Fat body Tele project

[Blazer]

As you all can recall I started the build of two matching Pine body Telecasters with which I intended to use up a pile of spare parts I had lying around. That plan has changed because I decided to make the necks myself and buy new bridges for those two guitars.

Be that as it may, I still have that pile of spare parts which includes a stunning Birds eye maple neck and it would be a shame NOT to use that neck so I decided to make a third tele body so I could use that neck and I also decided to go for that tried and tested wood combination that makes a rock guitar: Mahogany and maple.


Book match baby, you can see the join but it's not really that bad.


Side view: you can see that I used two routing bits, a smaller one to do the top and a bigger one for the rest of the body, this was because hard rock maple can splinter when routed and this way I avoided chipping. This picture also shows the thickness of the body. It's thicker than a standard tele body but that will translate in sustain.


The back: as you can see, a big "Eye" where a branch sat is prominent at the bass side. But I don't mind, I think it gives the guitar something of it's own. My Boss already nicknamed it "The Jupiter's storm guitar" because of this figure in the wood.


And a little composition with some stuff I had lying around, including the birds eye maple neck I intend to use. I'm not really sure about giving it a traditional Tele pickup set up though, I'm more of a humbucker guy but the options are still open.

I already got in contact with the guy who painted my Red explorer to finish the body in translucent red for me. This will be a stunner.

[Blazer]

A little update, I filled the "Eye" in the back of the body with two component filler. The transparent stuff also gives a little preview on what the mahogany will look like when finished.



And this is the thing I used, dependable stuff.


A little water on the top esposes that pretty texture of the maple here. I already decided that this will be a twin humbucker, rear-routed guitar, no pickguard because I feel it would be a crime to cover up such a pretty piece of Maple: it needs to be seen in full.

Tomorrow I'll start working on routing the cavities and rounding off the body edges, my camera will come along with me so there's eye candy coming up too.

[skorb]

nice top, that has the potential to turn out great.
a better piece of mahogany would have helped the cause though.

[Blazer]

Well it took me a whole lot longer than anticipated but I did a lot of work today.


I routed the neck pocket, the body rounding, the pickup cavity and...


...The back cavity.


It's starting to look like a tele, Although I'm not sure yet if that will be the bridge I'm gonna use here.

[jgcable]

Very nice work. String thru with brass ferruls would be very cool. You could fan them out. The Jupiter Eye on the back is very unique.

[Mr.Shreddy]

+1 the eye looks unique and glad to see it coming along! -looks great

[skorb]

looks like a Carvin with those rounded body edges.

[VitaminG]

looks like a Carvin with those rounded body edges.

that's just what I was thinking.

btw, 2 hum teles are cool!

[Blazer]

Okay you guys, tomorrow will be the day that I finish the routing and drilling work on my tele body. After that it will be sanding and finishing. I have two options on where to go with this tele.


Either with or without pickup rings, what would you guys say is the best option of the two.

As for color I'm still biased to do in in translucent red.

The body after I used two component filler on several places to fill in cracks and shallow dents in the wood where the top got chipped during planing.


What I need to do now is sand the body smooth again and drill it for a Fender Non trem Strat bridge, string canals and string ferrules.

On the back I'm planning to rout a recessed heel pocket similar to the one on this Ibanez guitar.


I need to do this because of the neck bolts not being long enough to bolt it secure in place and it also make it easier to play high up the neck.

As always I'll keep you guys informed.

[Learn Guitars]

Looking good. Try thick superglue on your cracks. It is much more controllable and easier to sand to dimension after it hardens.

[Blazer]

Well today was the day for me to rout out the scallop in which the neck plate will sit. And while I was at it I also screwed the neck on to see if that needs adjusting as well.

[Blazer]

Here's the body inside the workshop yesterday after I applied the first layers of amber shellac.







And here it is today after a wet sanding and a second layer. The pictures don't do it justice, in person the color is much deeper in shade.

[Dinky93]

Very nice looking! With some color that Jupiters Eye looks awesome.

[m2pmd70]

I plan to try something similar... eventually. I have an unfinished CAD drawing and a crappy CNC machine so far.

The current version of the daydream is a single hum 24-fret carved-top tele shape with rear neck plate scoop and front horn recess. Kinda like a tele humped a dinky I guess. I really wanna do a camphor burl top too, but this being my first attempt at guitar-shaped wood hackery...