Tele build countdown...

[fender3x]

Thanks! I am reasonably happy with it, even if it was not as idiot proof as I was hoping ;-) Next for the clear coat.

[fender3x]

Finally got a bit of work done on my builds. It’s a long weekend here, with just my son and I at home and a little time to do stuff that might get a bit messy…so…

I made some cuts on my headstocks. Sticking with a theme*, I decided to go with a batwing. In a parallel build I realized that I could use the template I used for my precision build on my Jazz bass build/rebuild. That looks a bit more like a hybrid between the old Epiphone batwings from the sixties, and a fender headstock.



The tele neck is closer to the shape of the old Epiphones guitar and bass headstocks. I had in mind more of a tribute than a copy.

I also finally got around to re-contouring the neck. This was one of the last of the old Pitbull tele necks. I wanted to take a crack at getting it slimmed down a bit. I like the feel of the my Warmoth Strat neck but it is really thin at the 1st fret (.8” or 20.3mm). I thought it would be dangerous to get it that thin, but decided to go after a modern V contour. Fender’s published stats for this are .85 at the 1st fret and .89 at the 12th. Using mostly just the golden rasp (I used the smaller rasp as well, but it was a bit too course and short), I was able to get it pretty close.

In the process, however, I gouged the wood where the neck contour starts to become the headstock and where it starts to become the heel. In both cases I wanted to extend the neck contour a little. Here’s where more experience with the rasp would have been beneficial. In trying to replicate the curve at to into the heel and headstock, I accidentally made the gouge a little worse. The only solution that I could think of was to remove a bit more wood. That worked reasonably well but had a couple of consequences. 1st the carve is now a bit in between a modern C and a modern V shape. 2nd. It is closer to .82 at the 1st fret and .86 at the 12th. Those are about the depth stats for a Fender Modern C…but I think I have a bit more slope on the sides. Shout out to TD on this. I would not have had the confidence to get this neck as slim as it is without TD’s measurements on the truss rod that he pulled out of PB bass neck. Prior to that I was using StewMac standard truss rods to do the calculations. They are more than 2 mm thicker than the TD’s PB truss rod. His turned out to about the same as every other published thickness for a double action truss rod that I could find. Using the SM measurements I would only have about 3.73 mm of wood under the truss rod. Using TD’s measurements it’s more likely that I still have close to 6mm under the truss rod at the thinnest point.

The neck still needs a bit of finish sanding. It still has a few tool marks and is only sanded down to 120, but it feels pretty good to my uneducated hand. The biggest takeaway for me from this adventure is that the long (10”) golden rasp was the best tool for the job. I used the flat side for most of this. It was sort of in the “Goldilocks” zone for in terms of being coarse enough to so that it did not take forever to do the shaping, but fine enough so that it did not leave the wood too rough or take so much away that I risked going deeper than intended. I have 4 lengths of Golden rasp, and the long one turned out to work the best for me. With 10” I could bet good, long strokes. I thought that my smaller rasp, that had been great carving body contours would be better, but I ended up using the Golden for almost everything.

The other big takeaway for me is that I should have practiced more on concave curves. The convex part of the contour, which is most of the neck carve, went reasonably well using mostly the flat side of the rasp. However, the concave places at the heel and headstock ends of the neck were more difficult. It was easy to gouge the wood and hard to get the curve the way I wanted. Before I do this again, I’ll practice on some scrap until I have it right.

I have always used a router to do headstocks in the past…and the last time I nearly botched the whole thing. I went about it differently this time. I used a jig saw to get big chunks of wood out of the way, then the rasps to get close to the pattern I had drawn. The courser rasps (the Shinto and the small rasp in the pic) worked better than the golden rasp for this since I did not need precision and they removed wood faster. I used a 2” drum sander in the drill press on the slowest setting to get the final shape. Worked well enough that I wondered why I hadn’t done it that way before ;-)

*I had done this previously on a precision bass build here and here.

[Trevor Davies]

Is the tele neck flame maple?

Glad the neck carving worked out OK.

For my headstocks I use a jigsaw, then the router method.

[fender3x]

Is the tele neck flame maple?

Glad the neck carving worked out OK.

For my headstocks I use a jigsaw, then the router method.

Thanks, TD. I am relieved ;-) I was reluctant to try to "free hand" sand along a traced line. I had seen Simon use this approach, but was quite content using the router method which I thought to be more precise and faster. (which it usually is). I actually used an old router template to trace the outline on the bass neck. The router approach has the great advantages of being quick and replicable. It was my go-to approach up to this build. But I had couple of bad experiences with maple, where the bit caught and split the wood along the grain. Once on a headstock. That one shot a piece at me like a projectile. So, I thought I'd give Simon's method a try.

Like most problems in routing the issue is probably a faulty operator. My bits were good quality and sharp...but also straight. I have read that spiral bits may catch less. There are at least a half dozen other errors I might have made.

[Trevor Davies]

Never tried a spiral bit.

I have also had a couple of big splinters fly off when routing. I will sometimes sand some sections after rough cutting with a jigsaw to make it a bit easier on the router. Especially when routing a 4 cm deep body!

[fender3x]

Sanding after the jigsaw is a good idea and might have prevented the problem I had with the router on a headstock. The bit caught on an bit of a rough spot, and broke off a chunk of wood that hit me in the chest. Still, done carefully the router is probably a better way to go, particularly if you want to repeat on other headstocks.

It occurred to me while I was using the drum-ander-on-drill-press that it might be a better way to finish up router templates than the way I've done it in the past ;-)

[fender3x]

Over the last three days I put 9 coats of High Performance Top Coat on the body.



Not a lot of difference from the last pic which was just the garnet shellac finish. But it's hanging from the ceiling, curing. The mfg says that it needs 3 weeks to be completely cured. The mfg also recommends using no more than 3 coats. I always use between 6 and 10 coats because applying it with a brush leaves brush strokes. The mfg says that more coats won't make the finish more durable. That may be, but I like to have the safety of more coats when sand out the brush strokes, tiny bubbles and other imperfections. I do some careful sanding between coats with a 3m maroon sanding pad to scuff. Once if finally cures there will be a ton of careful hand sanding to get it flat without cutting through it, but I am able to get it pretty flat.

This time, when I did the test piece, I thought the finish got a little cloudy. I think I trapped a little H2O by trying to put the coats on too fast. The mfg recommends 1-2 hours between coats. I took at least 3 hours between coats and did no more than three coats per day.

Every time I do this I wonder whether it would be better and faster to use spray equipment. Every time I come to the same conclusion. I can't use spray equipment in my house, and the temperatures and humidity are never reliably low enough to spray outside in Miami. The optimal temperature for High Performance is 21C (70F) with 50% humidity. The humidity in my air-conditioned garage is between 45-60% and the temp is somewhere between 26 and 24C. (78-75F). Outside it's never reliably lower than 27C or higher, and the humidity is never lower than 60%...often it's like today...around 88%.

[Trevor Davies]

Looking good fender3x.

re the "better and faster to use spray equipment". I'm not sure if spraying has made it any faster for me compared to when I was using Truoil! But I'm still learning how to spray! I think my spraying time is more concentrated.

Your garage seems to be well climate controlled! Can you potentially spray in there?

[fender3x]

Your garage seems to be well climate controlled! Can you potentially spray in there?

Not if I want to stay married. The AC connects with the rest of the house, so it would spread whatever goes into the air to the rest of the house. To keep things cool, the garage "vents" mostly to the rest of the house rather than to outside. Also it functions as my office (I work from home several days a week). I only apply the top coats, shellac, and some no-VOC water-based hardners or grain fillers in the garage. My wife is also an environmental engineer, so there are many ways I can get into trouble. It's also why I use MTN94 pretty much exclusively for color. It does not seem bothered by heat and humidity and is very low VOC, so I can spray outside even in Miami weather, and it can cure indoors.

[Trevor Davies]

Not if I want to stay married. The AC connects with the rest of the house, so it would spread whatever goes into the air to the rest of the house. To keep things cool, the garage "vents" mostly to the rest of the house rather than to outside. Also it functions as my office (I work from home several days a week). I only apply the top coats, shellac, and some no-VOC water-based hardners or grain fillers in the garage. My wife is also an environmental engineer, so there are many ways I can get into trouble. It's also why I use MTN94 pretty much exclusively for color. It does not seem bothered by heat and humidity and is very low VOC, so I can spray outside even in Miami weather, and it can cure indoors.

Fair enough! At least you know your process, it works well, and it doesn't create marital issues!