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Appreciate the supportive words !
Got sold some defective Tele pickups on Ebay which I'm disputing tonight and trying to get returned so that was a bit of a bummer ! Think I'll buy new and save any further hassle.
I was going to use a rosewood fretboard blank on this, but looking through the panga panga boards I have left from the junior builds I think the colour of the panga panga goes better with the neck - what does anyone else think ?
Yours looks a lot more robust - a lot less prone to flexing - that my little pieces of aluminium angle!
it will be ok until it sags at some point !
what length truss rod should I go with - 440mm ?
Been rather slack documenting this one but will post more pics soon.
Now at the stage of having a nicely planed neck 2-piece blank, and have routed the body cavities apart from the neck pocket.
Neck template is made and very accurately dimensioned.
Couple of fretboards planed to the required 1/4 thickness. Not sure yet whether I will use a panga pangs or rosewood board. Both ready to go.
Need to decide whether to locate the string through holes and final bridge location before making and test fitting the neck - or wait until the neck is made.
Planning to build a fretboard radius jig to do a 9.5-10" radius as I cant be bothered to make another sanding blocks at that radius. ( I made a couple of 12" radius blocks for the juniors )
Question to the wise........
Given the adjustable nature of tele bridges - is it ok to finish the body and locate the bridge and drill for the string through ferrules before making and fitting the neck ?
Or is that a path to pain later ??!!!
I figure I could measure it pretty accurately and do the bridge, but I'm hesitating with novice doubts.....(as usual ) !!
Yes, @TJT1979 is quite right - I would fit the bridge after the neck can be fitted. Lengthwise, you can then be sure to position it so that the saddles sit within the intonation range and sidewise, that the strings are going to line up properly with the fretboard sides.
I need to reign in my impatience and concentrate on getting the neck done. Ive been pitting off the next stage of the neck ( truss rod ) as I bought a hotrod style dual action rod and need to have it headstock access mounted and haven't been able to find any video guides for that type of approach on a Tele.
I'll just have to wing it as best I can and keep scouring TDPRI for tips I think.
getting back to a bit more of a weekly routine now ( hopefully ) with the missus back to her Monday walking group and me on my day off - its weekly shed schedule , Hoorah !
Which means I am now starting to get somewhere on the build.
Had a disaster with the first fretboard as I forgot allow for the Tele overhang after the nut and the 12mm offset between my indexing pin and the saw kerf on my jig - so screwed up the first fretboard. Tried to recover it by collecting the kerf dust and mixing with Titebond but it hasn't succeeded in hiding the saw marks - so its gone into the offcuts bin for now.
Which now means its not going to have a Panga board but will have a very nice Rosewood board instead. Got that planed down to 1/4inch and smoothed using the neck / fretboard router planing jig ( which has a perspex router plate to allow more visibility than the brute force router planing jig mentioned earlier in the thread.) Works a bloody treat with one of Wealdens 1" surface cutters.
Slotted the board and positioned the centre line.
Router planed the neck blank down to 0.75" too - so now we have a 1" board and neck blank to work from finally - with a nice 'Andy-style' (tm) mahogany pinstripe down the middle
Rush of blood to the head - decided to start on the neck radius jig too today.
Its a 11" radius which will allow for the router cutter protruding anywhere between 1-1.5" below so I should be able to do a 9.5 or 10" board radius with it when it's finished. Using double thickness 18mm ply for the arches and 18m for the body of the sled . Its going to be a relatively simple job using a curved sled running on PVC pipes either side of the neck/fretboard ( in theory !!! )
Some pics as ever.....not necessarily in the right order.... (thank you Eric Morecambe)
One option after a slotting error is to flip it over and slot the other side once the slots are filled... then bind the board to hide it from the edge view. just make sure the new slots are offset from the repaired ones. you have to judge whether the board will still be stiff enough, but sometimes it is
Instagram
I might do that and then decide which I like the best with the Idigbo neck ( assuming I don't balls that up of course.....)
Hoping to get the radius jig finished and in use this week - but working Tuesday to Thursday so it might get delayed until Friday.
Just went to get the PVC pipe from the shed only to find its gone, which means a trip to a builders merch/retail outlet - bugger !!!