First and second build (At the same time)

Chocklit_Thunda · 2012-12-19T23:07:39+00:00

Hey this is my first build and I'm doing 2 guitars at once (I don't know why.... :sorry: ) I REGRET NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!! ? ? ? Anyway I'm building a 335 style hollowbody (Maple and mahogany) and a Pine Telecaster (Maple neck, rosewood fretboard) Anyway here's the story so far.... I started with the 335, cut and shaped the mahogany by hand because my router couldn't manage the hardness of the wood... and still waiting on some birdseye maple for the top and bottom the router is a Triton 1400W plunge router... It should have been able to do the job but the moment it touched the mahogany the bit would slam the wood causing massive chip outs and kick the wood away rather violently so i shaped using a belt and disc sander and finished it by hand. (Any advice here would be great) ? And as for the Tele, after the router destroyed the edge of the mahogany, almost taking my hand with it, my uncle had a bit of a fit about routing the inside of the mahogany (the hollow wings) and wanted me to abandon the project because I'm not experienced etc etc.... Naturally stubborn as I am I said no and said I'd build a solid body first out of a softer wood to show him that the router/bit is the problem and not me. I spent all of today shaping the body and hopefully tomorrow I can have the pickup routs done ? As for pics heres the progress (In chronological order) so far..... 335 The 2 piece mahogany body being joined The body shape of the 335 The paper template to be transferred to a wooden one (Yes the three pickups are happening! ? '57 classic neck, P94 middle and Burstbucker 3 bridge ? ) Fastforward in time and here's the body ? Tele Pine being joined My Dad routing the template (they still don't trust me.......) rough cut Smooth 8) My super awesome powers of grain matching ? That's the bottom All my hard work these past 2 days converting a 2 wire to 4 wire pickup ? Mad skills! The Zebra BB3 was a mistake though..... And thats what I got so far ? I'll try to keep you guys posted on the progress

Chocklit_Thunda

Yeah we were experimenting with shaping the sides down using all the various methods... We did the rough cut on the bandsaw and attempted shaping on the router (disaster) so i ended up using a disc, belt and spindle sander to do all the body work ? hopefully the i can rout the inside of the body, making small passes each time, to form the hollow wings

D-Man

Loving this build! Following other builds is about as close as I'm getting to a build... Its not easy convincing a parent to shell out cash for tools and materials that might be horribly wasted... :'(

Keep up the posts, can't wait to see how this turns out ?

Chocklit_Thunda

D-Man wrote Loving this build! Following other builds is about as close as I'm getting to a build... Its not easy convincing a parent to shell out cash for tools and materials that might be horribly wasted... :'(

Keep up the posts, can't wait to see how this turns out ?

Thanks D-Man! ? Yeah it does take a lot of convincing but just remember that the parts are mostly reusable if one build fails... Part of the reason I started the pine body so soon after my 335 ? To get comfortable with the powertools and stuff before I hacked a nice slab of mahogany ?

As for the posts I'm still waiting on parts for the Tele to arrive... As for the 335 i have to redo the template so that i can rout out the body in my spare time

peterleroux

Looking good.
Where are you getting your parts from? and are you buying or building a neck?

Chocklit_Thunda

Thanks ?
I decided to try out Guitarfetish this time around (the Tele) ? they seemed to have all the components needed to build a guitar so I placed a big order with them to try them out ?

As for the 335 I ordered real Gibson parts (off amazon and had a friend in the US ship them over) a few years ago to build my dream guitar but the build got delayed as I was in and out of work last year and swamped by portfolios for University admission....

I didn't skimp on the Tele though! ? just because I ordered GFS it may seem that way but I ordered the best I could afford (no clearance section stuff here...) pro series vintage wound pickups and the vintage spec bridge and stuff. For this one I'm trying to make it as true to the original as possible

With the 335 I'm going all out and making (in my mind) the guitar to end all guitars ? I've got a 57 classic for the neck, a burstbucker 3 for the bridge and a P94 humbucker size P90 for the middle. Both the humbuckers have Seymour Duncan Triple shot mounting rings for individual coil split and phase switching and push pull Pots for series parallel between both humbuckers. I also want a bypass for the bridge pickup so that I can get a Bridge/neck option and an all on option and possibly a piezo/mic pickup (still a work in progress). A built in tuner is also in the works ?

As for necks.... Well I'm not nearly confident enough to attempt building one.... I bought both the necks :-\ the Tele gets an unfinished gfs Tele neck and the 335 gets a mighty mite les paul replacement neck (the quality of this neck is mind blowingly good!)

I do plan on building a neck in the future though! ? hopefully a Thunderbird neck through bass! Big plans!

Chocklit_Thunda

My parts are here!!!! ? ? ?
I had my doubts but the service from Guitarfetish was great! All my parts came packed well and wrapped properly! Now the only thing that remains is to test the quality ? Everything feels well built.... We shall see!

Mock up with the body. Bridge and covers have all arrived.

Two necks! The mighty mite one feels superb! As for the GFS one, its well made but needs a lot of work! It's rough....

Stuff!!!! Over here we've got 3 push pulls for the 335, 2 full wiring kits (1 strat, 1 les paul), 5 les paul 3 way switches, 1 fender standard 5 way, 1 fender super switch 5 way, 4 black knobs, 2 black knobs with mother of pearl inlay, Gibson tune-o-matic bridge and fine tuning tailpiece, black string ferrules, 2 RadioShack killswitches and of course, my favourite items, the Seymour Duncan Triple shot mounting rings! ?

Just pickups for daaaays!!
From the back left to right: GFS pro series Overwound Tele bridge pickup, set of genuine Fender standard Tele pickups, GFS pro series Vintage Tele neck pickup, Gibson '57 classic, Gibson P94T (bridge model), Gibson Burstbucker #3, Duncan USM SC101 mid, Vintage Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates Plus (thanks Nico! ? ), Duncan USM SC101 neck. (fat strat build in the future! ? )

Hopefully I can get on with the build now ?

Chocklit_Thunda

Arise, old thread, from the ashes and annoy the frequent posters of this forum! I made some progress but forgot to take pics.... My bad... anway I have a question for any tele owners here.

Routed my neck pocket 17mm deep and attempted to string it up without any electronics just to see the action etc... problem is that the neck seems way high... the strings literally run over the 21st fret and then to the bridge... can someone measure how high their neck extends up from the neck pocket/body? I have a feeling I may have to rout my neck deeper... so yeah if someone could just measure how far the neck sticks out of the pocket that would be awesome ? I'll take some pics once I get some work done on the 335

Nicholas-L

These builds are looking Great :goodtimes:

Chocklit_Thunda

Nicholas L wrote These builds are looking Great :goodtimes:

Thanks! ? Still waiting to rerout the tele neck pocket and hopefully that one will be ready to go by the end of the week/month/year ?

Chocklit_Thunda

Bumpity bump

Anyone got the height that the neck pokes up above the neck pocket for me? I routed the neck pocket to 17mm and the strings still sit touching the fretboard... The saddles have to be jacked up sky high to get workable (though buzzy) action out of it...

Can someone give me the ideal height it should stick out above the neck pocket?

peterleroux

My Classic Vibes 50s Tele has the side of the neck projecting above the body by 6mm on both bass and trenles edges. Pocket is roughly 17mm, heel is 23mm deep.

This is a Squier but supposedly parts-compatible with US Fenders I.e full size body etc

EDIT: I can't see an easy way to measure or check this, but Ot looks like the neck is either shimmed, or the neck pocket route tself has a slight angle on it so the neck is not parallel to the body but angles forward

Chocklit_Thunda

Hmmm ive never heard of a neck being angled forward. :-\
my neck pocket sits at about 21mm deep to get a decent action ???

peterleroux

How thick is the neck from front to back? Mine is only 23mm, so a 22mm rout would put the fretboard below the scratchplate

Like I say, I'm not certain about the neck angle, it just looks like it might be angled

Chocklit_Thunda

Ah well my neck is abiut 26 to 26.5mm so I think the extra depth was needed.
Thanks for the info! ? I think I have mine down to the same so hopefully I can get this neck pocket out of the way

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