Carved Top Telecaster - Work in Progress

[nexrex]

Hey all,

I'm kind of in the middle of planning my next build, as the company I work for was just recently acquired by one of our competitors, which means I will be getting a long awaited salary review and a nice pay check increase. My concept is to put together a Carved top rock Tele, that will be used mainly for playing small gigs.   arty07:

Body: Alder (for its even tone and light weight)
Neck Pocket: Strat style with 720 mod
Top: Flame maple, natural masked binding, done in tigers eye, with a black back
Neck: maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard
Pickups: Dual Humbuckers (Was thinking of a Neck SD Pearly Gates with a Bridge SD SH-11 Custom to balance)
Electronics: Body Drilled for LP style cavity with 2 tone and volume
Tuners: Chrome Gotoh Lockers
Bridge: Wilkinson VS-100 Tremolo (maybe with a hipshot tremsetter installed, as I am not a big fan of flutter or string sag when bending)

I do have a CBS style Fender strat neck I might be using. I would also like to wood mount my pickups, but I'm all out of ideas on the best way to do this  :icon_scratch:

I am not seeing too many carved tele pictures, so feel free to post them here, and also leave me some suggestions and comments about my photoshop concept pic.

 

[Cagey]

There's a saying often repeated by people who work (or used to work) for companies on the capitulating side of an acquisition: A new broom sweeps clean. Gives rise to another saying: Don't count your chickens before they're hatched <grin>

In any event, your project guitar sounds good. I wouldn't do multiple volume/tone controls, but other than that I'm sure it'll be fine instrument.

 

[nexrex]

Thanks Cagey. I have been on both end of the acquisition story before, and it does cause a lot of pain if you are made redundant. Fortunately in this case the company does need us, as we were acquired so that they can sell to their own smaller clients giving us access to their own marketing people as well.  My written agreement form them as well does stipulate that I will be employed with them for at least 2 years.

I guess I really just like the option of having the separate volume/tone for each pickup, especially for dialling in that clapton-esque woman tone.

 

[Cagey]

Problem is those two sets of controls aren't separate when you have both pickups selected. They're in parallel, so they interact in strange ways that can surprise you when you aren't expecting it.

 

[tfarny]

You can wire them the other way round too so you can blend independently as you like - look up Jazz bass wiring. I think you really need a carved tele, and we all need to see it too!

 

[nexrex]

You can wire them the other way round too so you can blend independently as you like - look up Jazz bass wiring. I think you really need a carved tele, and we all need to see it too!

Yeah, I was planning on doing that once I have all the bits sorted out.  :laughing7:

 

[Graffiti62]

The only thing that rubs me the wrong way on your mockup are the black bonnet knobs. If you do want to do that style, I'd go with either an amber or a gold version, which, to me, seems more complimentary to the tiger finish. Ultimately, if you did want to do black knobs, I'd go with knurled flat-top or domed knobs. Also, since you're going carved top, you may also want to consider having Warmoth flush-recess the control holes so the knobs can lay more flat, like a PRS. Otherwise, I think you have a lot of potential there.

 

[nexrex]

Don't worry, I think those knobs are fugly too. I have some proper tele style dome knobs on order like this:

 

[smjenkins]

I was just going to suggest metal dome knobs like that.  My preference would be chrome, but if you go black with the bridge and tuners (and keep the back headstock), it'll look great.

 

[nexrex]

Cool.. if anyone has some time, please post some pics of your carved tele project? Would love to see them.  :icon_tongue:

 

[OzziePete]

Cool.. if anyone has some time, please post some pics of your carved tele project? Would love to see them.   :icon_tongue:

:icon_thumright:

 

[felipeak]

I'm finishing this guitar, I did the carving myself.....

more info at http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=13319.0

 

[nexrex]

UPS tells me the body should be here on Monday. Excited that this is getting here early, as it was actually purchased partly by my girlfriend, so I will have it all the parts to work on over the XMAS to New Years break.

I did end up going with independent volume and tone for each pickup, and the wiring specs I am using will also have push/pulls puts to split the humbuckers.

 

[nexrex]

Looks like the neck will be in my hands tomorrow.  I'll post some pics when I get home. The CBS Fender neck I had was unworkable, and purchased an all indian rosewood neck from the showcase. Angled strat headstock, so no need to worry about string tees.

 

[bagman67]

Looks like the neck will be in my hands tomorrow.  I'll post some pics when I get home. The CBS Fender neck I had was unworkable, and purchased an all indian rosewood neck from the showcase. Angled strat headstock, so no need to worry about string tees.

Sorry, just gotta get a napkin to blot the drool off my chin.

(Yes, I know:  That's what she said.)

 

[nexrex]

I.m hoping the alder body, and all Indian rosewood neck go together well

 

[nexrex]

OK, neck arrived yesterday. I am not going to get a chance to do anything with these until the weekend. Here's some rough pics for anyone interested.

 

[Cagey]

Pics aren't showing up, so I guess we'll have to assume that this so-called "neck" is a figment of your imagination <grin>

 

[Nando Vallart]

Awesome!!

 

[nexrex]

:laughing7: Yeah, didn't realize how big they were...This one is just with everything sitting onto. No assembly will be done until the weekend