The Smuggler's Route

Recently a customer brought in a 6lb. Tele body, asking if there was any way that we could lighten it up to the low-4lb. range. What happened was the most ridiculous “Smuggler’s Route” that I’ve ever seen.

The end result looks good, though.

First off, I took some pine template material and traced a pickguard onto it, making note of the mounting holes. Next, I marked out about 3/16" to the inside of the pickguard line, leaving some extra space around the screw holes, and cut said line out on the jigsaw. After that, I attached it to the body with double-sided tape and went to work hogging out the majority of the wood with various Forstner bits.

Next with the router, I got as deep as the bit would possibly allow, then removed the template.

Now is a fine time to check the coverage, which the pickguard handles nicely.

Then the routing is finished up without the template, to the final depth. The final depth is 1/4"(!!) from the backside of the body.

Due to so much wood being taken out, the decision was made to glue two 5mm graphite rods into the cavity. Presumably to prevent the body from folding up like a potato chip under that much string pressure.

Now for the conductive shielding paint.

It all looks wonderful. Let’s wait for the rest of the parts, then this puppy built.

Now that the real pickguard was dropped off, just to be extra careful I shielded the pickguard with copper.

Electronics are installed, and due to the realization that the neck pickup is not a humbucker, but a true singlecoil P90, some copper was added and another layer of conductive paint to the bottom.

The end result looks, sounds and plays great. The guitar weighs in the low-4lbs. range, and there are no outwardly visual signs that like, all of the wood is missing from underneath the pickguard.

Nothing but a wonderful outcome.