Blackbird Telecaster: Body work in progress...

[BigSteve22]

Well, finally a little progress. Started the assembly work on the body today. Drilling holes is rather straight forward, so no need for pictures there. But I do use a couple of little tools to make life easier.

First up is a little home made alignment tool to get the strap pins positioned correctly. It's just two pieces of wood joined at a right angle so the guide for the drill sits perpendicular to the side of the body and exactly 7/8" down from the face. A line drawn on both halves connects the center line of the drill guide to a large hole on top that acts as a sight. Draw a line on the body to indicated where you want the strap pin, align that line with the line on tool using the sight hole, and the drill guide is in position. (Came up with this after mis-positioning the upper strap pin on my Strat.)



Second gadget is for chamfering holes after they're drilled, so screws don't lift the finish when first inserted. It's just a countersink with a hex shaft inserted into a magnetic hand screwdriver bit holder. Chamfering by hand gives you much better control, and you're much less likely to over do it. (Picture shows it standing next to my drill press's quill.)

Last tool is just a drill reverse mounted in the press. Choose a size that closely matches the internal diameter of what you need to press. It's shown here pressing in the string ferrules.

So anyway, here it is. All drilled, chamfered, and ready to go. Strap pins in place.


I also installed an Electrosocket jack mount. Haven't decided whether to keep it.... (Screws just loosely holding it in place)


One interesting thing I noticed while working, is an anomaly in the finish. Looks almost like it had tiny bubbles in the paint along the edge near the jack location. Didn't notice it until I was installing the electrosocket. Oh well, too late to complain about it now, and not really visible unless you're looking for it.

And, for anyone who cares, I've also been thinking about augmenting my neck jig to make testing the set up a little easier. Here's a sneak preview of Jig 3.0! The tension assembly will mount to it, keeping all the setup geometry in place, while allowing it to be played like an actual guitar. 

 

[vetteman]

Looking forward to the finished product!  :headbanging:

 

[mayfly]

Now that's attention to detail!  I'm too busy thinking of playing the thing to take that much time working on it.  :headbang:

 

[Cagey]

Coming along nicely! I like your jig 3.0, too. That pseudo body will also come in handy for holding tools and stuff while the neck's on the jig. When you're playing around with the nut slots, for instance, you need to keep your files and measuring stuff right at hand while still being able to fret/pluck strings. Your jig is no better than mine for having a place to put all that stuff.

I've got a mobile printer stand with a drawer that I use as a portable lightweight benchtop and storage for some tools, somewhat similar to this...

...but it takes up space, and shops/work areas never have enough space. Although on the plus side, I can mount small vises and my Binford Nutmaker 6000® on the thing...

...which is handy. Printer stands are fairly inexpensive, and being able to roll them around is also a plus.

 

[BigSteve22]

A little more progress: Shielding done. (I know, I know.... Not necessary, especially with noiseless pups, but old habits die hard.)

Ground wires routed and terminated.

Pickups mounted, bridge reassembled and mounted, pickguard shielded and mounted. (Sorry about the quality, just a quick shot with the on-board flash.)

And the Control Plate assembled and ready to go.

Next up, wiring! Still need to work out exactly what I want, but a 4-Way selector, (graciously provided by Mr. May), and the wiring diagrams/mods provided by -VB-, are definitely part of the plan. Still lots of fun ahead.....  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[rgand]

Lookin' goooood. I like the engraved bridge and control plate. Coming along just fine. :icon_thumright:

 

[Logrinn]

What Rgand said. Looking good. Although the third image with the pickups doesn't show up for me.

 

[DangerousR6]

Coming together nicely Steve... :icon_thumright:

 

[BigSteve22]

Thanks guys, it's been a long road, almost there.....

What Rgand said. Looking good. Although the third image with the pickups doesn't show up for me.

Yeah, sorry about that, I couldn't see it either just now. Reloaded the pic to Imgur and set the new link, now I think it's fixed. Let me know it there's still a problem.

 

[Logrinn]

That did it. Looking great!

 

[ghotiphry]

That's a nice looking piece of artwork guitar.  I think I'm going to have to steal that stap pin jig idea.

 

[BigSteve22]

I think I'm going to have to steal that stap pin jig idea.

Thanks, I'd be honored....  :icon_thumright:

 

[DangerousR6]

If I do say so myself, those are some nice knobs... :laughing7:

 

[BigSteve22]

If I do say so myself, those are some nice knobs... :laughing7:

Thank you, Herr Doctor......  :icon_biggrin:

Q-Parts, Black Cat's Eye glass on Chrome.

 

[Great Ape]

Very Fine!  :icon_thumright:

 

[BigSteve22]

Very Fine!  :icon_thumright:

Thank you, Sir!

 

[BigSteve22]

Neck Jig 3.0, the final word........

I finished the final piece of my neck jig. As mentioned earlier, it's just a "pseudo-body" that the tension assembly mounts to, and makes testing your work a little easier.

Couldn't resist trying a black-to-clear burst....

With a satin black back.

Tension assembly, with neck, mounted to the body.

The view from the back.

It ain't all that pretty, but it does what it's supposed to do. I spent some quality time with the neck for my current Tele build, no problem playing it on the jig.

 

[Cagey]

Way too cool! I'm envious!

I gotta give some serious thought to doing something like that myself. It's the "playing the neck" thing that attracts. I do it now, but it's like playing a Steinberg travel guitar, only worse.

 

[BigSteve22]

Way too cool! I'm envious!

I gotta give some serious thought to doing something like that myself. It's the "playing the neck" thing that attracts. I do it now, but it's like playing a Steinberg travel guitar, only worse.

Thanks Bro, I had that same "Steinberger" feeling. To make this, I just traced out a Tele body on piece of 3/8" ply, cut it out on a scroll saw, sanded it sorta smooth, and then used that as a template to cut a piece of 3/4" ply. Screwed the two pieces together, and added a place to mount the tension assy. I think the most expensive part was the paint!  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[Cagey]

Sounds good. Y'know, Guitar Fetish has one of their "Factory Buyout" sales going on right now, they're selling stuff like this...

...for $25. That might not be the right unit, but something like that might give me a head start. Gotta buy some wood anyway, may as well be in the shape of a guitar. I'm gonna waste the neck pocket and so forth anyway, so I don't care about dimensions.