Cabronita Thinline Build

nicovlogg

Hopefully, you've all forgotten slightly about the beautiful LP's built by Lapdawg, and hopefully Rikus' beautiful Cabronita is slightly in the back of your minds, because here I present to you my much less impressive project of the last year and a half:

The Chime Master.

A cabronita style thinline telecaster, made of exotic woods and even more exotic mistakes.

Let the build thread begin!

rikus

YES!

edit:

nicovlogg wrote: A cabronita style thinline telecaster, made of exotic woods...

Details man!

nicovlogg wrote: ...and even more exotic mistakes.

haha, half the fun is solving these!

Looking forward to this one!

Chocklit_Thunda

Is this the one we did the binding channel on?? About damn time! ?

Also, I might be in this thread! So brace yourself for a a glimpse of the elusive Chocolatis Thundaris 8)

nicovlogg

Rikus wrote: Details man!

Thanks Rikus - there's some Ebony, Walnut, Bubinga and African Mahogany in this one!

Chocklit_Thunda wrote: Is this the one we did the binding channel on?? About damn time! ?

Indeed!

nicovlogg

As with any good guitar thread, I guess it begins with fantasy. I was fortunate enough to play the special edition Cabronita that was standing in Jean Village, falling in love instantly. Andy McGibbons came in as soon as I was done and bought it. I had to have one.

Norman86

Jeez, talk about a cliffhanger Nico...
Come on dude... More peektures!

nicovlogg

My inspirations:

rikus

What exactly is your inspiration from the last pic? Please say you are going to Bigsby it (I also really like that forearm countour)?!

Chocklit_Thunda

Rikus wrote: What exactly is your inspiration from the last pic? Please say you are going to Bigsby it (I also really like that forearm countour)?!

Filtertrons ? the body is routed for them

Wizard

Some unforgiving routing required

Gearhead

Wizard wrote: Some unforgiving routing required

Template & corner predrill = you'll be fine

rikus

Gearhead wrote: Template & corner predrill = you'll be fine

Exactly! The less you actually have to route the less there is to go wrong.

nicovlogg

Rikus wrote: What exactly is your inspiration from the last pic? Please say you are going to Bigsby it (I also really like that forearm countour)?!

Still undecided on the Bigsby. Currently have one on my other tele and might like to keep it that way. Definitely the colour, wood choice for the neck as well as control layout.

nicovlogg

Sourcing the wood was the first mission. I had decided on a mahogany for aesthetic as well as traditional reasons. After many many e-mails, I found a really beautiful blank of Tiama from Red Ivory Trading. Barry was super helpful and got me two pieces sufficiently sized for about 3 or 4 1-peice body blanks. Tiama is a mahogany-like wood from central Africa which has a beautiful colour and isn't too heavy - hollowed for a thinline it would yield a perfectly weighted body.

For the cap, I found a beautiful piece of Bubinga in Knysna at Exotic Woods. It would require bookmatching but that was a challenge I was keen to attempt.

Gearhead

Chocklit_Thunda wrote: Filtertrons ? the body is routed for them

@ nicovlogg: do you have sum Filtertrons handy already? I'm curious to know what they weigh...

nicovlogg

Gearhead wrote: @ nicovlogg: do you have sum Filtertrons handy already? I'm curious to know what they weigh...

Yep, I have two of the HS Filtertrons. Unfortunately no access to a scale...

Gearhead

Eh... The old balancing trick, maybe with a kg of sugar or something?

nicovlogg

Gearhead wrote: Eh... The old balancing trick, maybe with a kg of sugar or something?

According to a quick search they're about 227g?

First with a large table saw, and then by cutting through the middle section with a band saw from the Stone Age, I split the Bubinga blank. The atom is next. It was aligned and glued.

And nicely flattened.

And the end result: a pretty decently bookmatched, thin piece of Bubinga - ready for use as a cap. Very proud of this for a first attempt!

rikus

Very nice! That's looking great. Keen to see the figure on that wood pop with some finish.

nicovlogg

I went Silverton Timber Merchants to get my blanks thicknessed a little. While waiting in line at the thicknesser a guy starts up a conversation with me, says he has a CNC machine. (Cue purists getting hot around the collar). I've always wanted to use one of those on a guitar, so I set up a CAD drawing, and we start cutting a few weeks later.