first build - thinline Tele

[Old Tooth Hopkins]

The world's slowest build continues slowly..

Catching up works over the last few weeks..

I've reinforced the F-hole.






Getting the reinforcement in was difficult, getting the glue inbetween even harder, but I got there with some help.Feel a lot better with the F-hole now.

Also shaped the headstock with some help, and did a huge amount of sanding.

[Old Tooth Hopkins]

Finished headstock.

[Simon Barden]

Nice jobs on the headstock and f-hole reinforcing.

[wazkelly]

There is a reason why it is called rock maple.

Bet you are glad all that headstock shaping and sanding is now done. Will never forget the first on I did but it does get easier with more practice.

[Sonic Mountain]

Nice work on the shaping, goes well with the Tele shape.

[Old Tooth Hopkins]

In my other post, I was doing an experiment with how to laser cut the headstock, and how it interacts with stain.

Now that I worked out taping is the key whether unfinished or pre-finished, it's time to work on the neck.

I may have tighten the vice too tight during sanding I noticed some unintended dents that I had to sand out - same with the scratches between the fretboard and neck.

The hardest part about lasercutting the headstock is that it's an irregular shape, so I need to have a way to make sure it cut millimetre perfect.

I decided to cut on paper first - and thankfully I did because I had to rescale the original Adobe Illustrator design.



Also the neck was a bit big for the laser cutter so I had to put it on diagonally - measured at 24 degree angle. I put the neck onto where the cut paper outline.



Did a trial cut at very low intensity so it only "marks" the tape. Thank goodness I did, because the design was slightly off from where I wanted! I lowered the design by about 4mm to get to the right spot.



The result of cutting at the wrong spot will be disastrous as light laser mark will still burn about 2mm deep; it means either a lot of sanding to a destructive level or new neck/.

With a lot of deep breaths I hit "run" at the proper intensity.

[Old Tooth Hopkins]

YES! It worked!

Attachment 27359



Attachment 27361

With a quick clean, I was about to give it the first dingocoat

EDIT: The small size photos had a bit of pixelation that looks like dirt marks - the laser cut came up perfectly clean.

[Old Tooth Hopkins]

This is dingotone neck stain of "Acacia".



It is a lot yellower than I envisioned. I was thinking it will be similar to my MIM fender strat neck


I am assuming it would fade as it absorbs.

I roughly did two runs which included the fretboard. If the fretboard fades first, I'll have a relic look. Dingotone is actually quite easy to apply!

Some parts look "slightly" uneven, maybe it's the lighting or the grain of the blonde maple.

laser engraving look fairly natural underneath the finish.

I'll probably go back in a few days to apply another dingo-stain, and wait 20 days before the top coat (NOT applying it to the fretboard this time)

Feedback much appreciated!

[blinddrew]

That logo looks superb! Well done for holding your nerve.

[DarkMark]

That looks fantastic! Sorry, I have to rush out and buy myself a laser cutter.