Nice pickguard, and the logo looks fine, but I agree it’s not quite ‘clean’. I’d be happy with it, though.
Big day today. The neck came in the mail along with some other parts. The neck’s a beauty. Nice grain, smooth feel and nice abalone inlays:
Here’s the bridge:
Got a couple of fingerprints on it already - sorry.
I’ll polish it before I ship it…
Other parts. Neck plate, neck screws and ferrules.
Things seem to fit my templates pretty good. The mounting holes for the bridge are just a tiny bit off, but that’s easily worked around. I found also that neck pocket cut on the pickguard is too small. I’ll have to grind that open a little more, but that’s no big deal either…
That looks great! They do a nice job at Warmoth it seems.
And you were right; that wood will go great with the korina visually. I can’t wait to play this!
I reviewed the thread but didn’t see anything - what is the neck made of? Doesn’t look like maple, but isn’t quite mahogany either…
and an Indian RW Fingerboard?
regardless, it looks very cool.
The neck is Goncalo Alves with an ebony fretboard…
And it is VERY cool…
Oh…my…God. It’s beautiful…
Alright - time to start cuttin’…
So, I start by attaching the template to the body blank using two flathead screws. The holes will be covered by the neck and the bridge once the guitar is finished:
Then I trace around the edge and the pickup routes with a charcoal pencil:
Next is a trip out to the band saw in the garage. After the first cut, this is what she looked like:
I delibrately cut about 1/8" away from the line all the way around:
I make the exact edge cut using the template and a router. I used a follower bit with a bearing above the bit on the shaft:
To get a nice smooth edge without any chip out, I make several runs around the guitar at progressively deeper depths:
However, I can’t go all the way to the bottom or I’ll ruin my table. So I flip her over and switch to a different bit that has the bearing below the bit:
The bit follows what I’ve already cut from the topside. This is the result of the final cut:
Nice and smooth…
Oh look - a Eonwe’s Telecaster is starting to appear!!!
Um, yes! Christmas is coming oh-so-early in Eonwe land.
That piece of wood looks like it was made to be a guitar.
Did you have all the carpentry equipment prior to your first guitar project, or did you buy it specifically for guitars?
Wow.
That is such a standout look - Tele-familiar but unexpected grain, colors and combo. Nice variation on a theme and really well done.
I am SO jealous about this thread, **BigShooter **- it’s so much more…*action-oriented *than my build thread ;). Thank you for the full chronicle and photos.
I (or my father :D) had alot of the stuff already. I did have to buy a drill press, though. It makes it a lot easier to drill straight holes…
You’re welcome. More to come today, I think…
Wait until you see how EASY the finish is going to be…
***Had ***to rub that in, didn’t you? Grrr.
:D:D;)
Right, just rub it in, instead of coat after coat after coat . . .
You hear this on your end of the inter-tubes, don’t you? The sound of my teeth grinding?
So I decided to do the string holes through the body today. These have always been a bitch for me to get straight. Even with a drill press, the bit always seems to wander when you’re going through over an inch and a half of wood. But I’ve learned a trick or two since the last time I’ve attempted this, so I’m pretty confident I’ll get them right. If not - I might have to go get Eonwe another piece of Korina! :eek: So needless to say, I’m being very careful…
First the easy part. I attach the same template I’ve been using to the front face of the body to drill the string holes. You can see them in this pic - they’re the last row of six holes on the bottom:
Using my drill press and a 1/8" bit, I drill the holes halfway through the body
Here’s the trick to keeping the holes nice and straight all the way through. I attach a level piece of scrap wood left over from my stratocaster build to the table of my drill press using a couple of hex bolts. Then I drill a shallow 1/8" pilot hole in the scrap wood, place a dowel into it and line up my drill press’ table so the drill bit meets the dowel dead on. Then I make sure the table is clamped tight so it can’t move in relation to the bit:
Then I take the guitar body and flip it over so now I’ll be drilling into the backside. I place the body such that the exposed dowel fits into one of the holes I drilled on the front side. Now, since the table is locked, I know that I’m perfectly lined up to drill the hole the rest of the way through. I did all six holes and they came out nice and straight.
Now I wanted to do something special with this guitar that I haven’t done before, so I decided to try and make the string ferrules sit flush with the guitar body. So using 5/16" and then 3/8" bits and centering on each of the six string holes, I drilled to the required depth I would need for the ferrules to sit flush:
I don’t think there are that many Fender Telecasters models out there with flush string ferrules. I think it’ll add another cool little custom element…
Maybe a silly question, but why can’t you just drill a hole straight through and be done with it?
BigShooter, you might look into drill bushings for that (and other) applications that require strict hole geometries, whether straightness, perpendicularity, spacing etc.
The longer the bushing and the closer to the work, the greater the accuracy. Bushings tight on the work will prevent tearout. You could make a jig that clamped to the body and make the holes with a hand drill if your drill press has limited throat.
Bushings can be obtained with varying O.D.s, which would enable you to make the registry holes with larger and therefore more rigid tooling, i.e. Forstner vs. twist (jobber) drill.
It’s important to get these holes straight and perpendicular to the body all the way through the wood - it keeps string breakage to a minimum. Plus, having crooked string holes on the back of the guitar looks sooooo bad
Getting a perfectly straight and perpendicular hole drilled through that thick of a piece of wood is very hard to do by just drilling right through in one go - even with a drill press. You can try it sometime at home with a hand drill. It’s damn near impossible…
I’ve tried drill bushings before, but the results haven’t been as good as I can get using the above technique. You’re right about preventing tearout - they are good for that - but I still had trouble getting them perfectly straight…
Isn’t a drill press a device that keeps the bit straight and perpendicular? How would a drill press do anything other than a straight hole into a secure piece of wood?
(just trying to glean some woodworking knowledge here 
)