My dovetail fanned fret Tele build

[Dennis Mitchell]

Looking nice. I think you're on the right track with the bridge too. Sorry, but no advice on the headstock veneer other than backing it up with steel slats and bending it dry.

[Edward Taylor]

Thanks Dennis.

Back at it...

Elected to make a new bridge, the other one was a bit uneven and I did not want sides. I also opted not to weld the seems, appears to be strong enough already.


After chrome plating, not bad for 20 bucks I think.


Saddles on. I got these style of saddles instead of the barrel type because I could not figure out how to compensate for the offset on the barrels and still have the bridge centered on the middle rosewood strip.

[Edward Taylor]

3/16" roundover.


Routing out the pickup ring.


Cut out and sanded.


I have totally had it with sanding blocks for radiusing. I botched the first fretboard... just impossible to keep everything even it seems, maybe there is some technique I am unaware of but I was ready to throw them out. So I made this jig, its pretty simple and works great. The router rides on the two rails cut out to a 12 inch radius.

[Edward Taylor]

Finally recovered enough from my 3 day building spree to do an update. I worked wednesday, thursday, friday without hardly any sleep to get this done enough for the show. I am quite pleased with how everything went, it is not 100% done but enough that it looks finished and its now sitting at the exhibit.

So heres how it went:

Drilling the string through holes. I am loving this new drill press, my old one did not have enough depth to do these holes.


Ferrule holes drilled. Looks nice and even.


Neck screw holes and ferrule holes drilled.


First coat of tung oil on the body. That mahogany really came alive!

[Edward Taylor]

Glueing up the first layer of veneer on the headstock. This was a rather nerve racking process having to prep the glue and then heat on the hot pipe and clamp before it cooled down totally so the veneer would conform to that radius.




Glue up of the final show layer of veneer.


Filling the gaps.


On this second fretboard, when I went to transfer the fret positions on the original that I had laid out before tapering on, I realized the measurements were quite different from the actual fret positions. So it turned out to be a good thing I botched that fret board as I never realized you lay out a multiscale fretboard after tapering. I was told about this fretting layout website which saved me a pile of time. The scaling from my printer was not too far off either, only something like .030" or so at the 20th which seems negligible.
http://www.fretfind.ekips.org/2d/index.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Edward Taylor]

Starting the slots.


Glueing the fretboard on. Banged in some finishing nails at the first and twelfth but it still wanted to slide around.


Headstock cleaned up and nut slot cut.


Late night mistake here. Was evening up the fretboard with the router and a pattern bit and went too far, luckily it turned out invisible after putting this little patch in.


Carving the neck. The Stephen Boone mini plane works real nice for this!

[Edward Taylor]

Drilling the tuner holes.


Unfortunately one was a bit off.


Turned some rosewood dowel at a friend to plug it.


Bangin some frets in.


Frets in. All filed and angled at the ends, enough to look presentable.

[Edward Taylor]

Control access routed, took a while to figure out a shape I liked.


Drilling the hole for the pickup wire.


Another coat of oil on the body and one on the neck, fretboard and all.


String ferrules banged in.


Bridge on and the pickup and cover installed. I now realize I probably should of put the pickup straight so the poles are aligned with the strings. Oh well, will see how it sounds. May have to come up with some fix after the show.