This guitar was actually built several months ago, and was the first of the doublecut T-style bodies.
It features a 3-piece ash body, 1-piece ash neck + fretboard, and several small body chambers to lighten up the weight.
The resonance factor on this build was huge, with a crisp, bell-like tonal quality.
Although it was the first neck built with an ash fretboard, it is also the last, since the frets need an extraordinary amount of persuasion [glue] to stay seated, and therefore level.
(The neck shown in these pictures was actually replaced about a month ago for this very reason.)
So the customer is on his second all-ash neck, and if this one doesn’t work out then it will have to get replaced for a third and final time, and with a fingerboard of a different wood species.
Which would be quite a shame, since we were digging the all-ash look, sound and feel.
Anyways this one is kinda short.
The Process:
Starting at the template, a Tele body was traced on some MDF with the treble half of the body mirrored.
Here are the body billets, which need to be thicknessed and prepped for gluing.
The body pieces were selected from plaincut slabs, since the grain is much more dramatic on slabcut pieces than riftsawn or quartersawn.
This pic was taken pre-gluing.
Next the stock was drilled for dowels and the body edges were stepped to aid with clamping, before being glued and clamped for a 24 hour period.
The body is then cut and routed to final shape using the template, as pictured above.
The cavities are routed then it’s time for finish!
I wasn’t quite sure on the choice of neck pickup, so I opted for a P90 route, although any pickup size could be accommodated here.
