Maple Thinline Telecaster

[Mark Crenshaw]

Lastly, I trimmed the ends of the frets flush with the fretboard...I'll level and dress them later.





Peace,
Mark

[Joe Leigh]

Awesome thread Mark. I find myself looking for daily updates...
Even though I don't play and will probably never build one, I admit this is one of the coolest builds I've ever seen. Great work!!

[Peter Aeschliman]

Agreed! Thanks for sharing this.

[Mark Crenshaw]

Mounting the neck turned out to be a bit of a challenge. I didn't have a template with the mounting holes in it so I needed to lay them out by hand. I used a 1/2" piece of mdf to place 2 lines down the edges of the neck pocket.



Then I layed out the ferrules inside the neck pocket and marked where they crossed the first set of lines.



I drilled these points through with an 1/8" bit and then recessed them on the back of the guitar with a 5/8" Forstner bit.



With the neck clamped in place, I could only access 3 of the four holes, so I marked and drilled the 3.

[Mark Crenshaw]

With the 3 drilled and the neck screwed in place, I marked the final hole, then disassembled it to drill the final location.



It bolted up beautifully.



Peace,
Mark

A side note: Looking at these pics as I post this, I'm thinking I need the reduce the length of the neck heel so it's a bit closer to the body heel...it looks a bit long to me. And the contour it's quite right.

[Barry Richardson]

Mark, Thanks for taking the time and trouble to post your process!! I'm really enjoying following long

[John Keeton]

Fantastic progress, Mark! I agree on the heel of the neck - it should be closer to the body - but, not much! This is going to be a masterpiece of work when complete!

[Doug Shepard]

...A side note: Looking at these pics as I post this, I'm thinking I need the reduce the length of the neck heel so it's a bit closer to the body heel...it looks a bit long to me. And the contour it's quite right.

I'm guessing it was good with the original neck pocket before you rounded it out to make the bending easier.

[Brett Baldwin]

It looks like you could easily scribe the new neck pocket shape onto the neck and blend it back in. 1/2"-3/4" from the body maybe?

Great work. It's going to be a real beauty when you're finished.

[Keith Christopher]

Mark,

Did I miss where you put the truss rod in the neck ? Or is that still to come ? That being asked....Looking great !


Keith

[Mark Crenshaw]

I located and drilled the holes for the controls.
I needed to locate the control cavity on the front of the guitar so I layed the template in place and mark 2 edges.



I transfered those marks to the front...



and aligned and marked the location of the control cavity.

[Mark Crenshaw]

After futzing with the layout for an hour or so, here's what I decided on. I plan to mount the switch so the action is front to back like a standard Tele switch.



All drilled and mounted.



Evereything is neat and accessable in the control cavity.



With the bridge, pickups, chrome knobs and switch tip in place, it's looking more like a guitar!

[Mark Crenshaw]

A full shot with the tuners added.



Peace,
Mark

[David Christopher]

looks great, almost time for a finish

[Mark Crenshaw]

Mark,

Did I miss where you put the truss rod in the neck ? Or is that still to come ? That being asked....Looking great !


Keith

Hey Keith.

Thanks!

The neck has a dual action Hot Rod truss from Stew Mac...I didn't take any pics with it in place. The maple I used for the neck is kiln dried and stable but not stable enough to build without a truss rod. I don't think any would be.

Peace,
Mark