My dovetail fanned fret Tele build

[Edward Taylor]

I started this guitar last week for a contest over at the telecaster discussion forum. It ended monday and I did not meet the deadline. I think I gave it a pretty good run but knew when I started I probably would not make it, had a free long weekend so just wanted to give it a shot. Anyway, it was a disappointment getting so close, but its funny how things seem to work out sometimes... I got a call today from the local arts society and they want me to finish it and showcase it as part of an exhibit at the opening of the new library in our town! There is a bunch of exhibits, and this one is for this arts award in the area that I was lucky enough to win last year, so it will be shown with a variety of art work from past winners. There will be a lot of people around during the opening weeks of the library so it might be some good exposure!

Anyways, heres the details about this guitar:

2nd solid body build
Shape- Modified Tele shape, to correspond with fanned frets
Top woods- Indian rosewood and figured maple
Back woods- African mahogany and plain maple
Neck woods- African mahogany, rosewood and maple
Fretboard- Indian rosewood
Scale- 26.25" top and 24.75" bottom (25.5" at the center), "perp" at the 7th
Pickups- One Seymour duncan Jazz model humbucker at the moment, but might go to a P-90 and save the bucker for a carved top
Bridge- Going to be a homemade base with graph tech tele saddles
Nut- Tusq, 1 11/16" spacing
Truss rod- Stew mac hotrod
Electronics- One volume and one tone, 500k pots

[Edward Taylor]

Wood jointed and planed (at friends shop) and back dovetailed.


Cutting dovetails for top.




Top glued and clamped at friends shop, I dont have any pipe clamps yet.


Top sanded, you cant see it here but the maple has some unique figure, its almost like scales or speckles, not to be confused with birdseye. My buddy at the wood store said he has never seen maple figured like this. A score for 20 bucks I think.

[Edward Taylor]

Shape drawn out.


Roughed out on bandsaw... I hate making templates, well anything that involves MDF in general.


Back roughed out. Accidently cut it with the bad side out late at night, but luckily it sanded out okay.


Top roughed out. Got it right this time.


Template for chambers made. Okay... who is involved in guitar making and doesn't have one of these little sanders???

[Edward Taylor]

Routing the back to shape.


Back routed.


Top routed.


Reaming out the chambers in the back.


Chambers routed.

[Edward Taylor]

This really could have ruined my day. Luckily it happened while routing a chamber, so there was basically no harm done. The bit was one of the first things I ever bought for guitar making, so its seen a lot of use, but enough for the bearing to disintegrate?


Top chambers routed.


Body glue up with pretty much every clamp I own.


Neck blank laminated.


Routing truss rod slot.

[Edward Taylor]

Truss rod in.


Wings glued onto headstock end.


Roughing out the neck.


Routed to shape.


Marking the taper of the fingerboard.

[Edward Taylor]

Roughing out the taper.


Laying out the multiscale, thank goodness for stew mac fret calculator.


Starting the slots freehand.


Nut slot cut.


Slotting to full depth with the stop. Never had much luck before slotting free hand so I got a mitre box, but not much choice here. The slots seem pretty tight but may have to glue the frets.

[Edward Taylor]

Slotting finished.


Taper routed, finished off the ends later with a straight edge clamped and then routed.


Radius sanding with this guide I made, inspired by the member here "Jim", thanks for the idea Jim it works great. I have had problems before keeping the radius even when just doing it free hand.


Turned some offcut rosewood into dowel for control knobs over at my friends place. Turning is fun!