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I've finished the project - and to my total surprise, the guitar is not only playable, but it sounds quite nice as well. This is my first Telecaster, so I'm not sure exactly what it's supposed to sound like, but its got the brightness on the bridge pickup, depth on the neck & sounds quite different from any of my other guitars. Take a look here: http://psip.home.comcast.net/ and click on the bottom link. I guess one measure of success was my son informing me that I'd be building his next guitar! Thanks for all the help from folks on this forum. Rich

Thanks for the pointer - the diagram will help me figure this whole thing out. Just finished sanding (probably not as much as I should have, but I run out of patience) & put on the 1st coat of tung oil (2 more coats to come). The walnut darkened up quite a bit (and looks even better). I'm glad I put the cherry on the back - some randomly placed dark spots showed up once I put the tung oil on. If nothing goes wrong, I should be able to assemble & tweak this weekend. Rich

Thanks for all the positive comments. I'm going to start the finish sanding tonight. I plan on using a tung oil finish - gloss on the body, satin on the neck. Still trying to work out the wiring - I'm going to have each pickup going through a mini-switch, with the third switch used (probably) to select series/parallel - I originally was thinking of using it for phasing, but after hearing that a tele out of phase sounds awful, changed my mind. Anyone have a pointer to a wiring diagram for a tele with series/parallel, using mini-switches, rather than a three (or 5 way)?? Rich

A while back, I got some help & encouragement from folks on this discussion group about building my 1st guitar - a Telecaster(ish) guitar with a body made of Walnut & Cherry. I'm now at the finishing stages and things appear to be working out quite well: http://psip.home.comcast.net/telebody.htm If you visit - check out my other recent projects at: http://psip.home.comcast.net/ Rich

Fixed the web pages (didn't notice that my editor had thrown in some file:// type links - rather than the correct ones. Try now... Rich

After the replies I had a little while back about using 3/4" Walnut for a body, I decided to go ahead & try to build my 1st body. I couldn't find any reasonably priced 1" think wood to go under the walnut (as some folks had suggested), but I found a nice piece of 3/4" cherry (very reasonably priced) - and picked up a 1/4" thick piece of poplar. The body is a 3 layer sandwich: Walnut (top) / poplar (contrast) / cherry (bottom). I managed to cut out the PU "routs" and the control cavity - as well as creating the wiring channel (one advantage of working with these layers is that you can cut through the top one before laminating - and route wiring channels on the underside. The body glued up fine & the initial shaping cut on the bandsaw worked well. Now that I've gotten this far successfully, its time to spend some money & buy parts (up to this point, only $15 invested). Here's some progress photos: Guitar Projects

Thanks for all the encouragement & suggestions - I'm going to try to find another wood for the bottom half (do some hunting around during the holiday break). I dusted off my jointer (hasn't been used in about 8 years) & trued up one side of a board - turns out there was a little side bow (corrected by the jointer). Tomorrow, I'll cut out two clear areas & edge join. It'll take me a while to go through this project (too many other things going on at once) - but I'll drop some progress notes as I go (and pics, if I can figure out how). Rich

Good ideas. Any suggestions on where to look for 1" thick alder or basswood? Rich

I've had some walnut boards lying around in the basement for many years - 3/4" thick (surfaced) - with widths up to 7". Even though it may not be the best way to do things - any clear detriments if I make a tele body out of 4 pieces (2Xedge glued - then glued face/face). Advantages: 1) Wood is available - essentially free (paid for many moons ago). 2) I love walnut (appearance) 3) Wood is stable - had plenty of time to stabilize 4) Pickup "route" and wire channel real simple - pickup by through hole in top piece (3/4" seems to be a normal pickup rout depth) - wire channel - easy route on bottom of top piece Disadvantages 1) 4 pieces of wood instead of 1 - affect tone? 2) Need to offset centerline to avoid weakness? 3) Maybe a tad thin (1.5" instead of 1.75) - could make getting switch into control cavity a bit more interesting. Any comments - thoughts?? Rich

I just finished putting together one of those Saga strat kits you find on ebay (figured I'd go simple before taking the plunge on building from scratch). I'm having troubles with the neck - I think it has a bit of back-bow (major buzzing on all the lower frets - neck shows small, but visible bowing). I've loosened the truss rod considerably & waited a few days - things seem to have gotten better, but there's still some bow & buzz. Any suggestions? What would be the next step to pursue - a little shim to change the neck angle? Rich (newbie at this)