Lostheart

Great looking guitar....as for the thickness...the very first Tele prototypes from 1950 (back then it was called "Esquire" before they changed it to "Broadcaster" before they had to change the name into "Telecaster") were made out of Pine and were only 1.5'' thick compare to the 1.75'' we all know and love. So you should be perfectly fine. The only problem I see is the depth of the control plate...

LOL...I hear ya! Unfortunately a finisher turned me on to building and finishing guitars myself...because he was so bad and completely messed up my nice American Fender Telecaster. Well, the very first Telecaster (prototypes) were made out of Pine...there's the infamous white Tele with the snakehead heastock and there were the two-Pickup Esquires made with a regular 6-in-line headstock but without a truss rod. Leo Fender later trashed the idea of using Pine because of the obvious reasons...it was too soft. Nevertheless this is a project I'm really looking forward to...and I got all the time in the world and I'm not under a deadline so making a sufficient shellac base is not a problem. Many thanks for all the info especially on southern yellow pine. Sas, Obviously you know I love using shellac. I believe your next step has merit and I wish you well with the results. Mike Thanks, Mike. We'll see how it all turns out...when I encounter problems you'll probably see another Pine-thread on this board! ;-) Because it was availale and I'm working on a 1950 two-Pickup Repro Esquire which had a Pine body... Actually someone on this board had problems taking an orbital sander to Pine...it's a very delicate and soft wood...I guess I'll stick to a sanding block for now... Thanks, Rich! There isn't much filling I need to do. Others have mentioned that Pine needs no grain filler but I use the filler to get rid of a couple of dents prior to sealing. I wanted to utilize the shellac as a sealer and get a hard surface which I can level prior to applying black Nitro lacquer. Many thanks to everyone who provided new input! Cheers Sascha

I've seen it used with nitro finishes before, but I honestly don't know the actual process. Vegasrock, who is a regular over at ReRanch and TDPRI too I think, has used it before and he is who I got the idea from. You could send him a PM or start a thread over at one of those forums and I'm sure he would be more than happy to detail his experience with the stuff for you. CMA Thanks Andy! Yeah, Vegasrock...I "see" him all the time on the TDPRI...I'll drop him a PM and/or search the ReRanch board to see if they got any suggestions on finishing Pine. Hey Marty, thanks for chiming in...really appreciate your help. Dents won't bother me much...I plan on replicating one of the very first Tele prototypes which was made out of 1.5'' thick pine with a black coat of paint back in 1950. The wood hardener actually sounded good to get a perfectly flat surface. I guess same can be achieved by a few good and appropriately thick layers of sealer. I planed on using shellac anyways because I have so much of those dewaxed flakes sitting around and I figuered I put them to good use. Mind if I ask you how you apply your shellac? Do you spray, brush or wipe the stuff on? Great resultas can be achieved with all three methods, I'm just curious how people are actually doing it... Thanks Muzz! For now I guess I'll stick to a shellac sealer and Nitro topcoat, but the Pine Sealer is an interesting concept I've not heard of before. Should make the wood really hard since it's polyurethane-based and I've had the "pleasure" of trying to get the stuff off of a Fender 52 AV RI body where they use a polyurethane sealer under a thin nitro topcoat. Really appreciate everyone taking the time to help me with my project(s)!

OK where are the woodworkers when you need them? First why would you have to grain fill pine it has no grain to fill???? RGman thanks for a knowledgeable response though brief. Have you ever stained pine, well pine has soft and hard areas so it stains unevenly and is probably is the reason you are having sanding issues. You must have areas of the board which are soft, the hard soft lines generally follow the grain in my experience but it may also be a random pattern. No matter what you use the more you sand the worse it will get. Usually if I use pine (certianly not for guitar work) I havent had issues using a random orbit sander. Some pine could be really bad and it sounds like your problem. Old boards can be worse than newer wood because pine does not harden with age. if you have ever seen an old worn pine floor board, it looks wave like, because the softer areas wear faster. I have no solution other than to try a scraper blade on the hard areas (High spots) get it as flat as possible then sand lightly or scrap the piece and start again. Other options would require more expensive sanding solutions such as a thickness sander. My personnel opinion (please read that again) is of you want a cheap wood to use on a guitar (I can see no other reason for using pine), buy Poplar instead, Its almost the same price and as a guitar wood will provide a predictable outcome. First off, thanks everyone for jumping in and helping me out! Really appreciate everyone checking out this thread and taking the time to comment... Crazy Man Andy hit the nail on the head...I'm a regular over at the TDPRI and since Pine Tele bodies are extremely popular over there I wanted to see what the fuzz is all about. But based on my experiences with this wood it is most likely my first and last attempt since all the other woods I've worked with were much easier and more rewarding. @ RGMan: I myself have wondered about if Pine needs to be grain filled but I was at a site that offered Pine bodies and charged you a few bucks if you wanted them to be grain filled. I never questioned that, but thinking of it...I guess you're right. But that's great for me...less work! @ Woodenspoke: Thank you for stating your opinion on the lowdowns of Pine...I agree 100%. Cost was never an issue, but rather curiosity. Nevertheless I got some big and decent pieces of Pine that I must put to good use. @ MiKro: Actually your reply sounds very good to me...I guess I'll sap some shellac on the body and try to get it as flat as possible before I shoot some Nitro... @ CrazyManAndy: Wood Hardener? Do you by any chance know if it works under Shellac/Nitro? Cheers for all the help so far! Sascha

It's one of those: Those blocks are actually rubber, not plastic as I previously wrote. It has tiny little rubber bumps on the bottom (probably to keep a firm grip on the paper) and I never considered them to be a problem. Could it be that they are the root of all evil?

Thank you, Jon, but that sounds exactly like the way I actually sanded. Long, even strokes without too much pressure. For the life of me I cannot think of what I'm doing wrong here... Do you think the uneveness (just to give you an impression: it is quite faint and there aren't really deep ridges all over the wood) will disappear during the grain-filling and sealer-stage?

I used one of those snazzy plastic sanding blocks...

All the experienced woodworkers here are probably going to crack up when they read about my problem, but for some reason I cannot get the surface of my Pine bodies sanded perfectly flat (prior to being grain-filled). I know about the pitfalls of coniferous wood and I tried to avoid all the obvious mistakes and sanded with a plastic sanding block and with the grain, yet the soft part of the grain seems to be sanded down a tad more than the hard grain. I wonder what the heck I'm doing wrong as I have sanded plenty of wood in my life and I never encountered something like that. Has anyone experiences with Pine and can someone please help me along?!? I also wondered if I shouldn't bother and try to sand out the uneveness during the sealing stage (which I plan on doing with either Shellac or some Nitro-based sealer) i.e. apply enough layers of sealer and sand it flat? Any help from you fellas is greatly appreciated...

I've been away for a couple of days and wanted to thank everyone else who came and chimed in...I got the T-Safe-Planer in the mail today and I'm gonna try it out in a couple of days...

There's a photo of a pretty cool jig...I understand you made a similar one...did you have any troubles with tearout? Man, my Pine wants to tear out at any given chance!!!

That's a neat little tool...I once saw it on the LMI site...and basically forgot about it! : Might take a couple more passes than using a router but it actually looks like a safe way of trimming some wood off the back! CHeers for the suggestion! The router jig sounds great! Hector suggested a Safe T-Planer which I'm probably going to use for the task but I sure would love to see...after you've had your good-night rest of course! I hear ya...although the body has no routs atm, I already dropped the idea of taking it back to the shop and have the guys there push it through the planer. They already messed up a body blank once (long story...maybe I keep it for a thread entitled "Why you should do all the work yourself"!) and I don't really want to have another piece of firewood at home. Hector's suggestion of the Safe T-Planer sounds really promising and I need one of those gadgets anyways, so I'll probably place an order with the LMI and try my luck with it. Thanks to all of you for the help and guidance...much appreciated!

Thanks for the suggestion...I actually thought about purchasing a hand plane but for this project I need something a little faster got get the project going as I have only the remaining week to get the majority of the work done... Gee, never actually thought about using my router for this task. Thanks for bringing this up. Maybe I could combine the router- and the hand-plane method and come up with decent results! Really appreciate all the suggestions so far...anything else I haven't thought of???

Thanks for the fast reply, Jon! Yes...a thicknessing planer...that's the tool I was trying to describe. And that's the machinery that really scares me because I really do not want to ruin the body by pusing it through the planer. Mind if I ask you if the "sniping" (just in case it does occur) will disappear when I rout an edge radius on the guitar? Or will it still be prominent after all? Isn't there a safer (and fast) way to remove some wood from the top/back of a solid-body?

Hey guys! I've long been lurking here and always come here first when I encounter a problem but I have rarely posted on this board. I really hope you fellas help me out with your fast knowledge anyways. Anyways...I am in the process of making two Tele bodies from Pine...folks over at the TDPRI have been raving about Pine and I really would like to see what the fuzz is all about. I got the edges of both bodies routed and only then it occured to me that I really would like one body to be 1.5 inches instead of 1.75. Now I wonder what's a safe and fast way to bring the thickness of the boy down to 1.5 inches??? When I cut and glued the pieces of Pine together I took em to a shop where they planed the glued-up blank for me. I'm sure you guys know what kind of machinery was used for it...since English isn't my native languaege, I don't know the proper name of some of the machinery involved. They basically push the blank in on one side and it comes out in the required thickness on the other side. Now I wonder if the same can be done with the shaped body? Or is there a chance of some major f***-up when non-squared piece of wood is inserted into this machine??? The only other way I can think of to slim the body down is sanding...and I really don't want to sand for days to get to the thickness I want. Any help is greatly appreciated... Cheers Sascha

There are special runs of their Vintage series called "Thinskin"...these guitars have, contrary to the regular Vintage series instruments (52 RI Telecaster etc), NO polyurethane undercoat. If this is one of them, I don't know, but judging from the specs I'd say it is...

That would be nice... I'm pretty much aware of etchant solution and the lot, which are used to age metal parts but I doubt that this was used on a pickup?!?! As I said, when you come across any info it would be great if you could let me know... Sascha

I tried to get some information on this over at the TDPRI, but to no avail...I hope there are a few folks around here who can help me out... Lots has been written about relicing the finish and the hardware of guitars, but I have never seen a post on how to make a Telecaster Pickup (especially the bridge pickup) look old! Don't get me wrong...I'm only talking of comsetically ageing it so it looks like those that Alan Hamel sells or those Lollar Pickups that have been aged by Jonathan Wilson ( http://www.songsofjonathanwilson.com/GVCGLollarAL3.htm ) ....I don't want to alter the sound, only the appearance! Strat Pickups are an easy one...just scruff em up and throw them in strong coffee or tea, but...what's to do to make a brand spankin' new Tele Pickup not look odd in a relic guitar????

Yeah...a happy B-Day from Germany as well...

Looks great so far...this is something I'll keep my eye on because I have a feeling that this neck is going to be great...

I've just been looking through the pics of the link you provided as well as valenteguitars.com and I must say that your photos are really inspiring and really want me to get something started as well!