# 69 Thinline Tele Build



## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

Good morning. A friend of mine owns a 1969 Tele thinline, which I had a chance to play the other month, pre-COVID. I'm also working on some custom bodies and necks for another Luthier friend of mine who has a line of Tele "esque" builds. I'm just finishing his CAM files and would like to build a test body for the guitar noted above.

The body is pretty much complete but it is not a thinline, so I will be hogging out a good portion and adding an f hole. This could take me a long time to finish as I am pretty busy with work and have a lot of other guitar , and not, related things going on. But that is not new. I also cut down a large Ash tree about 7 yrs ago and slabbed it up and it has been stickered and air drying since. I've cut a lot of it up for coffee table tops and charcuterie boards but made sure to save a bunch of the nicest pieces for one piece bodies. This is white ash so makes sense to do a completely chambered body.

So here is some of the wood. I'll post them as thumbnails. The slabs are quite large and I have cut them down but only planed the one -




































and a charcuterie board for my better half. ;-)









It's funny the one piece almost looks like korina. I have not weighed it yet but will do that when I get a square piece that I can easily measure.

Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

I'm a CAD monkey by training so always start out with CAD. The nice thing about Teles are there is no shortage of information and files to get for free. Here are some of the good ones I've downloaded.


















and here are the drawings I have created in CAD -









Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

I've updated my drawings to be a little more vintage correct and a little less vintage correct. ;-) Apparently the 69 thinline had a back plate instead of a top plate. So I drew up how a 69 thinline Tele with a bigsby may look.










Now having said that and looking at my ash. I'm gonna ditch the pickguard and add some binding. The binding will be around the body and around the f-hole. I will use black walnut for this. Since no pick guard means no access, I'll create access on the back with a control opening and cover plate.










I'm also thinking a black walnut back plate. It will look like just binding from the side and I can do a two piece back with walnut, which I have in abundance. Here are a couple of renders from my CAM software.



















Cheers Peter.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

I have some northern ash as well, curious to how yours plays out.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

Budda said:


> I have some northern ash as well, curious to how yours plays out.


It seems to be very white and clear with a pretty defined grain. It also seems lighter than I would have expected. It should definitely be interesting.

Cheers Peter.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Silvertone said:


> It seems to be very white and clear with a pretty defined grain. It also seems lighter than I would have expected. It should definitely be interesting.
> 
> Cheers Peter.


I have two slabs and they were very heavy. Not sure how much moisture they've lost, if any.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

Budda said:


> I have two slabs and they were very heavy. Not sure how much moisture they've lost, if any.


These ones were drying for about 5yrs. They are at least 50% or less the wieght they were. I haven't measured the moisture content. You can just tell they are very dry. I have a few slabs cut but none that are perfectly square to measure and weight to get a b.f. weight. I'll weigh the body when it's complete.

Regards Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

I've selected a piece of ash.









onto the jointer - 








thickness planed - 









onto the CNC machine for indexing pins. This will allow me to take off and flip to do multiple machining on both sides and stay perfectly aligned.









I'm going to cut the f-hole and possibly a very wide binding strip from walnut. This way I won't be doing any tedious binding with the walnut.

cad file -









I've cut the route for the f-hole and found a small piece to cut the inlay.









Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

Sourcing the back plate. I didn't have any walnut the right size in the shop. So back to the pile I go. I cut down a friend's black walnut tree about 3 yrs ago and I've slabbed and had it stickered since then. Should be dry enough.









Grabbed a slab and onto the jointer - 









Big difference between unjointed and jointed - 









Lopped off a chunk and whittled it down to size.









one straight edge, so I can rip to width on my table saw -









Getting closer. Just gotta re-saw now - 









Got 4 slices out of this. I'll make up two book matched sets. One for the backplate and the other for the binding strip, control cavity cover, and neck pickup ring and possibly a veneer for the neck.

Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

I jointed the thick plate down a bit closer to the others as my thickness sander doesn't take a lot of material fast. Once I got them all close I thickness sanded them all to the same thickness.









I sanded them down to about 0.27" and decided to bookmatch the backplate with the sap wood joint in the middle. I have seen that on acoustic builds and kind of like the look.









I glued up the other side as well and then moved on to the f -hole inlay. Cut a small block to the right thickness and placed on the CNC machine.










and glued it in. No need for clamps. It was very tight. So just hammered it in and I'll plane it flush tomorrow.









Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

Routed for the channel in the top of the Ash. It's wider than the inlay. I thought it may have been too problematic for something so large to get seated and tight but in hindsight I may have been mistaken.









Cut out the inlay. Way over sized so it wouldn't blow out when I cut it and I could clamp it easier when placing.










sanded the edges and ready to test fit.









Test fit. As I noted above I intentionally cut the route wider than the inlay. I think it would have been better to do the same size so I could hammer in just like the F hole. I might have to make up little wedges to tighten up the seam in a couple of places. It's not too bad but I'm looking for better! ;-)









Looks good in the pic. Just don't get too close. As I said I'll cut some little wedges and make sure the joint is tight all the way around.

Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

Well here is my binding experiment. I think it may have been easier just to bend some wood.  Gee, I wonder why it takes me so long to build a guitar? LOL.










Lots of glue, some tiny toggle clamps, hard maple wedges shaped on my oscillating sander, and #4 - 1" long number 0 robertson drive in pre-drilled holes. Should be interesting. I'll let this dry for 24 hrs and continue with the machining. I won't find out how it looks until I cut my last pass on my CNC machine because I keep it in the block as long as I can so I can clamp it down and register using the dowels, which I will have to machine again in the top. What was I saying about taking so long to build a guitar?? 🤣

Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

Got up early and sanded the top to see the joint for the binding and f hole. I am very happy with the results. I was a little skeptical as there seemed to be some gaps but I think it might have been just shadow from the fact that the inlay is slightly higher than the top. We'll see whether the side edge is as good. Hopefully it will be as it has the benefit of being a flat surface and I screwed down the binding quite well from the top.🤞 So well in fact I had to drill out one of the #4 wood screws. Luckily it was pretty soft metal and far enough away from the actual binding edge. 









blow up at the f-hole









I've already re-drilled my indexing pins on the top so I can flip over and chamber the back. So far so good. 👍

Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

Time for chambering. I hope I have lined up the front and the backproperly! 🤞

Here is how the CAM software displays the model and the toolpaths. Red plunges, Blue cuts, and Yellow moves above the work piece. I can even generate a simulation to show the bit cutting. It's pretty cool stuff. I try and run the simulation a few times just to make sure it's not colliding with something and to also realize if it is cutting properly in the actual wood.









Not sure if many are interested in this but... I am using a 1/2" endmill ( carbide spiral bit ) and have set it up to cut the pocket in two passes. This means I will be taking over 5/8" for each pass. The only way I can safely do this is by "Scalloping" which means the bit will spiral in to the depth and then take about 1/8" "stepover" amount of wood taken off sideways until it cleans out the whole chamber then it will drop and do the bottom 5/8".

Generally CNC only uses the bottom portion of the carbide bit. These 1/2" spiral bits are expensive and you have to have at least the length of cutter as the depth of the pocket. This pit has a 2" cutter and I am trying to use more of that cutter. In theory I could cut 1 5/16" deep and just adjust the stepover to be very slight and get the best use of this bit. I have not experimented with that type of process, but I should.

Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

Finished up with the chambering and wire channels. Turned out well. Looks like the f hole is in the right spot. 👍 









I will glue up the back now and give it the day to dry.










Glued up with most of my clamps -









While I was waiting for this to be completed I started working on some neck wood. I purchased a quarter sawn hard maple blank that looks like I can get two necks from, if I can be conservative with the placement. I do not have a jig saw, so I just drilled a bunch of holes and cut with a small hand saw.










Jointed and thickness planed. Sitting at almost exactly 1". Looks like I'll do a one piece neck after all. It was actually quite inexpensive. Maple is fairly abundant around here so I should not have been surprised. I got the plank for Can$18 taxes in. As I said, I should get two one piece necks out of this piece.










Cheers Peter.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Love these threads, Peter!


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

Budda said:


> Love these threads, Peter!


Thanks - it's nice to be able to work on guitars a lot more than I have been able to do in the past. Hopefully I can make some decent head way on this one and a few others that are in the works.

Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

Ok - So I have some questions. I am working on my neck model now and I want to comfirm some dimensions before I cut my bridge mounting holes / string through locations. Is there a standard dimension between the scale length, 25.5", and the centerline of the bridge mounting holes or the string through holes? If you haven't noticed this is my first Fender build and I would normally manually place the bridge by intonating. Any advice is greatly appreciated. 🤞

Here is my drawing. I guess my question is - is the 0.278" dimension correct? That is the distance from the scale length to the bridge mounting holes.











I am also trying to make sure that my neck and neck pocket are standard Tele size and shape. I believe they are but want to confirm bridge location. Thanks again.

Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

Still looking for confirmation on the information above although it looks like it should work out fine. Is there a standard offset from the scale length to the string through, or bridge mounting holes for a standard Telecaster Ashtray bridge?

I'm also working on my Telecaster neck. I'm going to try and develop a method to create a one piece maple neck with vintage style truss rod. Here is what I have come up with so far. Again I would like some direction / confirmation that I am on the correct track.

Working it out in CAD -








and creating the model in Fusion 360. There is less to do in the Fusion model because I will have to make a couple of jigs to drill both ends of the neck. So I really just have to have the curved truss rod route worked out. This should be fairly simple in Fusion.









I am not that familiar with Fender guitar designs. Any input is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Regards Peter.


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## MarkM (May 23, 2019)

Hi Peter

Always enjoy your builds and skills! I own 0 telecasters and have never really played one. This tone and big fat neck is somewhat foreign to me. As usual I will follow to the end.

I believe you have more time than you usually have right now and I hope that changes for you soon.

Cheers


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

A quick search here may help answer your question (I don't know, myself)






Telecaster Guitar Forum


TDPRI, short for Telecaster Discussion Page Reissue, is the leading online community and marketplace for Telecaster guitars.




www.tdpri.com


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## nnieman (Jun 19, 2013)

Hey Peter are you looking for a specific measurement?

I can measure my teles, just let me know.

Theres 2 different types of tele bridges - 3 saddle and 6 saddle.

Some 6 saddle fit regular 3 saddle holes, some need to be further back.

Most aftermarket bridges fit the 3 saddle holes - babciz (Im sure i am spelling that wrong), hipshot etc.

Nathan


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## nnieman (Jun 19, 2013)

Here’s some pics


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

Thanks guys. I was just wondering if there was a standard distance from the scale length, 25.5", to the string through or mounting holes. I guess I could measure from the saddles of the bridge as it seems like there are lots of adjustment with these type of bridges. I think I have it figured out. I'm actually cutting some bodies for a friend today, so I could liine up my bridge on his body and see if the same spacing will work on my build.

Cheers Peter.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Not a word of criticism for the fine work shown and described so far, and the colour complement of the woods is sensational. Only one suggestion. There are few tools permitting the unique expressiveness of a Tele, whether chambered or otherwise, as much as a well-placed volume control that can be worked with the pinky finger. The drawings you've shown have the controls situated well out of the way of the bridge plate and anyone doing Pete Townsend "windmills". I wonder if it is possible at this point to situate the volume control in a more reachable-but-not-obstructive location, or is it past the point of no return?


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

So I have decided to add some inlays to the guitar body. Seeing as this one is for me, I'm gonna add a couple of maple leaf inlays in a couple of places on the body. Actually there is a story about this particular inlay. The first guitar my father and I built together which was a Les Paul carved top had a maple leaf inlay. But the reason behind it was because my dad was a general contractor and has done woodworking his whole life. I did not have a shop yet and he was planing, thicknessing, and gluing up the tops while I was working during the week. I called him to see how it went and he said it went good and through that discussion he said he glued up the tops and biscuit joined them. I said WHOA, you what? I guess he had thought about the carving of the top and that may expose the biscuits. Also he was a carpenter and that's just how you joined thin pieces of wood on edge like that. I kinda chuckled and hoped for the best. But not surprisingly we carved into the biscuits and I decided to cover it with a rosewood maple leaf inlay. Here is a pic of my first guitar build from 8 yrs ago.









You can see the biscuit inside the leaf inlay outline. I really liked the inlay and how it looked on the finished guitar. So I will do the same thing on this build. I have updated my renders to show the leaf. I also will put one on the back inside the control cavity cover.


















So I worked on the back control cavity cover. Grabbed an off cut from the ash and re-sawed a chunk off.









cut out the profile and the inlay pocket as well as drilling the screw holes.









I grabbed a piece of walnut about the right size and cut out the inlay. I forgot to get a pic of it cut out but here is the raw piece in the CNC.









and all finished up - glued in, planed and sanded flush.










Does anyone else agonize over getting the gap consistent all the way around the cover? I usually machine a very tight tolerance and then have issues after finish. I went with a bigger gap this time in hopes I could align properly. Should work out.

and a pic of the whole back -










Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

So I did all the final CNC work to the front and cut out the body. Everything went really well until... I blew out some of the binding on the top. It was actually a pretty stupid mistake. When I cut out a guitar body on my machine I offset the cutout toolpath about 1/32" and cut multiple cut down the 1 3/4" to cut the body completely out of the stock. Then I run another path with no offset the full depth of the body, usually, this cleans up the edge of the witness lines from all the small passes to cut out the body. This is where I should've known what would happen. It cut the binding perfectly on the first cutout path but when it did the clean up some of the binding, at the end grain location, blew out. It's about a 4" long piece at the end of the body. I should be able to patch it easy enough but I have to admit I let some 4 letter words fly. Stupid mistake. Oh well, it could've been much worse and other than that I am very happy with the result.

Here is the tearout area - 









I'll trim it flush and cut another piece to fit in there. It should be pretty much invisible but will be a constant reminder to me! :-(

Here is the final result -



























I also counter sunk the holes in the control cavity cover and put the screws in. I'll be putting this body on the shelf for a bit as I work on other stuff and basically did his so I didn't lose or damage the cover. I setup my drill press to the correct height and use a countersink tool that has the same taper as most screws, which is not 90 degrees btw. Took me a lot of head scratching to figure out why the screws never sat correctly.









I still have to do some clean up of the bottom plate and cut and glue up the leaf inlay on the front but I'm pretty happy to be done with the major CNC work.

Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

So today I patched the binding. I took the piece I cut the original binding from and cut a piece right next to the one that blew up. I made a few test strips to see how thin I could cut without it breaking apart. I didn't want to have the same issue again.


















I cut it a little over sized and can trim it down to fit in there. Looks like the grain should match pretty well.










It's a little thicker and a little taller but looks pretty good.









I scraped the top flush and used a template bit to flush trim the edge. I'm pretty happy with it. It didn't blow apart again on the router table which was good.









I still have to do some sanding on the edge of the body but if you didn't know it was there it would be hard to spot. I also finished up the leaf inlay and sanded flush.










Cheers Peter.


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## nnieman (Jun 19, 2013)

Good save!
It looks great, I love the maple leaf inlay

Nathan


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

This is awesome.

I still beat myself up for not having binding in my notes when I commissioned my Ayr tele. 

Next time!


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

nnieman said:


> Good save!
> It looks great, I love the maple leaf inlay
> 
> Nathan


Thanks - yeah the inlays have been working out well for me. I cut the pocket the same size as the inlay and use a 0.024" bit to go around the outside of both. That way I can have as close as possible to a point on inside and outside corners. I sand or scrape a very slight bevel on the underside and glue and clamp. The wood expands with the glue and there is no gap. The leaf is starting to have a special meaning, as it was a fix on my first guitar. I got into this by chance. A friend of mine was a very good guitarist and was diagnosed with cancer. I wanted to spend some time with him so we started playing guitar together. He showed me what he was working on in his basement shop, which was building a Les Paul. My father had just retired and he suggested it would be a good way of spending some time with my dad and building my own guitar. He passed away more than 8 yrs ago now and I have a bunch of tools and jigs from him. I think about him often when building. It was also a great way of spending time with my father and since then I still almost talk with them daily.

Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

So I did a quick mockup and remembered I hadn't cut the jack hole yet. I bought a few spot facers some years ago and thought I'd give those a try.












I drilled a 3/16" hole with a brad point bit for the pilot to follow. I also cut down a piece of 3/16" rod about the correct length and drilled the jack hole.










and installed an electro jack socket. Pretty simple.












I also did a quick mock up to drill all the holes and make sure everything would fit where it should.












I didn't have a neck pup ring, so I might make one out of black walnut and that should be all I need to mock up. I also had a black walnut neck that I cut for a friend of mine so I thought I'd test fit that. I really like that neck and think I will do the same thing for this guitar. Black Walnut neck, maple skunk stripe, and maple finger board. I have a roasted birdseye maple fret board blank but it might be too busy. I might do a mock-up once I have the pup ring and the neck cut.


Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

So as I decided to do a black walnut neck I ripped a quarter sawn chunk off a board I had been saving. The one side of the board was quarter sawn so I cut off about 4" wide.









It was about 1 3/4" thick so I re-sawed it down to about 13/16" so I should be able to get 2 quarter sawn necks that I will add finger boards.










I have to finish up my tool paths for the neck and then I can cut it out.

Cheers Peter.


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## nnieman (Jun 19, 2013)

Silvertone said:


> So I did a quick mockup and remembered I hadn't cut the jack hole yet. I bought a few spot facers some years ago and thought I'd give those a try.
> 
> 
> View attachment 326877
> ...


Thats a great tip

Where did you get the spot facer from?

Nathan


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

Yeah I bought a 3/4" diameter with a 3/16" pilot for reaming truss rod access in vintage Les Pauls. Then bought a couple more sizes for jack holes and other stuff. They are great. They do not wander for obvious reasons.

You can put a 3/16" drill bit in there as well, which works great. Here is a Furuta I did a while back with a crazy drill path for wiring channel.










Cheers Peter.


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## 720Guitars (Jul 5, 2020)

Wow, what a fantastic post this is, the guitar is looking amazing.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

Thanks - I am working on the neck where I can. I have modeled it all in Fusion and have cut a test neck. I've been playing around with workflow ideas of how to do the truss rod route, both for vintage and then a more modern route so I can use up some of my Stew Mac double action rods. This neck tests both and will have what will be a faux skunk stripe. I had a few issues with the tool paths but I guess that is why it's a test neck.

I got my hands on neck pup ring and did the full mock up. Everything seems to work fine.









I had some hard maple and cut it up and made the skunk stripe. That turned out well as I did it on the CNC and it fit perfectly in the slot and I glued it up prior to carving the neck.








Then I took all the parts except for my bridge as I want to keep it on to test fit the neck and check intonation. Just finished up the neck. I cut 1/4" tuner holes as I have some peg head bushing reamers to fine tune.








and back -








I like the contrast of the walnut with the Ash body and I also cut a slice of birdseye hard maple for the fret board.

Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

installed the tuners while I was working on some CNC stuff. I drilled the holes to 1/4" and then use peg head reamers to get the correct size and depth for the bushing only. Not sure how I feel about the tuners sharing a screw on the inside ones. Seemed to work out OK, so I guess it's good.











I modeled up the fret board and developed the tool paths. Here is the machining path for the dot markers, which I will also cut out of black walnut.











and the path for the walnut inlays.











Cutting the dots -











and the start of the fret board. I CNC'd the marker routes first then glued in the dots.











Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

Glued the dots in and let them sit for a couple of hours.











Then cut out the shape of the board and nut slot.










Then radiused the board. It's nice to do it this way so that I do not have to sand the dots flush with the radius.










and the finished board after cutting the slots.











I'm using small holes in the first and last frets as locators for the board on the neck. I drilled the same diameter holes in the neck blank and will use round tooth picks as indexing pins that I can saw out of the slot before fretting.


Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

I slid some tooth picks in the holes and lined up the holes and did a quick mock up.











While I was waiting for the fret slots to be cut I drilled out the holes for the neck mount and screwed on the neck.












It's getting there and once I glue on the fret board I will check intonation and then start sanding and then pore filling before finish.


Cheers Peter.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Hot damn.


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

Lookin' good!

Just had the thought that the fretboard would look cool with maple leaf fret markers. Like the old Northern guitars. lol


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

I glued up the fret board but not before making a radius block for the same radius. I had an offcut of a laminated neck I did a while back and carved a concave radius in it to match the fret board. I used it as a clamping caul and will use it as a sanding block as well.


















and clamped it all up with the caul -










and since I'm going a little inlay crazy I added an "F" inlay to the head stock. It's the same font as the Fender logo. I built a replica of a Gibson Futura recently and my buddy wanted the large "G" logo that Gibson put on some early guitars. Billy Gibbons also used this logo on a couple of custom builds he had commissioned. I liked the simplicity of that logo and thought it would look cool on the dark head stock.

Here is a pic of the head stock of the Futura -









and a few other head stock designs with a Moderne body -









I'm building a couple of these soon, which should be fun.

So here is the "F" inlay. I glued the inlay which was a little thicker than the pocket so had to trim it flush with the head stock. I took a sharp chisel and sliced off the excess. You can see the thin slice to the left of the head stock.









Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

OK, so here is an issue that I have run into before and forgot to check. Since I use CNC to machine most of the guitar. I model everything in 3d and then the CAM program, Fusion 360, uses that 3d model to cut the object out of a solid block. This block is called the stock. Here is a snap shot of the back of the neck in my CAM software.









This 3d model consists of 3 different pieces. The neck itself, the dark brown colour, the maple skunk strip, and the maple leaf inlay. When I want to cut the skunk stripe, or the maple inlay route, I hide the other objects and run the toolpaths. For instance when I want to cut the channel for the skunk stripe, I hide the maple skunk stripe model and select the pocket to machine.

Here is the skunk stripe hidden and the blue shows the path the tool will follow to cut the channel. It even shows me where the bit starts and travels and ends. I can also run a simulation which shows me exactly what the bit will do.









So when I created the toolpath for the back of the neck, I forgot to turn the skunk stripe back on and did not notice that the bit tried to go into the channel. The nice thing is that the bit I used for the back of the neck carve is a large bit, 1/2" diameter ballnose. Here is a close up at the heel where the bit drops in very slightly to the channel. The is the path that the bit follows and you can see a dip down into the channel. This is something I did not notice when I ran the tool path and it cut a little divot in the skunk stripe. DAOH!











I do not have a good picture of the result but just think of a 3/32" deep divot in the back of the neck. I was going to live with it and possibly cut another neck but then I decided to try and fix it. The problem will be how to cut the strip out and put another piece in exactly the right spot. I created a 3/4" MDF template the exact size of the neck. Actually I just cut the neck profile from the inside of the neck. Then placed the neck inside that template on my CNC machine. This effectively indexed my neck in the correct spot.

It fit very very snug, so I was reasonably sure it would not move.









Then I cut the skunk stripe path again but not as deep. I did not want to cut into the truss rod. I just needed enough to glue in another strip. I also cut another skunk stripe strip.









and glued it in.









planed, filed, and sanded flush - that's better.









Cheers Peter.


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## jdto (Sep 30, 2015)

Nice save!


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

Drill and added side dots. It's nice to do a light coloured fret board for a change. Easy to mark the centers. ;-) Just using black plastic rod. Couldn't figure out how to make black walnut work.









Got out some fretting stuff. Fret wire, bender, and nippers. over radiused slightly and cut all the fret wire to length.


















Got the first fret in and was perplexed by it not being seated properly. I am using new fret wire that has a longer tang, but that did not seem to be the issue. Then "light bulb" moment. I have a 12" radius caul in the press. DOAH. Switched it out for 7.25" and perfect.










Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

I trimmed, filed, and slightly beveled the fret ends and grabbed a nut blank. Time to get out the nut gear. I have the little Stew Mac nut vise. I like this little vise as I can use a file or place it upright on my sander to take a lot of material quickly.










thickness to fit in the slot and marked the string spacing and got out my files. I also mounted the bridge and tuners so I can check intonation.









I find this part goes really quickly then I spend an eternity getting the nut slots to the correct height. Not wanted to go too far I guess. Oh well, I guess this is one of the many reasons I do this as a hobby. It's only time when I do no have to make $$$$ at it.

Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

I got the nut started as well as frets. They look pretty flat, which is good. So I setup my bridge and added some strings to check intonation. Looks good. Anyone ever check intonation with a regular cheap tuner? Don't. ;-) I checked open and tuned to pitch. Then checked first string at the 12th and it was almost dead on. Slight adjustment and done. I thought, great this should be simple. Went to 6th string and checked the 12th. WTF D# and a flat D# at that. Checked my adjustment and not enough to get even close. Then I thought I'd try my chromatic tuner. BAM almost right on. Very strange. I was thinking it was a Tele problem. LOL

All strung up.









Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

I'm getting ready to pore fill. I've stripped all the stuff off and working on finish sanding. I weighed the body and it came in at 3.68 lbs (1.67 kg), including the cavity cover and screws but no other hardware. Does anyone have a standard weight of a swamp ash or similar light"ish" wood for a solid body Tele?? I'm interested to see how this weight compares. Keeping in mind this is a fully chambered White Ash body.









Cheers Peter.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Warmoth lists the weight of in stock bodies, could compare with that?


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## Jim Wellington (Sep 3, 2017)

Silvertone said:


> Does anyone have a standard weight of a swamp ash or similar light"ish" wood for a solid body Tele?? I'm interested to see how this weight compares.


I just got this from Nathan...spalted Ash. Stamped at 6.1 lbs.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

Thanks - my body does seem really light in my hands. I was very happy with the weight of the White Ash. I should cut a small square block that I can measure perfectly and find the lbs/b.f. for it. I weigh almost all of my wood. I started with Honduran Mahogany to stay under the 3 lbs/b.f. for LP bodies. Now I just weigh everything. Wood of the same species can vary hugely. I just saw an ad for Swamp Ash listed at 3.3 lbs/b.f. I've got black walnut that weighs 3.05 lbs/b.f. Maybe I should do a Standard Tele body from that??

Cheers Peter.


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## nnieman (Jun 19, 2013)

I would say under 4.5 lbs is a light tele body.
Most of the ones I make are between 4-6 lbs.
A very light North American ash body is around 6 lbs.
Under 4lbs is rare (unless you use pine or cedar).

Nathan


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## nnieman (Jun 19, 2013)

Silvertone said:


> Thanks - my body does seem really light in my hands. I was very happy with the weight of the White Ash. I should cut a small square block that I can measure perfectly and find the lbs/b.f. for it. I weigh almost all of my wood. I started with Honduran Mahogany to stay under the 3 lbs/b.f. for LP bodies. Now I just weigh everything. Wood of the same species can vary hugely. I just saw an ad for Swamp Ash listed at 3.3 lbs/b.f. I've got black walnut that weighs 3.05 lbs/b.f. Maybe I should do a Standard Tele body from that??
> 
> Cheers Peter.


That seems pretty light for black walnut.
Typically they end up around 5 lbs.


Everyone that has ever bought a black walnut body has loved the sound.

Nathan


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

nnieman said:


> That seems pretty light for black walnut.
> Typically they end up around 5 lbs.
> 
> 
> ...


That is 3 lbs/ b.f. not 3 lbs for the Tele body. I think there is about 1.9 - 2 b.f. in a solid Tele body. So that would be about 6 lbs for the black walnut body. It would make a pretty light thinline though.

Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

ore filling complete. Used Timbermate and darkened it up with a few drops of medium brown.









scraped the excess and waited an hour or so for it to dry and sanded down to the wood. Looks like one coat should do it. It has already brought out a bit of the figure. Should look nice under finish.










Cheers Peter.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

Finally got around to finishing up this build. Got the frets leveled, crowned, dressed, and polished.









and then wired it up. I bought a Tele wiring kit from Stew Mac and it was simple enough and everything worked.  Lots of room in a thinline.









Then finished it up and took some glamour shots.

Front -









Back -









Cheers Peter.


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## 720Guitars (Jul 5, 2020)

Wow what an amazing process, and result!


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## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

I reaaaaalllly need to get my CNC machine up and running, and learn how to use it.


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