Chuck's TL1...

[Chuck]

And so it begins...

Kit arrived at work yesterday arvo and was duly checked out by the other musos around me (one of whom is close to ordering his own kit). I got home and did a check and everything looks good - a small dent in the body on the lower horn but nothing that will cause any problems. Very impressed with the neck (maple fretboard) too.

Now my plan with this kit is to do something a little different. I've always loved offset shapes, so I'm playing around with re-shaping this body. I originally wanted to do it to a strat body, but I'm not comfortable with the plan I have for that one yet, so the Tele gets to go under the knife first. I'm also really looking forward to the finishing process - I haven't done much spray painting, so that should be fun. The plan is for a Sonic Blue finish.



I've got the french curves out to help get the right feel (I've always found them useful) and I've started marking some lines. Unfortunately I'm heading out for the rest of the day so the firing up the jigsaw will have to wait...

[wokkaboy]

plans sound good Chuck, look forward to seeing your re-shaping. Look like you are going for a Jazzmaster style bottom edge

[Chuck]

A quiet first weekend on the build front but did manage to get the headstock roughed out - freehand pencil sketch to get the shape then a jigsaw to cut it out. Yep, it is a Fender style, although not taken from a true template, more an amalgamation of the various official ones so no real nervousness about not getting it "right". I'm not trying to shy away from a Fender feel on this one - right down to logo etc but we'll see what happens there.

The plan for this week is to start on some shaping work with the body...

[Chuck]

Got home from work and though, what the heck, let's cut some wood... Still very rough (just a single jigsaw cut - it'll look better with sanding etc) and I'm still unsure about the top horn. There's part of me that feels it should be a little smaller, or tuck in more as it comes back to the neck (although that could be a bugger to get the right shape with). On the other hand, the lines look okay - and as I said, I feel a little nervous about my ability to get that top horn right if I start mucking around with it. Any thoughts?

[Dedman]

thats a nice shape, I agree on the top horn, about 15 to 20 more curve in would sort of balance the look but it's still quite OK as is.

[wokkaboy]

shape looks great Chuck but I agree with Dedman I'd cut out a bit of the upper horn. Maybe it's best if you post a pic with your pencil markup before you cut it and ask the forum what they think

[pablopepper]

Just saw this on Facebook. It looks great, but I've got to agree. It only needs a little tweak though, maybe something like this

[Dedman]

LOL I meant above fret 5 and 6

[EricB]

Looks nicely done dude!

[Chuck]

LOL I meant above fret 5 and 6

Just saw this on Facebook. It looks great, but I've got to agree. It only needs a little tweak though, maybe something like this

What you've both done is exactly what I've got in a couple of my original drawings for this one, but I was steering more towards your one Dedman - once that's done (and I'm thinking I'd probably do it with a spindle sander) I think it takes some of the bulk out of the horn.

My fear with your one Pablopepper is that I could really screw it up if I got it wrong! Btw, how did you see it on Facebook?