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Is there any way I can fill up these awful routed cavities and start fresh again? I'd like to take off the finish, fill the holes, route out a proper size single coil neck pickup cavity and be born again. I'm thinking of removing the finish and doing a steel wool & vinegar stain. Just hoping I can plug up the holes somehow. Maybe glue in a big block of wood and fill the rest out with wood filler? Not sure. I'd be thrilled to hear what you guys suggest without taking the piss out of me. Otherwise I'll just burn it at the cottage and spend $300 on a brand new alder body. The other option I'm considering is buying a template and making my own body. But, before I go that way I'm hoping you guys might be optimistic enough to suggest that there is a way of saving this body... I'm just looking to make a nice junkyard tele, tuned town a step, just for some good old blues rockin'.

You could use some masking tape over those holes, cut the shape out with a razor, then transfer the cut out part onto another block of wood, cut that out and plug the hole.

I'd be inclined though, if the finish is really not something you're into saving, to lay out some straight pieces of mdf or something in a rectangle around the existing cavities, use it as a template for a pattern bit with a router and rout the whole thing, that way you'd be dealing with only one cavity to fill and it would be square, so much easier to fill.

I'm not sure how the steel wool and vinegar would work with wood filler. I doubt you'd get something that looks very even. I'm assuming you're aiming for a washed out black kind of look? I've used black stain and sanded it back then rubbed in a hardwood floor oil as the top coat, I like the look of that. It's kind fo like a faded barnwood kind of thing.

Why not just hide everything under a big enough pick guard, mount your neck p/u to that, save the 'burst and be done with it.

Then scratch build the tele of your dreams - free (and accurate) plans are available at TDPRI.com, make your own templates and finish it any way you want. A tele is the simplest guitar in the world to build (Leo intended it that way)

Right, Freeman's idea is way better. Haha.

When I need to fill in a mess like that I usually rout out a single larger section and replace like I did here.
https://howardguitars.blogspot.com/2015/01/originally-published-in-guitarmaker.html

_________________
Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Brian - that is a spectacular repair! And, considering its special vintage, you did more than a great job - I'm blown away. Thanks for sharing that! Wow!

Hey Conor! Thanks for sharing the pic of your smokin' tele and the tip about the finish. I'm gonna have to start researching the options because I really like the old barn wood type of treatment. Your guitar looks wicked.

Hey Freeman! I've been hiding this routing mess (it wasn't me!) under a pickguard for long enough and would like to see if I can salvage the body with a creative fix of my own and try to go back to basics with a traditional wood body removing the finish.

But big thanks for the tip about the TDPRI.com site! I never knew there was a dedicated telecaster group out there. I now see that the sky is the limit and I can go ahead and make my own body. I might even have the perfect hard wood planks at the cottage to make it happen!

I have to second Freeman. Fixing that body is a fools errand. Start fresh. A Tele body is an easy way to get your feet wet in guitar building. For that matter, buying a raw unrouted body costs about what a set of pickups would. You’ll be happier in the end, and if you salvage the neck and pickups from that guitar it will likely play and sound like the guitar you know.


PS: Nice guitar Connor!


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Thanks, rirhett! I hear what you're saying about it being a fools errand. Certainly makes sense from your perspective, being an experienced builder. I also agree that building a tele body is probably a good way to get into guitar building, because my initial passion all along was to build my own acoustic, and that is pretty daunting having very little wood working experience. (I did recently buy a stand alone band saw that I have yet to try!) But, having said all that, I am going up to the cottage to open for the season and i'm sure I have a variety of wood options for building my own tele body from scratch. I might even have a few hardwood planks for a one piece body, just not sure if they are the thick enough. I also probably have lots of used boards that would allow me to put together a 3-piece body. I'll see what I have when I get up there, thanks for the insight!

I found some old maple planks, 1 3/4” thick, might be enough for 3-4 tele bodies. Might have to start a new thread. Thanks for the advice!


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They will be heavy.

You could use the old body to make your own template. Be sure to fill in the jack hole before your router ball bearing falls into it.

I think you’re right but I’ll see how it goes... gonna see if I can use up these blanks experimenting with routing and building in general.


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Ya thanks for the tip, I’m using it for a template - also good for routing depth info.


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