Shoestring Tele

[swarfrat]

And a Neovin Hard Vintage pickup for my esquire's esquire. I think we have all the STUFF we need at this point, minus the bridge pickup, a few supplies and we might can swing some tools out of it. (That's the REAL purpose of hobbies, is collecting tools.)

 

[swarfrat]

Some more handling of the body has me at a detour. Northern Ash is stupidly heavy. Like it's made of plutonium or something. It's a shame because it's such a pretty job routing and sanding but ... I think I'm going to need to seriously think about maybe planing off 1/8", and taking a forstner to it like Warmoth offers. If I'd gotten it in a thinline it wouldn't be so bad (that was an option, but I didn't fully grasp just how heavy it could be.)

Simplest way would be to just plane off 1/8" and reskin with something (anything - opaque finish), then flush trim to fit. I was curious if it could be resawn, but that's a no-go - 14" resaw capacity in hard ash is a BIG saw. Your garden variety 2hp 14" saw won't do it.  Or I could just pretend that it's 1977 again (but I'd have a hard time wielding a 2 ton guitar when I was 7 years old too)

 

[bagman67]

If you don't have access to a 13" planer, You could set yourself up with a router sled to shave off the top 1/8" or 1/4" or whatever you end up settling on.  Hordes of videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=router+sled+planer

Then, yes, you could use a forstner bit or router to hog out a lot more lumber.  If it's as heavy as all that, I might just go for the full hollow-body experience, leaving solid wood only for the bridge island, rather than merely chambering.

Here's a video of a guy doing a chambering job freehand with a router, which may give you some thoughts about how to proceed.

[youtube]uMA3fpZlhpU[/youtube]

 

[swarfrat]

 

[Cagey]

Gonna be a sweet ride!

 

[rgand]

That is beautiful. Very nice choices all the way.

 

[swarfrat]

I thought I could possibly take out a good chunk of weight with an undercut rabbet. But after a brief search, top bearing rabbet bits are hard to find, and usually have very large minimum diameters (bigger than the control slot route). Furthermore, Even with 1/4" shank bits, I don't think I can get more than 1/4" of undercut and that's just not enough to make much difference.


The quadrant thing referenced in another post recently makes a lot of sense if you hold the body up and look at it that way. The "don't matter" quadrants are vertically aligned in the playing position. I'm going to start just hollowing out as much as I can under the pickguard and maybe an aggressive tummy cut.

 

[Cagey]

If you haven't seen them yet, Eagle America is a huge distributor of router/shaper bits and associated gear, and Whiteside is a router/shaper bit manufacturer that has solved some problems for me in the past, also with a huge selection. If one of those two can't get you what you want, chances are it doesn't exist and you may need to rethink what it is you're trying to do.

 

[swarfrat]

I started thinking about just trying to lighten it as much as I could from the top as possibly being less work and less expensive. I called LMII and asked someone, and it appear that my best route is Engleman Spruce acoustic guitar tops - run about 0.170" to 0.200 thick and about $30 for 1A grade. If I hollow out as much as I can under the pickguard, leaving about 1/8" lip and 1/2" dia bosses around the screw holes that gets me a bit of weight mostly out of the red quadrant.  I don't want to spend too much though as just tossing this body in the trash and buying a thinline would be about $125.  $40 towards a top before gluing is a good chunk of the way there, as is $40 funky bits I would only use once.

Another option would be route out from the back and just leave it open. It's not a typical solution but I'm not sure it's exactly a bad solution. One advantage is that it could be applied retroactively, and as much as needed. Just respray once I was done with the lightening activity (or leave it - 1" dia holes in the back aren't exactly high wear surfaces, nor visible. I'll have to think this one over to see if I like it. It just seems 'wrong' but I can't make a case for why other that it's not 'normal'. It doesn't even preclude tummy cuts - though I'd probably want to cut my holes first then do the tummy cut.

 

[Cagey]

Brand new body, right? Rather than throw good money after bad, why not just put it on ebay and cut your losses? Start over with a body more suited to your needs. Sounds like you're going to end up both spending money and doing a helluva lotta work to a perfectly good body somebody else might think is perfect as is.

Just a thought.

 

[swarfrat]

A better idea... just route out under the pickguard, and do a rear routed control cavity. That's the largest easily covered  chunk I can take out of it.  I held it up with the neck today and its heavy alright but not the heaviest guitar I've ever picked up. Between the pickguard rout and the control route (i do plan to leave some meat for the neck to bridge center block), I estimate I can shave close to 1lb.

 

[Cagey]

That's a lot on a body. Could put it right where you'll like it.

 

[swarfrat]

GFS Neovin Hard Vintage pickup and the pickguard blank came this weekend. Also getting a quote on having them laser cut. They're passable except for the neck pocket, but my sister works for a company that does laser cutting so ... I'm looking into it.

But mostly I'm in a mad rush to get at least the 2nd floor playable - and we're dang close. Got the rail posts and railings up this weekend. I have one side which won't be open, and the climbing wall on that end hasn't been built yet.  I need to rethink the design though - the beams supporting the 3rd floor are turning out to be quite the head knocker, even for 5yo's. I can't really cut them, about all I could do is figure out how to pad it, make you go all the way under, or else over.

 

[swarfrat]

Lasers are go. A little more than i wanted to spend, particularly since everything else has been super tight budget, but it goes to help feed my nieces and nephew.  Should get my templates this weekend. Slides came today. Dunlop 212 and an EB pinky slide. Pinky slide is definitely the smaller of the two, but the whole appears about the same. Remains to be seen if its small enough. If not, I got a mini lathe.

Stuff for mini-me's mini-tele.  Neovin hard vintage. Straight barrels because it's for slide only.

 

[swarfrat]

Got my laser cut templates hand delivered (my sister works there) from Trefoil Laser in Greensboro, NC. They look really nice. Given the number of parts I had cut I think these were quite reasonable. A little bit pricey for a one off, but all considered, quite reasonable. They'll do acrylic and other materials too, but for low cost with limited usage these will receive they recommend birch plywood. ( I could see making another one or two but that's about all.)

 

[swarfrat]

Supposed to rain alllll week long. Maybe I'll get some guitar work done finally. Anyone know where to get a 16-20ft fire pole? (8ft worth of sliding, 3 ft in the ground (2 in the dirt, 1 ft of gravel in the landing zone) and 8-10 ft above the floor to tie in at the roof structure.

 

[bagman67]

These guys will cut a length of 2.5" pipe for you, but it's a little spendy.  Maybe check your local scrap and construction material yards?


https://www.discountsteel.com/

 

[Cagey]

Any electrical supply house (Grainger, Graybar, GESCO, WESCO, etc.) will sell you rigid conduit pretty cheap. It's usually either stainless, aluminum, or galvanized. You probably want aluminum. Normally comes in 10' lengths. Use one piece for the sliding part, and cut a second piece to create the buried part and the top mount. Usually has a connector on one end, so joining them is easy.

I don't know where you'd find brass fire pole, but I suspect it would be wicked expensive.

 

[rgand]

I'd check local plumbing supplies to see what's available. They should have 20' lengths. You'll probably want galvanized that you can polish lightly with a buffer.

 

[swarfrat]

Yeah,  real brass 3" fire pole is around $35/ft. Interestingly enough - even though they lawyers have everyone skert, fire poles are statistically safer than stairs.