With the success of the 'Flying V' Ukulele I made for my youngest son, my other lad has asked for something similar only he would like a Telecaster style body and neck! So I had a rummage through my wood and found a piece of pine which used to be part of Luke's old bunk bed (seems appropriate!)
I made a scale drawing of a Telecaster head and played with the proportions to make it look good and stay functional and we began cutting and sanding. There are screw holes in the blank but they help tell the story of where the wood came from. I will plug them later. For now we have something that looks like a mini Fender Telecaster neck!
As mentioned previously I wanted to plug the three holes in the neck so I drilled the screw holes out and inserted dowels and then sanded them smooth. For the fret board it's back to good old Oak. The neck will not be reinforced as it will only host nylon strings but the fret board will provide a lot of support.
The neck was glued on and the sides planed flush to the neck, then the surface was rounded over using my round over block. With everything smooth and even I laid out the markings for the fret slots and began cutting.
A great tip I found when cutting tight fret slots was to put a little candle wax on the saw blade. It really works and makes a difficult and frustrating job almost bearable!
With the slots cut to an even and consistent depth (A first for me!!!) I drilled holes in the top and site where I will press in epoxy putty to make the fret markers. I still haven't got a clue how I am going to make the body, but at least the neck is well under way!
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