Shoestring Tele

[swarfrat]

Rough cut the templates tonight. Planning to TRY to incorporate him in at least part of the sanding. Or maybe at least watch a little bit.

 

[swarfrat]

Playing around a bit with control plate placement - I'm liking this arrangement - keeps the pretty side up, incorporates body curves too.

 

[Cagey]

I think it works.

 

[ByteFrenzy]

It looks incredibly wonky to me... Some time back, a Tele control plate without the 3-way slot was mentioned in a thread, that could be an idea. And I'm pretty sure Doug could cook up something awesome.

 

[Sovereign_13]

Does it look that bad being on "backwards"?  Like flipped horizontally from where it would normally be (curve pointing away from the bridge)?

 

[swarfrat]

Can't say I'm liking it:

 

[bagman67]

Since you have the facilities for cutting a body, it seems you could take a strip of ebony or other hardwood and cut a plate in the correct orientation to suit. 

 

[Logrinn]

Or make a whole new pickguard that covers the controlplate area as well.

 

[Sovereign_13]

Oh, yeah, no.  That looks way worse than I anticipated.

What about a Tele Custom-style pickguard?  With the proper neck pickup.

Then you can do what you want with the controls.

 

[swarfrat]

Mine and his are supposed to more or less match.

I'm leaning pretty strongly towards turning it around backwards, or else making one. I think I can cut down a Tele plate. Easiest way would be to just sink a pivot in the pot hole - it wouldn't quite match the 32.4mm dia on the other end - it'd be more like 48mm dia, but the cut face would be flush with the PG, so no bevelling required. Trying to think of some other way I could grind it down round that doesn't require eyeballing it.

 

[swarfrat]

I like thinline's but Tele customs? Let's just say that's way uglier than anything sketched so far. I can NOT get into TC's. Not even if I put on bell bottoms and platform shoes.

 

[Sovereign_13]

Well, worth a shot.  Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Personally, I always liked the Tele Custom/Deluxe look.  Not more than the traditional Tele look, but I just like it.

 

[swarfrat]

Of all the options mocked up so far I think I like the 2 hole rounded Tele plate the best. The bob tail using the existing hole for a pivot is easier, but I think I like the fully rounded version better.  It's made from a normal Tele plate chopped off and ground round.

 

[rgand]

I like this last two-hole Tele plate. If you get a stainless one to cut down, it won't compromise any plating because there won't be any.

 

[ByteFrenzy]

Yes, definitely +1 for the fully rounded plate.

 

[swarfrat]

We have a tracking number on dad's tele body!! Bought some 8/4 basswood for kiddo's tele. Need to hit the jointer, glue up, then planer.

 

[rgand]

Cool. Looking forward to your progress.

 

[swarfrat]

The moment of truth arrives - the plan is opaque white or black (w/ brown tort pickguard). It's one H.E.A.V.Y. beast (Northern ash - really shoulda gotten a no-hole thinline)

And finally get to check scale on the mini - was starting to feel like it wasn't all that small. Haha - nope it's small.

 

[Cagey]

Wow. That's a much bigger difference than I thought.

 

[swarfrat]

My sanding to the line is much better than it looks. The paper lifts up instead of getting sanded off. I've tried to trim it a bit with an exacto knife, but it still looks that way. In some straight or convex spots I was trying to leave some for block sanding instead of the spindle sander. Would hate to rely on a drum sander for a straight line no matter how good my sanding skills.

Seeing the size of the mini, I'm going to forgo any internal carving and skinning. It's basswood after all.