Making a Telecaster Guitar

This was one of those projects I wish I never started but I had to see it through. I certainly did not skimp on parts and bought the best swamp ash body and a Fender licensed maple neck. Its a really solid guitar and plays/sounds real nice!

My housemate bought a Fender Telecaster and I loved how it sounded and how it looked. I spent the next few months making my own… on the floor of my bedroom.

My DIY Telecaster spec:

• 1952 Telecaster unfinished swamp ash body (2 peice) – Ebay
• Allparts unfinished maple Telecaster neck – Allparts uk
• CTS potentiometers (tone and volume) – Axesrus
• Fender 3 way switch – Axesrus
• Kluson tuners – Ebay
• Wilkinson bridge – Axesrus
• Hand wound bridge and neck pickups – bits from http://www.stewmac.com/
• Bone nut – Axesrus
• Matt black pick guard (5 hole mounting 1950- 1963) – Axesrus

I got most the parts from http://www.axesrus.com. Their parts are definitely better than the Ebay stuff and a good price i’d say. For the neck I decided to spend the extra money and get a licensed Fender one from http://www.allparts.uk.com/

Build your own tele – an overview of my build

In this post I’ll go over how I made a Telecaster on the floor of my bedroom, with no real tools.

I started with an unfinished neck

Finish with oil

I started with an unfinished All-parts Telecaster neck. I sanded for a clean and smooth finish using 150 grit and finishing with 320. I used about 15 coats of Tru-oil for the finish, going over with 0000 wire wool between every few coats

Oil again… and again

Look how nice this gets the neck! The Tru-oil buffs up pretty well but takes ages to cure hard. I made the mistake of wire wooling before the first coat of Tru-oil had properly hardened and had to start again. Learn from my mistake

After 3 weeks

After 3 weeks, the neck is finished. It just needs holes drilling for machine heads, string tree and heel

The body

Here’s the body. Its a 52 Telecaster with counter sunk string ferrules. The wood is swamp ash – it’s very soft and easy to dent with finger nails

I marked out the holes to drill into the neck

This is quite a deep body. I wasn’t sure the screws would go deep enough to attach the neck. It seems ok though

And drilled

I used a pillar drill to ensure the holes are completely straight and at right angles to the back of the neck. I started with a 2.5mm drill bit and then opened them up with the correct size

Sand and finish the body

I like natural finished. After some research I decided to bring out the nice grain with an oil based dark grain filler (Jenkins Jecofill – http://www.jpennyltd.co.uk) and then finish with many coats of oil – the same oil as I used on the neck. Picture below is the grain filler being applied with a plastic card.

Sand back to taste

I sanded it back (grade 320) a little to get the effect I wanted – a dark accentuated grain that will show through an oil finish.

Finish with oil

I used the same oil as the neck (Tru-oil as pictured further up). I applied very thin coats with a clean cotton t-shirt. I applied loads of coats until I got the nice shimmering natural finish that I wanted. After each coat I waited at least 24hours before very lightly sanding with very fine paper. And on the final few coats I used a 0000-grade wire wool.

Now for the hardware

Here’s the hardware. Kluson tuners, Fender 3 way select switch, 250k CTS pots, Wilkinson bridge. I tried my best to buy good quality hardware. There’s no point making a guitar only to use poor quality pots, wire and mechanical components. I want this guitar to last a long time – like a Telecaster would

Copper shielding in the cavities

I stuck adhesive copper tape inside the control cavity and also the pickup cavities to help reduce electromagnetic interference

Fit neck pickup

Fit bridge pickup

Align and secure neck

I made sure the neck was aligned by checking the strings were parallel to the neck all the way along. I then marked the four points to be drilled on the neck heel

Fit the nut

This is a bone nut. It needed a bit of filing and sanding to make it fit. I used a very small dot of wood glue to hold it in

The mess I made

Here’s some of the mess i made. I had no workshop so bedroom floor had to do. Those steel wool bits get everywhere though – not recommended near clothes!!

Wire the control plate

Here’s the circuit I used

The finished guitar

It feels really solid and plays nice! I love the range of sound I can get from this – from harsh twang to deep and mellow

5 years later: I got a strap for it

 

Also see: Making guitar pickups