Official Luthiers Forum!

I just ordered the wood for a custom Telecaster for my brother. This will be for fun, just cost of materials. I'm under the belief that there won't be too many gotcha's with an electric guitar. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I ordered a beautiful piece of highly figured redwood for the top on a swamp ash body. Nice figured maple neck blank. Photos when this comes in. I wanted to let it all acclimate to my shop and I am almost done with my first acoustic.

_________________
Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

I got to thinking about fret slots. I have the SM banjo mandolin and martin templates. I really don't want to buy another. I only see 1/8" difference in scale length. Is there any good reason to not use the Martin 25.39 I think. I can't see any reason not to.

_________________
Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

I wouldn’t worry about it.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Scale length doesn't matter at all, unless you really want to adhere to the Fender "standard". Doing that does allow easy neck swaps. Build your neck and route the neck pocket but not the bridge or pickup(s). Locate the bridge relative to the neck and then set the neck angle to the bridge - pretty much like doing an acoustic guitar. Once the bridge is in place you can locate the pups (bridge pickup might mount to the bridge itself) and drill the string thru holes.

The tele neck heel and pocket result in zero degree neck angle and a slight overstand. I set my necks so the fret plane just touches the tops of the saddles at their lowest adjustment - just like an acoustic.

A couple of other random thoughts. If you are doing a drop top consider chambering the body, the weight saving is dramatic. I don't like Leo's one piece neck design, I prefer a separate fretboard and double acting truss rod. The plans drawn by T Downs are kind of the home builder's standard, you can download them here (first post)

https://www.tdpri.com/forums/tele-home-depot.46/

The TDPRI is the default tele builder's hang out, you might want to browse some of he builds. Shameless plug for the build thread of my personal tele clone, might be a couple of things that help yours

https://www.tdpri.com/threads/a-chamber ... ng.884657/

Tele's are fun and easy and you 'll probably want to make one for yourself.