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UNPLANNED DOWNTIME: 12th Oct 23:45

Walnut Tele Build

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NewTimerNewTimer Frets: 35
in Making & Modding
Well hey folks. I started documenting my first build here around the beginning of the year. After not being satisfied with both the quality of the neck and body I decided to go ahead and move onto another attempt. 

bit of a story with this one, bear with me.

I ran into a guy in my area who milled wood in his spare time and we got to talking. I ended up meeting him and his wife at his work shop and we worked together to pick out and saw some blanks of walnut. Gave me a great price and they were incredibly friendly people!

Once I got a chance I router sled planed one of the slabs of walnut, really beautiful piece of wood.





I don’t have any pictures of it, but I rough cut the blank, and spindle sanded it to the line instead of routing. I’ve had too much trouble with that technique. Put on the round over.


Routing the neck pocket with my fancy pants jig:


Routing out some cavities:

Carved a neck for the first time. I used a dragon rasp and Shinto rasp, both wonderful tools.



I ran into issues doing the headstock transition. I haven’t worked out the best way for me to do that yet. 

I’ll continue in my next post.
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Comments

  • NewTimerNewTimer Frets: 35
    edited April 2023
    I wasn’t happy with the headstock transition so I routed the headstock down and prepared a piece of walnut to cover the headstock.

    I botched up the glue up naturally for me. Made the best of it, filled the gaps with CA glue and dust. 





    I know the transition is not standard but I’m just going to live with it for now.

    Finished the body routes and wiring channels, they’re unsightly but I can manage.



    I decided to do a mock up dry fit to feel like I had made some progress.




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  • NewTimerNewTimer Frets: 35
    Worked on making walnut fret markers, I used a 1/4 plug cutter. Can’t say the quality was high, the plugs came out all sorts of rough. I decided to make then work by filling with super glue and walnut dust and scraping it back smooth.



    I used my fret saw to cut them close to flush then sanded everything down with my radius beam.


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  • NewTimerNewTimer Frets: 35
    Next was fretting. I’ve never done this step before. I used the StewMac drill press fret press, it went incredibly smoothly.

    Chamfered the slots

    Cleaned everything up with the various files.




    Anyways, that’s where the build is at, thanks everyone. There’s some inspiring builds going on, thanks to everyone for sharing their own builds!
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  • TeyeplayerTeyeplayer Frets: 2811
    This is looking great so far, well done. I think the walnut fret markers and faceplate are a win, ties it all together. 
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  • NeilybobNeilybob Frets: 505
    Oooooh that’s nice and from scratch. Kudo’s to you. 
    Trading feedback - https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/228538/neilybob
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  • MiddaparkaMiddaparka Frets: 1
    Looking fantastic.   =)
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