My tele (esquire) build is officially underway...

ratter

ratter

New member
I got the bug to put together a guitar and decided to dive in headfirst and build from scratch rather than put together parts. I've talked to some people here about it who expressed interest, so I thought I'd show some of the progress so far.

I started with raw 6/4 ("six-quarter", 1.5 inch) maple and some black walnut scraps from a cool local lumber place. How cool? Well when I explained to the dude that I wanted to build guitars and what I needed the walnut for, he dug through his piles for some cutoffs the lengths that I needed and gave them to me for free. :rock:

In a nutshell, I made templates from drawings/blueprints available online...and cut those templates out of MDF. Then I joint/plane the maple to the correct thickness, attach the templates and mark the outline. Then the shape gets roughcut and routed to the finished outline shape.

I made the single-action vintage style truss rod out of 3/16" steel rod and the anchor and adjustment nut out of 3/8" rod. Since this is a one-piece neck, the rod gets installed through the hole in the headstock into a channel routed from the back of the neck and then the slot gets covered with a walnut skunk stripe and the insertion point on the headstock gets a walnut plug. Fender sometimes used koa back in the day too, apparently. Test the rod and make sure it works - it does, yay!

Next step was shaping the back of the neck - done by hand with rasps, files, a spokeshave (kind of like a handheld planer with handlebars), and a shit ton of sanding. It still needs a bit more.

Next step was to radius the fretboard - I went for a straight 10" radius to match my favorite guitar. This is also done by hand with a sanding block curved to the proper radius.

What's left to do....cut the fret slots (the jig is shown in the last pic) and nut slot, cut and shape the nut, drill and install front and side fret markers, then install the frets and the nut. Then I'll finish sand it and finish it in Tru-Oil. I'll drill the full-sized tuner holes once I choose and buy the tuners...but they'll likely just be Kluson style. And a string tree if the tuners aren't staggered.







 
That RULES!!!! Keep us posted on progress - I love from scratch building like this! Where'd ya learn to build?

Steve
 
sah5150":1jjj7gau said:
That RULES!!!! Keep us posted on progress - I love from scratch building like this! Where'd ya learn to build?

Steve
Click to expand...

Just from threads like this! On various guitar and bass forums...

I don't know my ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to this stuff...I'm just figuring it out as I go. I've got a pile of at least a dozen false-starts on the neck. As I screwed up something, instead of trying to fix it, I just tossed it and started over, figuring I'd get more practice that way.

But I'm pretty obsessed now, which is good, because I lost the obsession with actually playing the guitar years ago...
 
WOW!!!!!!!

Congrats on your patience to get where you are with the neck, I used every word Carlin spoke about not saying while building stupid lockers for the mud room and they are not near what you are doing. From what I hear you should let the neck settle before the final radius work due to settling.

So you made the truss rod?

Great work bro, you have my respect for trying :thumbsup:
 
Digital Jams":2e4falpq said:
WOW!!!!!!!

Congrats on your patience to get where you are with the neck, I used every word Carlin spoke about not saying while building stupid lockers for the mud room and they are not near what you are doing. From what I hear you should let the neck settle before the final radius work due to settling.

So you made the truss rod?

Great work bro, you have my respect for trying :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Thanks guys. It's fun for sure. But I have definitely used my share of four-letter words and I'm not even half done with the guitar yet!

And yeah, I made the truss rod. Nothing real difficult...3/16" steel rod threaded a little bit on each end 10-32. Then I made an anchor out of 3/8" rod, basically making a nut for the headstock end and peening it in place on one end of the rod so it can't come off. And the adjustment nut is also 3/8" rod, an inch or so long. Cut the slots into the adjustment ends with the dremel, and tap some 10-32 threads into the other end. I'd never used a tap and die before in my life, so if I can do it...

Stew Mac sells nice double-action truss rods, and I tried one, but you've got to hog out a huge channel for them, basically from the nut through the end of the heel. I just didn't dig it.

By far the trickiest part for me so far has been cutting the curved truss channel. I must've built 5 different jigs to make that cut and I will likely do 5 more before I'm satisfied with it. And then you've got to line up the holes coming from either end so they meet the slot in the right area. :doh:

Thanks for the reminder on the movement...I'll check the neck again before fretting to make sure nothing's moved. Some of the pieces I've had, it would go twisty in a day or two. I just tossed 'em. This board has been very solid.

I've got some nice hard ash for the body. If all goes according to plan the body will be black, 2-piece.
 
Time to cut some slots...

The jig with the 25.5" fender scale notched template sitting in it. The jig is designed to cut slots in flat fingerboard blanks, not full one-piece necks. So to accommodate the headstock, I cut the upper-left piece of the jig off with a hacksaw:





The neck gets stuck to the notched template with carpet tape. There's a pin inside the jig that engages the notch in the template. So you put the pin in the first notch and cut a slot. Slide the second notch to the pin, and cut the second slot, so on and so forth.

Cut some practice slots in a scrap piece. You can see I also used this piece to test a couple frets and a position marker:



Triple-check to make sure the neck is aligned such that the slots will be perpendicular to the center-line of the neck, and then start cuttin'. I'll clear out the wood between these two cuts to make the nut slot:



This little Stewmac tool lets you gauge the depth of the cut and also works well to clean out the slot of sawdust:



Halfway:



Twenty-one good little soldiers:



Sharp pencil and flexible ruler to mark the Xs for the position dots:



Split the difference for the 12th fret:



Next up will be drilling and installing the markers and sanding them flush.
 
Nothing like taking proper tools and taking the hacksaw to them :D I was crapping just drilling out the holes on my scalloped neck, having the time invested to create the neck and now that jig has to be balls on or intonation will never be right :cry:

Be careful when routing the body, watch the grain as when you go across it you could rip away extra wood from the grain seperating. Sharp bit, high speed, and slow is your friend.

Thanks for the progress report!
 
Digital Jams":36ov5wp6 said:
Nothing like taking proper tools and taking the hacksaw to them :D I was crapping just drilling out the holes on my scalloped neck, having the time invested to create the neck and now that jig has to be balls on or intonation will never be right :cry:

Be careful when routing the body, watch the grain as when you go across it you could rip away extra wood from the grain seperating. Sharp bit, high speed, and slow is your friend.

Thanks for the progress report!
Click to expand...

I fought the router a lot at first. Lots of burning and tear out. Then I wised up and followed the method of somebody who posts on tdpri.com - cut the rough shape out on the bandsaw. Then it goes to the spindle sander and I sand it way, way down. I actually only leave about half the pencil line. That way, the router only has the tiniest bit of material to remove. Once I started doing that, the routing has been going so much better. You still have to do climb cuts on the end grain but they're not quite as scary when you're just barely shaving it. No tearout, no chipping, and only the tiniest bit of burning which you can see on the heel shot in the first post. When funds allow I want to get a good spiral bit. I have a feeling it will cut better than the run-of-the-mill straight bits in that scenario.

That said, I fully expect to waste a body or three. :D I've got enough ash for 5 or 6 to get me started...
 
Dots



The marker holes get drilled. A pilot-tipped 15/64 bit for the front dots. The neck is stuck to a piece of plywood to make it easier to handle on the drill press table:



Dots are pressed in:



Sanded flush...



And we've got dots!



Side dots are the same story. Neck is mounted on end to plywood, and propped up to get the heel end level, then I drilled holes for 1/16" dots. The material comes in sticks - you stick it in the hole, cut it off, then sand it flush:





Also cleared out the nut slot and rough-fit the Tusq nut...it will get glued in, and a little more rough shaping after the frets. But cutting the actual string slots will come during the final guitar setup.







This will be my last chance to have easy access to the fretboard before the frets go in, so I'll probably do some fine sanding on it.

Then...fretwire.... :scared:
 
Sure you know this but sand with the grain on that fretboard.....in case you did not know. IMO I would do the final sanding before frets with 0000 wool for that babies ass feel.

It is going to be called the Rat-o-caster right? :D
 
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IMG_3967.jpg
 
Damn you are flying!!!!!!

Let me introduce myself, I am Mr. sueyourass and I have been retained by Fender.........................
 
Digital Jams":2sri1lb7 said:
Damn you are flying!!!!!!

Let me introduce myself, I am Mr. sueyourass and I have been retained by Fender.........................
Click to expand...

lol...nothing the bandsaw can't fix!

As for me flying, I left out a few steps....this is one of the scrap piles....

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