In which I have a serious jones for a Telecaster and my friends convince me that I can build one.
The finished product, drilled and finished and screwed together.
I have been exceptionally lucky to meet some real music industry veterans in my "travels", and I have learned a lot from them. This was one of those times. I was looking at purchasing a Tele but I wasn't sure which model I should be looking at. A couple of very seasoned vets told me I should just build one. Easy for you to say - was essentially my response. I had set my own intonation and action a few times and wiring is no issue, but "all that other stuff"? I can't do that, can I? One of them, (a former leader at Fender) used a time tested psychological technique on me - he asked me questions. Despite all of his considerable experience, he asked questions. And it is a very effective technique!
"Do you think that Leo Fender hired Luthiers to work on the assembly line?"
Well, no, I guess not.
"Right - Fender's real innovation was designing a guitar that could be built on an assembly line by nearly anyone."
My b-school brain started buzzing, and I realized just how right he was. The heavens parted.
Ok then, I will try this crazy idea out. I looked for a kit - just a neck and body that had been fitted already and were made to go together. I did not want to have to rescue parts that did not really fit together. My wood working skills are poor and my time is valuable. I also really wanted a guitar to play, not a thing to sit in the corner.
I joined a group on Facebook for people building guitars, got advice from friends who had done it and through them found a company that made really nice kits. I bit the bullet and ordered a 2 piece Ash body and a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard.
What I got in the mail a few weeks later was this:
Guitar bodies are often 2 or 3 pieces glued together. This body is a 2 piece. This is because trees just aren't this big typically as far as I know. I chose Ash because it is both pretty and light but also has been used in many "vintage" guitars. It's a classic. People will argue about whether wood matters. FWIW, I think it does.
The neck pocket (where the neck goes) is pre-drilled but the neck itself is not. The body is drilled for the Bridge and routed for the pickups. The headstock was pre-drilled for the tuners, but that is about it. The rest is up to you.
The short "to do" list for the big items goes something like this:
Finish/paint the body and neck
Fit the bridge and neck and make sure the alignment is good
Mount the tuners to the neck
Mount the bridge & neck to the body
Add pickups and wiring
Add a nut to the neck
String it up and perform whatever setup work needs to be done
Make a joyfull noise
Step 1
This step was very time consuming. At first I had planned to paint it red; Tom Petty had a pretty red Tele with a rosewood neck. So did Muddy Waters. That was enough for me. This would be easy and fast. But one of my luthier friends gently chastised me for painting over such pretty wood. Ash is getting harder to find and something as nice as a 2-piece body deserves a clear finish to show off the wood. I realized I could always paint over it if I really didn't like it, so I went ahead and used clear Shellac as a base finish on the body and then sprayed it with a few layers of clear lacquer after that. The process is time consuming; like painting anything, you apply a coat and wait for it to dry before you can apply the next coat. I either sanded or used steel wool (0000 grade) to smooth out the finish in between coats (this is optional). I used to work in an auto body shop, and this was the kind of thing we did to show cars. They would get multiple layers of clear over the color coat and we would wet sand each layer of clear until the whole thing looked like it was soaking wet. This guitar is not that fancy (I didn't wet sand it) but it came out pretty nice.
One mistake I did make was hanging it outside to dry. I wanted it to dry faster, but the sunlight got it too hot and a few times the finish blistered/bubbled and I had to sand it down more and re-spray it. Patience is a virtue.
Super high-tech coat hanger holding the body so I could spray it. I painted this in the door way of the garage (away from cars!!) You do not want overspray getting on anything. I had already pressed in the ferrules (those metal bits on the back where the strings go) so that I would not damage the finish by pressing them in after. A good trick I learned later (too late for this guitar but...) is to use an Ikea wardrobe as a spray booth. They work great!
Sanding down the finish in between coats, depending on how rough an area was, i would use 0000 steel wool or 1000-1500 grit sand paper. It took longer but it helped prevent getting deep scratches in the wood from using rougher papers like 400 grit.
Letting the lacquer dry in the sun (oops!) I also masked off the neck pocket on the body.
I used a normal dual action buffer (aka a "DA" in car shop speak) to polish the finish when it was done.
And there is the body, ready for the next phase. I could have gotten rid of the texture with more sanding but it was fine for me. I wanted it to look like real wood. You can see the neck has had the fretboard masked so I wouldn't get spray lacquer on it.
For the neck I bought some tinted lacquer in a spray can for an "old" look. I taped off the area that was going to be in the neck pocket, unseen. I also masked the fretboard (pic above)
I used regular blue painters tape to mask off the part of the neck that was going to go into the "pocket" - where the neck connects to the body. The neck pocket is a big deal because this is where the neck and body come together and you want them to both vibrate well together. If they are loose, or if there is anything in the pocket that would insulate the pieces from each other or dampen the motion it could impact how the guitar plays.
Step 2
The pickguard has to line up with the neck, the bridge and the control plate so you want to test this out early to make sure you don't have issues. Measure twice, cut once. All of that.
Checking to make sure the bridge is centered. Trust but verify.
Step 3
I test fit the neck, put a nut in place and added the high and low E strings to ensure the neck was straight and properly aligned. Worst case you can have strings falling off the edge of the neck. It doesn't need to play properly here, you are just using the strings as straightedges.
You can see how straight the high E is here. I used a pre-cut nut from Stewart McDonald. It was so good I wound up just using it 'as-is'. Probably what happens at the factory (although I do not know). They have been making these things since 1951, so I would imagine they have it down by now.
I used the tuners to make indents to guide the drill on the headstock as well. I fitted all 6 and made sure they were aligned. I had to put in the High and Low "E" tuners on to test fit the neck anyway.
Step 4
I clamped the neck to the body once it was aligned and then I used a mounting screw to mark the 4 holes I would need to drill. This was the only time I was really nervous. I did not want to screw up the neck. You can see how nice and aged the finish got after a few coats. You can see the indents from the screw I used to guide the drill press here, I tapped them gently with a plastic hammer. I taped off the drill-bit to make sure I did not drill any deeper than I needed to.
The neck and bridge all mounted up. It is starting to look like a guitar.
Step 5
Putting the control plate together. A little vice is a big help.
a different angle once it was done. You connect the hot pickup leads to the switch and the pickup grounds + bridge ground go to the back of the volume pot (usually) when you install it.
I had a custom sticker made up for the headstock. It's kind of a tradition to call non-Fender built guitars that are really copies of Fenders, "partscasters". It is also not exactly legal to put a Fender sticker on something they did not make. You should be proud of your work.
This is what the final finish looks like. I had not gotten my neck pickup in yet here, I didn't have the right screws to mount it at first. Completed pic is up top.
This is the first time I tried anything like this, and I was lucky that it turned out pretty well. I am sure there are things I could do better, and part of the fun of publishing a blog like this is getting suggestions from people about how to do it better next time. No one knows it all, and that's kind of the fun of it. Well that, and the racket you get to make when you're done.
Have fun!
Addendum
It does take a fair amount of tools and materials to get through a project like this, and you need safe, ventilated and well lit places to use them. When you budget for a project like this, be sure to include these sorts of things. Soldering irons & solder, electronic parts, a drill press, wood clamps, sand paper.. on and on.
Think about how you will perform each step and what you'll use. The more you plan, the better your chances of success.
June 2023
Yes, it has been 3! years since I completed (is that really a thing?) this guitar and I finally got it into good enough shape that I used it live. I have played with pickups and set ups, shimming the neck and not shimming it, various strings.. you get the picture. A good setup (action, intonation) and the right pickups (Fender original vintage 52 tele pickups) and we are there. I had played a real "black guard" tele (a real 53!) at a shop and noticed how different it sounded. I am happy to say the repro pickups with their AlNiCo III magnets and proper wire brought a lot of that to my project Tele and I could not be happier.
Stuff I used:
Pickups: Fender '52 Re-issue Telecaster pickup set (find online) There are a million pickups for these things. I really like these earlier style AlNiCo III pickups. YMMV
Compensated Bridge saddles: https://www.stewmac.com/parts-and-hardware/all-hardware-and-parts-by-instrument/electric-guitar-parts/electric-guitar-saddles/compensated-bridge-saddles-for-tele-set-of-3/
Vintage Amber Lacquer (used on neck) https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/supplies/finishing-supplies/colortone-tinted-aerosol-guitar-lacquer
Pre-Cut Telecaster Nut: https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/materials/nuts-and-saddles/slotted-unbleached-bone-nut/
Custom Headstock Decal: https://www.rothkoandfrost.com/guitar-making-supplies-c83/headstock-decals-c1/telecaster-c144/rf-custom-shop-custom-52-style-guitar-headstock-waterslide-decal-transfer-p359/s3696
Telecaster wiring diagrams: https://guitarelectronics.com/original-fender-telecaster-wiring-diagrams/
Ikea Vuku Wardrobe/Spray Booth!: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/vuku-wardrobe-white-80331973/
People without whom this could not have happened: (THANK YOU!)
John "JR" Frondelli
Ritchie Flieger
Bundy Jones
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