Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Scratch Build: Pine Top Tele

While I didn't detail the build as I thought I would, here are a couple of pix of the finished guitar:



The body is a sandwich of spalted pine, a red oak center, and a poplar back. The finish is alcohol dye and shellac.  The neck is maple with a rosewood fretboard. 24.562" scale, Dimarzio 36th anniversary PAF pickups, volume-tone-tone pots with a push-push tone control to switch between parallel and series wiring on the neck pickup.  Gotoh tuners, TusqXL nut and a Mighty Mite bridge.

I shaped the neck by hand with rasps, files, card scrapers and sandpaper.  I have to say it plays like buttah!  Why? Because I could shape exactly as I wanted to fit my hand and playing style. Not something you can get with an off the shelf neck. Amazingly, given the body construction, it sustains for days.