First guitar - a Varnished Cherry Telecaster

[D_W]

This is the first guitar I've made, sort of on the quick just to learn where the trouble spots will be on subsequent guitars. I've got some cosmetic issues from trying to do things with hand tools that should've been done (either differently with hand tools or just with power tools) The only marked issues are the dot on the back of the neck and the attempt in anger to get an angle with a gouge toward the truss rod nut will result in the need to make a custom truss rod cover.

The bridge is a chinese toploader copy, but the rest of the electronics are respectable US made components, or high quality korean (the tuners). I have done some work on guitars before (fret leveling, etc) so there aren't any playability issues, it plays really well. It's helpful to correct a few well used guitars before making a new one, so you know what to avoid (sharp frets, high frets, nut issues, etc).

Spending the money on high quality pre-wired components and american made pickups makes it sound better than the am. standard fender telecaster that I used to have.

The cherry with varnish makes it look unique, though it'd look better if the body was one piece. So, I ordered a large 10/4 table slab to cut future bodies from, and the edges of the slab are rift, so they'll make good neck stock and I can get proper orientation by having a large slab to cut from.

The varnish is epifanes. I think it looks fine, it doesn't have enough build to show a strange hue, and the cherry under it will force an amber color. I made a batch of turpentine/damar/pine resin varnish last weekend that I'll use from this point on, but it probably wasn't necessary (certainly smells a lot better than epifanes). I'm well aware that acrylic and nitro are the standards these days, and I have both on hand, but I think I want to go with violin varnish. If time and budget allow, I'm going to make five of these, and then move on to more difficult guitars, hopefully culminating with a hand made arch top in the style of benedetto.

Total cost with good electronics and all of the materials was about $300.

Mod Edit:- image links modified.

 

[thetyreman]

nice guitar! the low cost is impressive considering the quality, I'll bet this sounds better than a real USA made fender, is that a knot at the top of the neck backside?

 

[AJB Temple]

Well done. A Tele is a good starter electric guitar with simple body cavities and a flat top.

Based on the two photos, apart from the two piece body you have identified and the accident with the truss rod slot in the head, there seem to be a few nicks in the edges here and there and the body to neck junction could be neater. For my taste the rounding over of the body edges is excessive and reduces crispness and for your next one I would pay a lot more attention to finish detail before applying lacquer.

Hard to see what neck profile you have gone for, but the fretboard work looks nice.

Hardware often makes or breaks a guitar, and I would not skimp on tuners.

Very well done. I am sure you will have learnt a lot. Keep it up and keep us posted.

 

[pollys13]

Very good first guitar. Where have you learn't and how long for?

 

[D_W]

nice guitar! the low cost is impressive considering the quality, I'll bet this sounds better than a real USA made fender, is that a knot at the top of the neck backside?

The am-standard that i had definitely had weaker electronics, but I'm not a chaser of high levels from guitars. I changed the pickups in it to overwound fralins (over a decade ago) and then sold it when I lost interest in guitar (that interest is coming back).

These pickups are just reasonably high quality alnico slightly overwound pickups, and were inexpensive (relatively). $99, I believe, for the pair. The pre-wired switch was $60, with CTS pots and orange drop capacitors.

I think fender's pickups are a little better now than they were in the vintage of the standard that I bought (which was about 2000). These pickups are at least on par with the fralins, but cheaper, and a little less "middy".

The spot on the back is a near breach between the cavity that I cut for the truss rod, call it a learning experience. It's not a total breach, though, and the truss rod pressure happens elsewhere, so it was just a good lesson to just cut a cavity uniform length and not try to see if I could figure out how to gouge a route for the truss rod. the kind of thing you learn on your first guitar.

I really love the pickups and the switch, though, and had some concerns about the sustain with the toploader, but the cheap bridge has a lot of mass, so I can't tell anything vs. any through the body guitar that I've had. The nut is corian, it's just a tester nut, and I'll replace it with bone (already filled a slot and corrected string spacing after the picture).

 

[D_W]

I've had a lot of guitars and made tools, but never built guitars before now. Building expensive tools is definitely easier (infills and new wooden planes), the bar is lower whereas there is a whole world of guitar builders in the east and some of them are making really good guitars.

If I really want to go nuts, I have George Wilson on speed dial.

 

[D_W]

Well done. A Tele is a good starter electric guitar with simple body cavities and a flat top.

Based on the two photos, apart from the two piece body you have identified and the accident with the truss rod slot in the head, there seem to be a few nicks in the edges here and there and the body to neck junction could be neater. For my taste the rounding over of the body edges is excessive and reduces crispness and for your next one I would pay a lot more attention to finish detail before applying lacquer.

Hard to see what neck profile you have gone for, but the fretboard work looks nice.

Hardware often makes or breaks a guitar, and I would not skimp on tuners.

Very well done. I am sure you will have learnt a lot. Keep it up and keep us posted.

I believe it's 0.92 at the joint and 0.82 at the nut. It's a little flatter than vintage, but not flat like an ibanez, and not a V. It's just what feels right to my hand from working my way through about 25 guitars over the last 30 years.

You're right about the top roundover. I wasn't necessarily intending to build a dead copy of a telecaster with all aspects (for example, kiesel makes a really nice stainless fret tele style guitar with a contour and roundover for johnny hiland), but the original tele design really is about the least work you could make a guitar, esp. if you go with a skunk stripe neck. I had a 1/8th roundover bit in my router from making cabinets last year, but forgot that it was set to a depth to leave a step. I routed about 6 inches with it and then it was all over, I had to rasp and sand the roundover to a wide flat contour to get rid of that.

Yes on all of the work not looking machine neat. I'm not sure if I'm hoping for that in the future - what I want is great fretwork, good nut work, good hardware, a good neck contour and minimal finish. The neck in this is mostly sanded off varnish, then oiled and waxed.

Above all, I made it quick to find out where I'd have trouble, if that makes sense. When I was building tools, I always thought I'd get the first one to turn out well, but it never happens. Initially, I was going to use no power tools, too, but threw a body away because I was binding the top and could not cut the binding channel neatly enough by hand.

I may fall back to using templates to cut the body and neck blanks, just for speed, though. I contoured the neck with a draw knife, spoke shave, rasp and a card scraper and only sanded after that was done. Peghead, etc, is done entirely by hand - actually, no power tool ever touched the neck at all.

I know also that sort of the standard for people to shoot for is heavy sanding and then lacquer and buffer. I've had a lot of guitars like that (still have a dozen, I guess), but I want a more classic look and thinner finish. As I get further into more complicated guitars, I'll spend more time on the surface finishes, though. Not sure where the little dents in the peghead came from, but ...well, they're there.

Next telecaster is going to be a copy of the HH style 72. I found a salvaged american pickguard with american "shawbuckers" in it for $200, and I have one of the mex '72 guitars coming tomorrow to have in hand.

My 4 year old son always wants to play one of my good guitars, so I'm handing this one off to him to beat around (of course, I'll play it when I'm sitting around, too).

It sounds like I'm making a lot of excuses for why I left the boogers in this one and didn't go for a higher finish level, but.....that's exactly what I'm doing!!

As far as teles go, I always liked to play them. The fact that they're dead simple to make is a plus. I think Leo Fender must've been a genius, coming from the auto industry and figuring out how to make a guitar that had interchangeable parts and really very low production cost (but is really comfortable to play, and can cover a lot of sounds).

Of course, I intend to make several les pauls (out of cherry), and want to copy the Gibson nighthawk, too, which is my favorite of their guitars, and the only "real" gibson that I still own. My les paul type guitars on hand are tokais and a varnished eastman. I'm guessing you know that the type suffers some design issues that create maintenance headaches down the line (body hump, etc). But so do flat-tops, too. And I want to build a few of those.

 

[D_W]

Got a telecaster in the mail yesterday to copy. I have an official fender pickguard along with pickups, knobs and switches from the American version of the guitar on the left (it's mexican), and can greatly improve on the neck profile. The "cherrycaster" has a much more refined neck profile than fenders tall c profile.

I have to admit the overdone roundover on the top of the cherrycaster makes it much nicer to handle, and the nut on the mex needs a little tuning to eliminate sitaring. Plus, the mex guitar has something resonating in it , which was also the case for an American standard that I had. I think that's just something that's probably common if pickups are mounted to a pickguard over a cavity.

Another side benefit of the cherry is that you can get a good balance with a thinner body.

 

[D_W]

Picture must've been too large.

I also ordered one of these (used) of American make last night. Buying and selling these two (the fenders, not mine) won't cost much net due to the favorable fees charged for investments on reverb.

 

[D_W]

A picture of the owner strumming his guitar. He Always wants to handle my nice guitars, and I'm not a big fan of that.

 

[AJB Temple]

Very good detailed stuff - the forum loves that.

I have had a bit of a lifelong obsession with guitars. Made a lot for sale, bought and sold probably 200 from the main brands: Gibson, Fender, Gretsch, PRS, Tom Anderson, Taylor etc. Had a few Ibanez and Yamaha too (always liked the SR2000). I still ahem about 35 which is about 33 too many as the ones I actually play are a strat custom shop with triangular nick profile, and a Taylor acoustic.

Never had a tele. I do have an early strat (57) and original Fender Bassman amp (and far too many other amps) but for 99% of everything I do I use Boogie subway rocket.

Guitar building is a bit addictive. I got out of it really when I started making violins, which I find more satisfying. Now I donl;t have time for that either. The snag with guitars is that 99% of people want one of four shapes: Les Paul, Strat, Tele or maybe the PRS hybrid. All the differentiation then lies in finish, as high end stuff will always use a limited range of hardware.

Keep it up!

 

[D_W]

Agree with all of that. The one option that i like that most premium makes don't offer is a varnish, limited oil or very thin nitro finish. None of those are good for new looks, and the government here would prefer manufacturers spray water based finishes (workplace insurance probably would, too), so we don't get that.

obviously, you've got a neck profile preference that doesn't seem to be on a lot of stock instruments, either. Common seems to be Full U or deep C or whatever you call that profile (there seems to be little difference except the C profile doesn't have the same thickness at the joint and the neck), or on the other end of the spectrum, the very flat profile that ibanez introduced in the 1980s on their bolt on guitars (RGs).

Of the strat and telecaster styles, I like the tele style better, but not for a specific reason.

Curious on a fender style guitar how you do a neat termination to the truss rod without hiding it on the other end of the neck (like the old teles) or making a skunk stripe. I think on the next one, I'm going to power rout it instead of cutting the truss rod groove by hand - but I'll probably decide that at the time. The termination will be squared, though, and I think I may refill the top of the termination with a plug of contrasting wood.

The LP style termination is easy - it's just open and under a cover plate.

I have a long way to go before considering whether I ever want to build a violin or F style mandolin, but maybe in the distant future. I already have a really nice house made damar/pine resin/turps violin varnish.

I see on fender's page (I'm not really interested in owning too many manufactured guitars after I get a pile, but we'll see) that you can custom order specs for a telecaster, but that kind of service looks like it's aimed at the complete non-builder. A $1400 am standard tele with slight changes becomes $3K, which isn't (in my opinion) in the spirit of the original guitars. The actual aspects that affect playability are pretty easy to control and don't cost anything to do at the bench other than a little bit of time.

I hope not to sell anything, but if I build 20 guitars, some of them will have to exit the house, as I don't have room and I'd like to keep probably four of the manufactured guitars that I have.

Fender has some other interesting variations that I'd like to copy (full rosewood necks, etc), but I'm not convinced that what they're using is indian rosewood or anything similar. I've got rosewood, a few ebonies and some interesting fruitwoods (quartered swiss pear, etc) on hand to try some of those, though. Tool building has left me with some good wood options.

What's your opinion on stainless frets? I like the idea of them on a manufactured guitar for someone who doesn't have the inclination to do fretwork, but I'm kind of indifferent on my own. It's very little work to keep on top of the frets on the few guitars that you'll play a lot (I only regularly play two or three at any given time).