice areas to the right and left in between pickup routes that are light in color. The blank had fissures all the way through, so I patched them with glue and walnut dust.

I followed the traditional control layout because I had already routed the control cavity, but I think the layout is poor. I will probably do something different next time. 

After a few rounds of Spraymax 2K spray. I wear a respirator, goggles, long sleeves pants....and a shower cap!

Not shown - I  used Solarez "I Can't Believe It's Not Laquer" to seal. It worked out OK, but after reading here, and other sources,  I realize I don't know much about sealing and filling.  Any suggestions for good learning materials would be greatly appreciated.

I put the bridge bushings in before finishing because I did not want to hammer into a fresh finish. However, they took a beating in the final pre-finish sanding and post-finish sanding. Advice on a better approach would be appreciated 

After some more sanding. 

My improvised scale ruler. Very professional! If anyone can suggest a real tool, it would be appreciated!

My ridiculously imprecise method for locating drill points for the bushings. I was off by almost 2mm and had to file the bridge slots to make it fit. Serves me right. I have since purchased transfer punches, but that is probably not my of a step up

My bridge locator rig. This method is usually done with a trapeze bridge as you probably know, but this worked

After fitting the neck and body with threaded inserts. Cheap Chinese neck, atrocious fretboard (more on this later).  I will likely replace it if you good people can teach me how to make a decent neck

My first angled neck pocket! I measured how much I needed to lift the template to get the desired angle and then propped it up with a shim

Target: 3 degrees. Result: around 3.75. I'll take it!! 

Cavity routing. In the process, I gouged yet another template. Infuriating!!!

Bye bye doggie!

After edge routing ang some rough shaping. I use a Milwauke 3" buffer/sander freehand for shaping, which is the best tool I have right now. Note the amateur router burn on the perimeter!

And the glue up. Got clamps? Yeah, we got clamps

Side by side

Here she is off the bandsaw. The dog image is still hanging on, but I am sure you realize that will be short lived !

And here is her matching alder back 

So I bought this walnut top because my employee and I were convinced we could see a floppy eared dog in the grain. So did my parents, and my mom asked me to name the guitar after her deceased doggie, Chloe. Here is the bookmatched top after glue up next to the 2 plywood cauls I cut for the top to back glue up. So do you see the dog image?

9 hours ago, mistermikev said:

you had me at tele-w-p90s.  nice job.

Thank you very much. I enjoyed your build threads and videos!

Beautiful artwork! Nice job and congrats on your first build!

15 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

In that case I must say you really do a nice job with your router! And your sanding looks outstanding.

Thank you for the compliment.  After seeing your work, it means a lot to me.

1 hour ago, Bizman62 said:

Before boosting your ego more, please tell about the bodies. I couldn't quite grasp whether you built them from scratch or from readily shaped and routed blanks.

All the bodies were built from scratch from blanks. And I assure you, what little ego I had is gone after spending time here!!

40 minutes ago, Professor Woozle said:

I like the figure on that last one - burr walnut?

Thank you.  Yes, walnut top and alder back

Anyway here is my last build

And my current build - Finally another shape!!

I have much to learn, but I am happy with my progress so far considering I have no experience with the trades (suit and tie guy here) and I started scratch building a year ago.

19 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

Thanks! Up/down indeed must be faster although I put mine left/right, maybe because of tradition. Slanted Tele switches may be targeted for hardcore Strat players... And the joy of a Gibby switch is that it can be slanted any direction! All that said, my understanding of using the switch during a certain song is very limited. I've seen vids about very good players switching amidst a solo, maybe because they think that certain positions on the fretboard require another pickup but for me that's something I can't judge.

Yes, quick pickup switching and knob manipulation without losing time in the song is a skill set I have not mastered (among many others). As a home player, the pressure to execute does not happen unless I turn on that darn, unforgiving recoding device!

BTW, there were so many posts and pics for which I wanted to hit like, but it seems I am presently limited in that regard. So let me say that I am both humbled and inspired by the work here. I look forward to raising my skills to the next level and the info on this forum will be of great help