I had been playing a Squier Strat for a while, and started wondering what difference a higher quality instrument would make. Looking closer at all the guitars got me thinking about how they work and how they are built. I couldn't believe the cost of some electric guitars! I just wasn't willing to spend that kind of money just to find out that I liked my cheap Squier just the same. So, I poked around online to learn about building guitars.
One forum in particular had an overwhelming quality of information to get me really excited about the idea of building my own electric guitar.
TDPRI had plenty of detailed build threads to show me lots of ways to make it happen.
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| Rough cut mahogany |
The only problem was that I didn't have tools or experience or space to work the way these telecaster guys could work from their garages and basements. I had to get creative and use the skills and tools I had available. I remembered the CNC router that
Club Workshop had just installed -- lucky for me, I'm good with CAD! I downloaded some free CAD software and got to work designing my guitar. I struggled trying to figure out a shape for the body, and eventually ended up deciding to copy the classic Telecaster body shape. As I was learning so much about different guitars, the Tele became my favorite standard design because of it's simplicity and tone. It didn't hurt that some of my favorite recording artists play Teles, too.
I ordered some curly maple for necks online and somewhere along the way, I found a huge chunk of 14" wide 8/4 mahogany at a local hardwood store. All of a sudden, I had enough wood to make three or four guitars, but I decided to start with two.
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| After CNC processing |
The CNC plan worked out great for the most part.. The first body sustained an error in my plot where the bit dipped into the neck pocket about a 1/4 inch. I made sure to fix the problem before the second body was cut. The second neck bland that I put down wasn't aligned correctly, and ended up with about 1/8" missing from the very end of the headstock shape.
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| Tung Oil Finish |
The mahogany turned out much prettier than I was expecting and I decided to use a simple finish and show off the wood grain. Minwax Tung Oil Finish was used on both guitars, but I decided to stain the second one ebony before the Tung Oil.
I only got around to building one neck.. and ended up purchasing a second neck to hold me over until I know how to make better necks (new neck coming soon!).
I wanted to something a little different with the second Tele.. I had black stain left over from the table project, so I tested on some scrap and decided to go for it. Black stain and then the same tung oil finish after that.
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| Twin Teles |
I started out using cheap parts (as cheap as I could find) and ended up having to upgrade certain components because they were too cheap to function properly. Here's the rundown on parts:
