Another tele I built

[blakejcan]

Well....I built the body from scratch and bought the flamey roasted maple Warmoth neck. Maybe one day I'll get the tools and bravado needed to try to do a neck myself. It's a swamp ash body that has been chambered out to remove some meat with a quilted maple top and some fun little burst like guys on the back and sides. Oh yea I put a piece of walnut sandwiched down the middle as well. Cut and shaped the pickguard and backplate out of acrylic.

Has bareknuckle mississippi queens in there that I am excited to try. Just need to make a nut, wire it up and set it up and we're good. Finish is not perfect close up but it's as good as I have patience for and for rattlecans it's pretty good.

For your approval:

 

[jeremy]

i like it! nice top too. probably pretty light weight?

 

[Fender_Punk]

Looks great! It's neat to see a guitar with one color on the top and a burst on the back.

Any particular reason for sandwiching the walnut?

 

[playas]

That's a spectacular looking piece of work.

 

[Mincer]

How exciting! Can't wait to hear what this sounds like!

 

[blakejcan]

Looks great! It's neat to see a guitar with one color on the top and a burst on the back.

Any particular reason for sandwiching the walnut?

Prince's tele has something similar and I just liked the look. Not sure it will do anything other than add a stripe. Ha!

 

[donaldr]

Beautiful. But not sure about the pickguard on such a nice top.

 

[blakejcan]

Beautiful. But not sure about the pickguard on such a nice top.

I actually fudged up one of the locations for the volume pot so I decided to add a guard to cover up the plug.

 

[PFDarkside]

Very nice!

 

[Fender_Punk]

Prince's tele has something similar and I just liked the look. Not sure it will do anything other than add a stripe. Ha!

RIP Prince, what an artist. Nothing wrong with paying homage.

 

[blakejcan]

i like it! nice top too. probably pretty light weight?

Not as light as I thought it was going to be. I chambered it using the same template as when I built a thinline tele so there is a lot removed but I think that maple center piece adds some weight back in. I have a roasted ash body that feels lighter than this.

Some day I'll build a roasted ash body that is chambered and the whole thing will weight about 5 lbs

 

[Mincer]

A thing to be careful with ultra light bodies, is that they can be neck heavy. I did a chambered Strat of swamp ash, and while really light, made the guitar slightly neck heavy.

 

[blakejcan]

to counter that I chamber my necks. haha

altho as I type that out, I am sure someone out there has done that

 

[JamesPaul]

I like it and cannot believe it was finished with rattlecans. The Walnut strip is an impressive touch!

 

[Dave Locher]

That's funny, I'm working on a walnut body right now and just decided to put a maple strip in the back just because.
Beautiful guitar - subtle but unique

 

[Mincer]

That's funny, I'm working on a walnut body right now and just decided to put a maple strip in the back just because.
Beautiful guitar - subtle but unique

Walnut is an interesting wood. The walnut guitars I have played were pretty heavy though.

 

[GuitarDoc]

No problem with having a scratch plate on front...it's the tortoise that doesn't fit. A B/W/B would be awesome imho.

 

[GuitarDoc]

A thing to be careful with ultra light bodies, is that they can be neck heavy. I did a chambered Strat of swamp ash, and while really light, made the guitar slightly neck heavy.

All of my guitars are fully hollow, not just chambered, and come in at about 6 lbs total! Necks are solid with truss rod, 25.5" scale, and Fender locking tuners which are pretty heavy, but none of them are the least bit neck heavy, no neck dive at all. Mainly it's because of the fulcrum, the upper horn where the neck strap connects at the 12-13th fret.

If a guitar is designed well, it will be balanced, not like an SG especially a 24 fret SG. That, to me, is just about the most uncomfortable guitar to play because of neck dive. I've got three SGs, and though they are fun to play and have great tone, that neck dive really gets to me very quickly.

 

[Mincer]

All of my guitars are fully hollow, not just chambered, and come in at about 6 lbs total! Necks are solid with truss rod, 25.5" scale, and Fender locking tuners which are pretty heavy, but none of them are the least bit neck heavy, no neck dive at all. Mainly it's because of the fulcrum, the upper horn where the neck strap connects at the 12-13th fret.

If a guitar is designed well, it will be balanced, not like an SG especially a 24 fret SG. That, to me, is just about the most uncomfortable guitar to play because of neck dive. I've got three SGs, and though they are fun to play and have great tone, that neck dive really gets to me very quickly.

Yeah, any guitar with the slightest dive I don't find myself playing very long.

 

[blakejcan]

chambered necks to counteract neck dive.

we're on to something here