It all started with my old Squire Stratocaster – my first electric guitar, which I got from my parents. About 30 years later, I decided that I might upgrade the propeller-shaped neck with a real Fender maple neck. I always liked Telecaster headstock more than Strats. What I didn’t know at the time was that I wouldn’t fit a Tele neck into a Strat neck pocket. While I didn’t have enough money to buy a new telecaster body, I did have an old walnut block of wood laying around, so I decided to try to build my own guitar body.
I didn’t know anything about routing templates, lacquers, different types of tools, or the hardware I needed. I found out later that buying a new guitar would have ultimately been cheaper, but all that learning on the go and the challenge of if there would be a real guitar in the end, was so much fun that I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.
A good way to learn from one’s mistakes is to not repeat them, so I thought why not to build two more bodies at the same time – one more for myself and one for my bandmate. An alder body for him and a swamp ash and walnut for myself. That walnut block had been lying around at our cottage forever, I had to move it around every time we cleaned the attic. Well, not anymore!
The tools and templates I got at Stewmac, the lacquers at Northwest Guitars, and the wood and some hardware from Soller&Sivcak.
Throughout the next years I have built a few more Telecasters but this time with another challenge – my own 22 fret neck. I got more tools and learned about radiuses, fretwork, nuts, angles, … I was missing a guitar with Bigsby in my collection, but now here is one with Fender Noiseless pickups and 4-way switch and S-1 phase switching.
These two Teles, ocean turquoise and seafoam green, were made for my friends. The next guitar project might be a 12-string Les Paul.
Oh, and I can’t forget to mention the bass guitar my son and I built together.
