Building a lefty tele

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Been a while since the last update on this build. Figured I'd get to scrapin' away at the neck now the weather has gone from sour to sweet.

Some have asked to go into a little more detail on the neck building process, happy to show the way I do it. Mind you; this is the way I do it, others have different methods, different tools, different strokes for... ya know.

Since I keep my fretboards a bit wider than the usual 7ender size to accomodate for stubby fingers and the last neck I did for a tele came out somewhat chunky I decided to thin the back down a bit before shaping;

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Right there is where the batteries in the camera died on me, while they were recharging I did the routing and ended up here;

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Some sanding to make for a little smoother surface to be able to mark a new centreline and divide the neck into 4 segments;

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Divide the side of the neck into two;

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Same for the other side of course.

Then clamp the neck to be in a vice or a workmate, using scraps to prevent indentation;

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Ready to get out the ole' rasps!
 
This is when I get in a good position and make sure I have plenty of light (preferably sun) on the workpiece. I want to be able to see the back of the neck and one of the sides so I can keep an eye on the lines I drew. The object is to rasp away all wood outside those lines.
I will try and maintain the same angle on the rasp while taking off "all the wood that isn't a neck".

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This is to show the cut should be smooth and straight all along the segment that's being taken off. I'll take more off;

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You can the cut isn't exactly parrallel to the line, there's a little deviation, easy fix.
I check with a straight edge piece every few passes to see if I'm still in line and if the face I'm cutting is straight;

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The more attention I give to the neck at this stage, the less work I'll have getting it smooth later on.
After a while it should look something like this;

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Those tiny little deviations I'll sand out with a block after I've done the other side of the neck;

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Marked more area I want to take off;

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Time to get the spokeshave out;

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Mine is a cheap POS but it does the job;

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Starting to look like a neck, still doesn't feel like one, gotta take off some more;

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Transition needs some more work but I think we're almost there;

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Little mock up. Everything's on there a bit crooked and I'll be cutting a new pickguard but this'll be the look of it. GSP TwangMaster (Dutch brand) in the bridge and HiLoTron in the neck;

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Whatchu say?
 
This build hasn't been updated in a while, mostly because I've been busy making ???. With Easter's long weekend and all I thought I'd see if I could get in some trouble in the garage.
A new roundover bit (3,3mm or 1/8" radius) arrived by mail a week or so ago and I thought I'd give it a go. Went well on a scrap and fabulous on the body itself;

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That is after some light sanding to take out the minimal amount of router seam.

Then I thought I'd address what was left visible and tangible of the breakouts that template routing had left;

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Not sure if that was a wise decision to use CA glue to fill those tiny tearouts... We'll see if it was or wasn't tomorrow...
 
O, you guys. You slay me... :roll:

Haven't been able to do much (or any) work on the tele lately. Busy season has started. Evenings are spent dozing off, weekends spent catching up on sleep.
 
Drilling for wiring;

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I have to get my forstners from the bottom of a drawer before I can drill for the jack socket, it'll most likely be tomorrow before that happens.
 
For the electro socket I mark where the centre goes, drill with 3mm to be able to centre Forstner, then the 22mm Forstner (socket size) and last with 8mm bradpoint spiral for wiring. here's my tools for today;

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Haven't got much to share today, so here's a bit of an icky pic;

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