Cheap Thrills Tele

[dmraco]

Nice work.  Always give some satisfaction when you accomplish something new!

 

[Cagey]

I'm glad that worked out for you. I was skeptical about the pickguard as a template.

 

[rgand]

That looks really good. Nice work, there. One step closer to completion, now.

 

[Logrinn]

Looks great. But what is the next "you've got to be kidding me"-moment, I wonder.

This is a great thread and should be used as a warning for getting the cheap stuff. A sticky thread perhaps?

 

[mayfly]

Thank you gentlemen!  This build has certainly been a challenge!

Before I get into the "you've got to be kidding me", I should let you know that I've got the guitar together.  Here it is with a donor neck:

The neck pocket is on the loose side, but it's workable.  The neck pickup fits (barely) and I'm proud of my little routing job:

Acoustically the guitar sounds fine, it's got a fair amount of sustain, and I could set it up and intonate it with no problems.

Now the other stuff (in no particular order)

1 - I toothpicked the bridge screws with some titebond III.  They still stripped out
2 - the ferrules on the back are so loose they just fall out.  I super-glued them in (and made a mess of the finish in the process)
3 - the body is thinner than standard, which means the neck screws are too long.  I didn't want to cut the screws because I want to return the neck to it's rightful owner, so I solved this with three (!) neck plates stacked 
4 - the pickups are, well, pretty characterless.  If I intended on keeping the guitar I'd swap them.
5 - After wiring I found out that the bridge pickup ground lead is not attached to the brass plate under the pickup.  With telecasters this is always how the bridge is grounded.  As a result the guitar is very noisy unless I touch the control plate  :doh:
6 - Speaking of pickups, the leads have very small wires and they are annoying to solder. 
7 - The pots (a pair of alpha pots) were covered in, er, something (lacquer?  shellac?).  I had to sand that all off to make a connection.
8 - aaaaaand even after moving the neck back it dives like that 60's SG.  :tard:

having said all that, my youngest kid thinks it's beautiful.  ccasion14:

 

[rgand]

I must say, it looks cool. Kudos to you for all your re-engineering to make it playable. As to neck dive, I suppose a conversion neck would do the trick but you could route a cavity in the back toward the butt and fill it with lead shot to counter balance it. That's better than drilling lightening holes in the neck. :icon_biggrin:

 

[Cagey]

I've never heard of neck dive on a Tele. That body's gotta be really light! Like, Balsa wood light.

 

[mayfly]

Yea I think the neck weighs more.  Actually, it does weigh more!!

 

[T89Rex]

I've got neck dive on my Squier affinity series tele. In that case I think it's because the body is cut 1/8" shallower than normal.

 

[Cagey]

That's too bad. I was just sitting here thinking about maybe a lighter neck, but for as heavy as Maple is, I don't think there's a lighter wood available that would also be suitable as a neck wood.

 

[PumpinIron]

Damn that thing looks good. I love that top!

 

[dmraco]

Mayfly what pick ups did you use?  I have found any tele of single coil GFS pick up is mostly underwhelming with very little tone of output to speak of.

 

[mayfly]

I used these ones:

http://www.guitarfetish.com/KP--Hard-Vintage-Neovin-Noiseless-Tele-Pair--Kwikplug-Ready_p_426.html

I used 500K pots with them.  They are not especially weak, but they do sound very average

 

[mayfly]

Gentlemen,

Been playing this guitar for a few days.  It does sound very nice acoustically with good sustain and a lovely sound.  I suspect that with some serious pickups it would actually be a pretty killer instrument.

oh yea - I've been playing it sitting down.  Otherwise my left hand would be near my ankles 

 

[Cagey]

A little research on that body tells us some interesting things. First, it's made of Pauwlonia, which while a deciduous tree and therefore technically a hardwood, is a pretty soft wood. They typically laminate it with something tougher when used for guitar bodies to give it some durability. In the case of this body, they used Formica (or some countertop material). Pauwlonia grows very fast, as much as 20'/yr when it's young and reaching 65' or so. It's primarily a Chinese tree that flowers real pretty, and they have a tradition of planting one when a baby girl is born and harvesting it when she gets married to make bedroom furniture.

As for weight, it's light at 18 lbs/ft3, with a Janka hardness rating of 300 lbf. Compare to Ash, which you see used more often for Tele bodies at 34 lbs/ft3 and a Janka rating of 850. Makes it roughly half the weight and one third the hardness. In real numbers, that means a 3 pound swamp Ash body would be 1 1/2 pounds in Pauwlonia.

That is a light body  :laughing7:

Due to its very light weight and softness, it's known as "the other Balsa", which, ironically, is also a technically a hardwood.

In my experience, a typical Rosewood over Maple neck will weigh a touch over 1 pound with tuners, but since it extends out past the forward strap hanger on a guitar, it has some leverage that makes it seem heavier. That's why this one has such severe neck dive.

 

[ByteFrenzy]

And no, Pauwlonia is NOT suitable as a neck wood so that's not how you're going to solve the neck dive issue.

 

[Mad Hatter]

:laughing7:

And no, Pauwlonia is NOT suitable as a neck wood so that's not how you're going to solve the neck dive issue.

Haha.  You just hang the appropriate amount of lead sinkers off the bottom strap mount.

 

[bagman67]

I seem to recall someone on a forum (maybe even this one) routing out a circular recess about three inches in diameter just south of the bridge and filling it with a big ol' steel gear and polyester or epoxy resin.  Looked cool in a steam-punky way, but perhaps not the right tool for the job with your axe.

Edit:  you could always do it on the back of the guitar to preserve that fancy formica top.

When I saw Mike Gordon play with Leo Kottke, he was playing an acoustic bass guitar and he had a length of tow chain attached at the rear strap button to prevent neck dive.

 

[DarkPenguin]

I have a pauwlonia body. About 80 coats of poly later it can still be dented by a mean thought.

 

[Tipperman]

I like it! Shame about the neck dive, though.