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Building a guitar was a dream of mine that I was able to realize during the summer of 2014. The finished product is a heavy ash bodied Telecaster with a rich Sedona red finish.
Photo showcasing the grain on the sides of the guitar
Photo showcasing the detailed grain of the wood that was retained in the finishing process
Photo taken while re wiring a new pickup into the guitar
Detailed staining on headstock
Back of headstock
The better half of my summer was dedicated to designing and constructing a Telecaster guitar body. I can recall there were many challenges that I faced throughout the construction process. Looking back at this project, I learned a great deal of problem solving and ingenuity. As I did not have access to heavy woodworking equipment, I had to be creative in order to produce similar results.
For example, I needed to lower the depth of the wood; a simple task if I had access to a planer. Without a planner, I devised a jig to use my router to act as a planner across the guitar body. Furthermore, the neck pocket or the point where the guitar body meets the neck required the creation of another dedicated routing jig. I needed to create a template which the router could follow to route the extremely neck pocket.
Routing templates for the pickups (left and middle) and routine template for the hardware (right)
First prototype of the neck pocket routing jig
Final neck pocket routing jig. Multiple iterations of this routing jig needed to be made as it is the part of the guitar build the required the most precision. Neck pocket routing was completed August 18th, 2014
Building a guitar body was not only a dream come true, but a project where I was able to learn a great deal of woodworking skills such as
- Proper planning
- Routing
- Sanding
- Finishing using stain and various finishing oils
- Covering up of cosmetic mistakes
The next steps for this guitar build would be to experiment with onboard electronics. The endless possibilities of pick-up wirings is something that I intend to peruse.
Photo of routing template for the guitar body
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