What's new on the workbench today?

Fender Telecaster Setup

We have a very special guest in the workshop this weekend, a lovely blonde Fender Baja Telecaster! A friend asked me to take a look as he was getting some issues bending strings on the higher frets so I said I would do a setup for him.

Of course I have to thoroughly test her to see exactly what the problems are! Hope my blue Tele doesn't get jealous!

He asked me to replace the strings so that is first order of the day, there are a lot of retro features on the Baja including classic slotted machine heads so I carefully followed the instructions in my Haynes Telecaster manual to ensure I pre-cut the strings to the correct length.  However before I cut the strings I gave the frets and lacquered finger board a good clean.  There isn't much wear generally, in fact the guitar is quite lovely however a couple of the jumbo frets have little nicks in them and will need redressing at some point.

At this point though that is not a necessity and my friend does not want that done anyway.  I ran a fret rocker over all the frets but the frets all sit happily level with each other with the only exception been the tiniest bit of movement around the 11th fret on the low E side of the neck which should not be problematic as there is no discernible fret buzz.  

After fitting a new set of strings I took a look at the bow in the neck, it is slightly more bowed than fender recommend but I will let the neck settle overnight with the new strings and take another look tomorrow and adjust the truss rod if I feel it is required.  I removed the pickguard to inspect the truss rod adjusting screw which is at the neck pickup end of the neck in true classic style.  I will need to loosen the strings and slacken the neck retaining screws to give me access if I need to adjust the truss rod, this will allow me to tilt the neck back a little for better access.

Router Table

I managed to get some time on my new router table recently and made a couple of Telecaster neck blanks as well as a copy of my template.

Making the template copy out of MDF was far easier than attempting to route the hard wood I had chosen for my neck blanks.  I had to purchase a decent 1/2" bit with a top bearing and a collar to fit the router as it comes with a 1/4" one but I could not find a bit I was happy to use.  On one attempt the bit came lose and ruined the blank I was working on, a lesson learned there!

The router and the table performed great and I look forward to creating a copy of body template and then a couple of Telecaster bodies.  The reason I want to create a template from the template is so if I damage my copy I can easily create another from the original.

I now have 2 blanks ready to turn into necks, I am low on funds though at the moment so the project is on hold for a little while!  I will update here one I get some bits together, maybe after my next pay day!

Books for Luthiers and Guitar Makers - Part 3

For the 3rd and final part of this little trilogy I will show you some of the other books I own, some for technical reference and some for inspiration and others because I just like them!

Workshop Books

It makes sense to have a look like this around, especially with a hobby like luthiery.  I can find myself in the workshop scratching my head on how I and going to achieve a particular cut or looking for a quick way to do something only to realise that someone else has already had the same thought.  That's when I turn to 150 Essential Jigs, Aids and Devices for Today's Woodworker  and find I spend the rest of the day making the jig to suit my purpose.  Of course once a jig has been made it can be reused over and over again.  Any craftsman will probably say the same, it just seems like a lot of work at the time but pays dividends to own a book like this. 

Fun Books

Over the years I have collected a few guitar chord and tab books and most tend to be around a particular type of music, or a certain era like the 60's but The New Complete Guitarist  is a little different been a beginners guide to playing the guitar as well as a nice reference and guitar history book.

The Les Paul Guitar Book: A Complete History of Gibson Les Paul Guitars is a nice reference book with some more great history and some wonderful photographs.  A must for any Les Paul fan and for me a nice reminder of the type of instruments I would like to both own and emulate.

Finally The Rickenbacker Book seemed like a tough book to get hold of at the time and then went missing in my house for several years.  I owned a 330 Jetglow Black 6 string for quite some time and this book is well thumbed from looking at the pictures and reading all about the company and their guitars.  You only have to look at my take on the 'f-hole' on my guitars to see where I get my inspiration from as mine is essentially the Rickenbacker hole upside down!

Thanks for reading, I will undoubtedly add more books to my collection and so maybe I will add another part to this series some day but as most of these books came to me as Christmas and Birthday presents it may be some time before part 4 arrives!

Books for Luthiers and Guitar Makers - Part 2

In part one I listed a few or my guitar making books however I still have a few more to show you so here goes...

Pickup and Electronics

Guitar Electronics for Musicians (Guitar Reference) seemed like a good place to start in building up some knowledge and having as a reference guide.

At some point I would like to start winding my own pickups.  I think the more I make myself then the more unique the sound and feel of my guitars and this will be another step in that direction. I want to make my own winding machine using an Arduino micro-controller to control the speed and count the number of revolutions but until then I'll keep reading The Guitar Pickup Handbook for inspiration!

Archtop Guitars

 I think my luthiery skills are a little way off achieving something like the beautiful atchtop guitars detailed in the 3 books below however this is where i'd really like to be in a couple of years.

Robert Benedetto is a famous name acknowledged as the foremost archtop guitar builder so his book Making an Archtop Guitar was a must have purchase and I have read it cover to cover several times.

I liked the look of Making a Laminated HollowBody Electric Guitar  as it demonstrates how to press laminate into the front and back of a guitar rather than carving them out of solid wood.

Finally I bought Building an Electric Archtop Guitar: An illustrated step-by-step guide to building your own electric archtop guitar  as Benedetto's book discusses building an acoustic archtop guitar and I think I would like to build an electric one when I get round to it.  There are some great pictures in this book and some great tips.

Books for Luthiers and Guitar Makers - Part 1

I thought it would be nice to share with you some of the books I own related to guitar building and maintenance.  It's by no means a definitive collection and i'd love to hear about any other books you guys could recommend. I have built up a nice little library over the years usually by adding one or 2 a year to my Amazon Christmas wishlist!

Repair & Maintenance Books  

Alfred's Teach Yourself Guitar Repair & Maintenance: Everything You Need to Know to Start Working on Your Guitar!  is my 'under the workbench' goto book of choice.  Simple things I easily forget like the standard string height settings Fender use on their guitars for example are nice and easy to find.

Guitar Player: Repair Guide is a much more comprehensive book and full of great tips and simple repairs.  It also has a great section on pickup wiring diagrams which I tend to use for inspiration when wiring up my own guitars.  Once again this book lives under the bench...  or more often than not it's on top of the bench!

Haynes Manuals

Whenever I bought a new car as a younger man it was always followed by a copy of the associated Haynes manual as I liked to do as much of my own maintenance and servicing as I possibly could, so you can imaging my delight to find guitar Haynes manuals!  The difference is that I don't own any of these high end guitars but I still find them incredibly useful when trying to realise my own recreations.

My favourite guitar, one day hopefully own a real one but in the mean time it's my favourite guitar to both make and play so the Fender Telecaster Manual seemed like an obvious choice and I book i reference all the time.

As with all these books in this series the Fender Stratocaster Manual: How to Buy, Maintain and Set Up the World's Most Popular Electric Guitar (Haynes Manual/Music) is not only a good reference book but also a great history book.  It also shows different setups and guitars owned by famous players.

Finally Gibson Les Paul Manual (2nd edition): How to buy, maintain and set up the legendary Les Paul electric guitar (Haynes Manual/Music) finishes off my Haynes collection for now.  All 3 books are hardback and there are a few others available including one for the Gibson SG and another on how to build your own electric guitar.

Making Books

Before I started building my own guitars I watched every YouTube video I could on the subject and bought a couple of books including How to Build Electric Guitars: The Complete Guide to Building and Setting up Your Own Custom Guitar and Make Your Own Electric Guitar by Hiscock, Melvyn (1986) Paperback

I did a fair bit of research and the book by Melvyn Hiscock kept popping up as a good reference book to start out with. Both books cover the basics including building a guitar from a kit to sourcing wood and tools to begin building.  I think the Internet is a wonderful resource but in my opinion you can't beat settling down with a good book!

In part 2 I will show you some other books I own including books on building arch top guitars, pickups and workshop tools.

Router Table for Making Electric Guitars

I decided a long time ago that I would like to buy a router table and so I finally took the plunge (excuse the pun!) and splashed out on a Triton table and router.  I had attempted to mount a small router to my table saw as there is a hole in the table top for a router but this proved to be more trouble than it was worth plus I wanted a dedicated router workstation.  I began to look around for inspiration and found it on Amazon where I combined the purchase of a Triton RTA300 Precision Router Table, a Triton MOF001 Dual Mode Precision Plunge Router, 1400 W and a Triton RSA300 Router Stand. I think it was the picture below which sole it for me!

Triton offer 3 compatible routers and I chose the middle option which fitted into my budget and the 3 items cost £425 which comes in at just over £20 a month over 2 years on their 'pay monthly' option.

The legs and table come flat packed so you have to assemble them yourself and the instructions are a little vague but not impossible.  Some of the diagrams are not particularly clear but after a couple of hours I have attached the tabletop to the legs and assembled the fence and sliding board in the top.

There is a good dust extraction attachment and Amazon sell a companion Triton DCA300 Dust Collection Bucket, 20 L which will link to a conventional vacuum or an existing dust extracting system but I plug my vacuum in directly at the moment.

Once I had the top assembled it was time to mount the router to the removable plate.  The plate consists of 2 pieces of powder coated metal which screw together with the addition of some spacers.  The process of attaching the router to the plate is a very simple process and took seconds.  The router itself can be adjusted from above the table however you have to screw the access hole yourself.  This proved to be quite a challenge as accurately drilling through the plate in perfect line with the router was quite tricky. You can connect almost any router to the table and a comprehensive set of adapters is provided so  the manufacturer decided not to drill holes for every combination in the mounting plate, but you would have thought they would have at least marked the top with the location for the holes for their own equipment. 

After some drilling and fine tuning with a round file I was able to slot the winder handle into the top of the router table mounting plate and fine adjust the height easily.  Before the router could be used in the upside down position though the instructions tell you to remove a large spring which was a simple task. There is a sliding fence is fully adjustable complete with planing shims, adjustable slides to hold the work and a clear guard.  There is a sliding table insert with an adjustable protractor and a separate safety mains switch mounted on the right side of the stand.

The router itself is solid and highly adjustable including variable speed control and a handle winder and 3 stop plunge block.  The only disappointment is the omission of a 1/2" colett.  The router comes with 1/2" and 8mm collets but the 2400W model does come the the larger collet.  The 1/2" collet is available though for about £20.

I needed to order some bits so a full review on performance will follow later but for now i'm excited about this purchase and cant wait to get stuck in and see what I can achieve.

Telecaster IV - Finishing off a forgotten project

Well it's been quite some time since I posted here so I think I best update you all on what I've been up to since I last put an update on way back in September 2014!

Firstly I haven't been completely away from luthiery, in fact I finished a Telecaster project I'd had under the bench for some time now.  I had a blue body but was never quite happy with the finish. However in the end I decided to put the guitar together anyway using up various spare parts I had lying around.

I pondered the idea of using a white pickguard and then something a little more unique but in the end I dismissed both of these options and instead made a scratch plate myself.  Another issue was the bridge as the only spare I had was one I had 'weathered' for a previous relic project however in the end I didn't use it.

So rather that buy a new bridge I decided to spray it instead, however looking around the workshop the only colour I found was bright red! So now it's time for something completely different! Don't say I didn't warn you!

So the black custom pickguard closely matches the shape of the horn and also is cut to sit tight against the bridge and control plate, there are no screws retaining the neck pickup, this is packed with sponge to the desired height.  The neck is maple and I replaced the chrome volume and tone control knobs with black ones. 

 I flattened the neck and leveled and redressed the frets, the action is as low as I could get it without too much buzz and the guitar is lovely and easy to play with a nice twang.  It is a unique looking guitar and I;m glad I finished it now as it frees me up to start thinking about new ventures.