Telecaster Custom Build

Ok, so every project ends with lessons learned.  If it doesn't, you aren't working hard enough or you have been doing it too long and need to move on to something else.  Me, on the other hand, I end most projects with plenty of lessons; though I try not to, I make mistakes!  And while not always sure that I will try again and benefit from the experience, there is no point in repeating what is avoidable.  I often try new things and move on to the next project, so mistakes are common along the way.  Here's how you can benefit from mine.

YouTube is a great resource for so many things.   I, like most guitarists I think, look at guitar set up as some sort of black art requiring decades of apprenticeship and a little magic voodoo powder.   Well, I got over that!  It actually entails very few adjustable parts, and once you understand what your objective is for each step it can be accomplished easily with a little time and patience (now this all goes without saying that a good neck with a decent fret job should be your starting point!).

Final assembly involved many straggling tasks not yet done or committed to, in addition to the obvious stringing the neck up and plugging it in to watch the sparks fly (hopefully not literally, although there is always the possibility I guess…..!).  This project had been two months in the making at this point, and I was really eager to actually play it.  I decided not to wait for weeks on the headstock paint as I had done for the body.  After the headstock was sanded and polished, it was game-on for the final build.

Pickguard style? Given that this was my own design brief, and I wanted to see enough of the wood grain, I knew that I would be making modifications to the pickguard.  And since I'd moved the control cavity position this would have to be accommodated.  I found a smaller than standard ('F-hole') shaped pickguard for a really good price and held it up to the body and neck to get a sense of where it needed to be trimmed. 

Soldering the pups was actually one of the most relatively easy aspects to this entire build.  There are good wiring diagrams online, but I really relied on my intuition and a good multimeter.  The switch was the hardest part, only in that there are 8 terminals coming from it while there are only three leads connected to it!  And I wanted to ensure that the forward position went to the neck pup and the rearward position went to the bridge pup.  I easily isolated which terminal did what.  After realizing that each pup connected to two terminals, it was easy to work out which ones would have the right pup active in what position - including both at the middle switch position.

The cautions expressed in countless YouTube videos are well founded here.   Careful prep and wearing gloves are certainly ‘musts’. You might also wonder, if you reviewed the post chronology, why so much time had passed between this and the previous blog post.  Mostly this was in order to allow the lacquer (clear coat) ample drying time - 2 weeks seemed like the expected duration, and I essentially adhered to this.  It was also given that I had little experience using dyes and preparing a surface for lacquer and polish.

I had anticipated that the cavities would be a difficult part of this build, but it turned out to be a relatively uneventful activity.  By using good, reliable plans and measuring frequently, I marked the cavity locations.  I bought a few Forstner bits and compared the radius of each corner to the plan, choosing the correct sized bit (twice the radius) to drill each corner to proper depth.  Then with the plywood template, dropped the router down into the wood on an angle to depth, and finished routing out each cavity.

This was the largest element of the whole project, and the one which would require the most care and thought; screw any of this up and I may be starting over. Having chosen Ash, I had to contend with how dense and heavy this hardwood is.  It proved difficult to drill through and cut.  Proper tools and fresh implements do make a difference, however, and there are generally several ways around every problem.  I had to decide whether I was making an investment in new power tools or making do with what I had on hand. 

Perhaps the part of the build that I'd been dreading the most was cutting the neck pocket.  This seemed to be the most critical step of all (although all parts of the build entail some degree of criticality to be sure).  If the neck was not straight then the strings were going to be hanging off the side and at best if it still worked it would look funny.  If the pocket depth was not right, the action would be too high or too low or the saddles could not be raised enough to compensate.  If too far forward or back into the body, then the saddles cannot be adjusted enough to properly intonate the strings and produce a musical instrument of any value or purpose.

Fortunately, many classic guitar body designs have been around for decades, and plans exist for download or purchase.  Fender plans were especially easy to find online.  My first concern was whether I could print to 1:1 size and trust the measurements.  A quick test print revealed that the output of my pdf plans already printed 1:1 with no changes to printer settings.  Yah! Twelve pages later I had all the 8.5x11 sheets necessary to construct my paper template.  These pages were taped together and then cut to a more manageable size, followed by careful measurement of each element to verify the scale.

Yup, the internet is a wonderful thing for locating about any scrap of info necessary for about any type of project imaginable.   A Fender Telecaster body template was quickly found, and I was happy to discover that it printed out on 12 sheets of 8.5x11 paper at 1:1 scale!   All dimensions were confirmed with careful measurement, and after some tape and scissors, I had a paper template.   Now to create a plywood template; the local lumber shop where I’d sourced my ash hardwood had a scrap piece of ½” plywood lying around which I picked up for free!   My favorite price.

Having done some research, my choices of lumber were quickly narrowed to the popular varieties of wood used to construct electric guitars, maple, ash, poplar or alder.   Stupidly, I went with the ash (more on this later, but between the density of the wood and the size of the grain pores, it was not the best choice for a first time guitar project).