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Can you give direction on building a Tele?
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Author:  Kitchen Guitars [ Sat Feb 04, 2012 8:15 am ]
Post subject:  Can you give direction on building a Tele?
I have been getting together with "the Boys" to play. I find electric guitars in my lap more and more often. I got the hots for a Fender Tele.
How much dough will I sink into building one from scratch? I am completely entrenched in acoustic building now. My goal would be really good pick ups, playability.... If it is a one time urge am I just better off with a Made in Mexico Tele and crawl back into my shop so I can yell about fretting my Tenor? (my latest [headinwall] ) or will I end up with a better than USA Tele if I go to the trouble? I have a ton of dried Black Walnut I was thinking of using for the body and neck? Advise is welcome!
Author:  VirgilGuitar [ Sat Feb 04, 2012 9:52 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Can you give direction on building a Tele?
Hi John - welcome to the forums! I'm one of the "rookies" here, but to try to help answer your question, I think anyone would have a difficult time telling you how much it would cost exactly to build your own Tele - some of the users here have started out such an attempt with a very LOW budget and were able to make a similar guitar - you mentioned that u are making acoustics, so we can assume you have a shop that has allot of the tools you would need to make such a build - the costs for me were pretty high when it came to purchasing the right tools for the job. If you are willing to do lots of research, you will eventually figure out a rough estimate as to how much the project will cost you, but like most of us have found, the payoffs are incredible to plug in a guitar you have made... for me, it was definitely worth the price of admission. There are plenty of plans available on the net and with a little searching, you can plan out a build for yourself. This is not to say that you will not encounter problems, but if you are resilient, take your time, you may end up with one better than you can imagine. Post your progress on here - there's allot of people that can give you suggestions along the way - there are allot of people tho, who do post on here the initial idea like yourself, that simply never come back... good luck man!
Author:  theguitarwhisperer [ Sat Feb 04, 2012 10:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Can you give direction on building a Tele?
http://www.callahamguitars.com/partstel.htm Here's all the hardware you need. From this company (the absolute best quality handmade parts) you're looking at about $370 plus shipping. If you have an Allparts account, you can get it for about half price but it won't be NEAR the quality.

Pickups will run you anywhere from about $150 (Seymour Duncan or Fender) to $300.

If you do all the wood parts yourself, it's whatever you can get the wood for. I'd plan on spending about $30 for neck wood, and maybe $50-100 on body wood, for good high-quality instrument grade wood.

You'll need a truss rod too, about $20.

Alltogether, you can spend anywhere from about $485 to $900 on materials, possibly less if you can find deals, or used parts, or reclaimed wood, or whatnot.

This assumes you have all the tools.

If you get quality materials, the result can be far superior to a Mexican Tele, for sure!

I'd get the Callaham hardware, and use Seymour Duncan pickups.
Author:  downinit25i [ Sun Feb 05, 2012 6:15 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Can you give direction on building a Tele?
Man, my first guitar was a cheap tele knockoff. I think I got it for $100 with a cheapo amp. I loved the thing, and a misplaced nut slot that needed to be fixed got me right into modding and building. The first guitar I built for myself was a tele too, walnut top, maple accent stripe and chambered body.

Head over to TDPRI for blueprints, either make it a string through with an ashtray or don't build one.

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/74504-d-size-tele-body-blueprint-files-here.html

While you're there, check out the $210 build challenge. Each year they have a forum contest where they give builders a budget limit and a month to come up with an awesome guitar, there's some amazing stuff.

People love the Callaham and Glendale bridges. Whatever you do, get compensated saddles and you'll be golden. I must be crazy because once upon a time I decided I didn't want to spend that kind of money on a bridge plate so I went out and buy the imported $15 version and, wouldn't you know it, it did the same job. Yeah, it probably makes a difference, it's personal opinion and you can always change your mind too. You could upgrade the saddles right off. Do what your budget allows. Make sure you pay attention to the string spread you are looking for.

Do you really need a Callaham control plate, or will an el cheapo or even a piece of maple work for you? Some people don't know that you can buy the $20 tuners and make sure the button screw is tight and they will stay in tune as good as anything else.

$200 is an immensely achievable budget for a really good build. I mean, it's a telecaster, not some kind of princess guitar! All the electrics I have built have been under that price point, except once in a while because of...

PICKUPS. That's a very personal choice. I like some of the Duncan tele pickups, and have them in my cheapo now and love them (Donahue bridge, I think). I've never tried GFS tele pickups, but based on their other options I have tried I wouldn't be scared to give them a shot. TDPRIers have more favorite pickups than I ever knew existed. I've found with my last few guitars that I really like to get something put together and then play it for a while to listen to what exactly it wants to be.

The fact of the matter is that the tele is a fairly minimalist guitar. The build quality (fit and finish) is what makes a guitar a standout. My philosophy is that if you can put together a really nice neck, make sure the pocket is as close to perfect as possible, and get a bridge in about the right spot, then you have succeeded in building a telecaster. Beyond that, Leo designed everything else to be incredibly modular.

Now don't be a candy ass and get building.
Author:  RogerC108 [ Sun Feb 05, 2012 8:32 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Can you give direction on building a Tele?
Hey John,

I built my tele for a grand total of about $65 bliss . You CAN go the rout that guitarwhisperer mentioned, but it isn't necessary to get something that plays and sounds very good. The Callaham parts are good, but way overpriced. Follow downinit's advice. I used a cheap import bridge and had the same results he did-- it worked great. And he's correct with getting the compensated saddles too. Get them from here. They're the same thing and about the cheapest anywhere. And as downinit said, check out the home depot at TDPRI. I've learned TONS about teles over there [:Y:]
Author:  theguitarwhisperer [ Sun Feb 05, 2012 11:11 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Can you give direction on building a Tele?
theguitarwhisperer wrote:


Alltogether, you can spend anywhere from about $485 to $900 on materials, possibly less if you can find deals, or used parts, or reclaimed wood, or whatnot.

RogerC108 wrote:
Hey John,

I built my tele for a grand total of about $65 bliss . You CAN go the rout that guitarwhisperer mentioned, but it isn't necessary to get something that plays and sounds very good. The Callaham parts are good, but way overpriced. Follow downinit's advice. I used a cheap import bridge and had the same results he did-- it worked great. And he's correct with getting the compensated saddles too. Get them from here. They're the same thing and about the cheapest anywhere. And as downinit said, check out the home depot at TDPRI. I've learned TONS about teles over there [:Y:]


I just like the Callaham hardware. Even the neck plates and control plates have a "Quality" feel to them, but yes, you make it as cheap as you want, even free if you scrounge hard enough.
Author:  muskr@ [ Sun Feb 05, 2012 5:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Can you give direction on building a Tele?
downinit25i wrote:
Some people don't know that you can buy the $20 tuners and make sure the button screw is tight and they will stay in tune as good as anything else.

What 20 dollar tuners are you referring to? I used a set of GFS gotoh-style tuners on my most recent build, and they stay in tune ok, but not as well as the stock tuners on my (mid priced) ibanez, and about the same as my lower end ibanez acoustic. The posts and knobs seem solid and the gear ratio is pretty standard.
Author:  downinit25i [ Sun Feb 05, 2012 6:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Can you give direction on building a Tele?
I think I got mine from GFS too, I don't know which ones exactly I bought them a while back. I know I've used 14:1 and 16:1 and found both to hold tuning well, but I like the 16:1 for the fine tuning. The key is that they have a screw holding the button on, if you tighten that up it increases the friction that has to be overcome to make the post turn either direction. Make it tight, but not so tight that you have to really crank on the tuner to change it. Just make sure that it isn't overly loose, it should offer some resistance without strings installed.

Another trick I used with the vintage style Klusons/Wilkinsons (where you have the separate bushings and 4 of the screws are each holding two tuners in), is to drill the tuner hole to the post diameter and then bascally countersink just enough so that the bushing can be pressed in. I've found the whole setup to be more stable than drilling the bushing diameter full through and on my main guitar with those cheap Wilkinsons I really only tune about once every couple days of bedroom noodling (no tremolo, but a lot of bending).

A big part of tuning stability is a good nut that doesn't pinch the string and sits at the right height. I use a bone nut with a little bar soap for lube. Another part is having as few string wraps on the tuner post as possible. The Wilkinsons I got were EZ lock so the only have 1 to 2 wraps. I was mad at first because I ordered them on accident, but I have been impressed.
Author:  Freeman [ Mon Feb 06, 2012 5:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Can you give direction on building a Tele?
John, I'm new to building electrics also, just completed my Les Paul clone for which I kept a pretty complete spreadsheet. I have just under a grand in it includings pups, case, finish, all the hardware and some very nice wood. Not a tele, obviously, but it might give you a rough idea. On the complete other hand, the other lutherie forum, MIMF, had a "$100 Challenge" to build a tele for that much or less - some pretty incredible guitar for not much money. There were guys building their own bridges and winding their own pickups, but lot of people scrounging parts and putting them together.

Melvyn Hiscock's book has a chapter on building a Tele style guitar, plust sections on wiring, finish, vibratos, as well as basic tools and shop stuff. If you don't get anything else, that would be a good reference.
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