Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey all,

A buddy of mine want me to build him a left handed Tele, and I do believe I’ve sourced all the parts I need (A&M, StewMac) with the exception of the “walnut fillet and dowel” (Pg. 119 Hiscok, Melvyn “Make Your Own Electric Guitar”) What do other people normally do??

Thanks,
Jeremy

I have found walnut dowels at wood craft, and I have also made dowels myself in a pinch on a lathe or belt sander.

I think you can can find decent walnut about everywhere. The fillet doesn't need to be anything glamorous... (however a nice piece of cocobolo looks great on a maple neck).

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Dammit, Brock, stop giving me ideas that will add build time to that 'build a strat and a tele really quickly' plan I'm formulating!

;-)

On a more serious note, I'd probably just make the fillet strip. Can't be that difficult.

Years ago I used to have a gadget that had various diameter holes drilled in it with a sharpened edge. You would take a square piece of wood and drive it thru the hole with the diameter dowel you wanted and Viola instant dowel of any wood you wanted. Sure would like to find one of those gadgets again.

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

I don't know... you can build a strat/tele pretty fast. After you have a couple under your belt construction can be knocked out in a long weekend.

I build about one tele per month or so. I usually like making them out of non standard materials (well non standard for Fender anyway). One of my favorites is an all mahogany telecaster with 7% overwound fralin's in it.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

If you are wanting to do a traditional fender, the original skunk stripes were koa.

Michael McClaincrazymanmichael38422.6731134259

Nah, I'm not one for completely trad, accurate copies. I'm sticking to pretty standard Fender woods for these (Swamp Ash, Maple/Rosewood neck), and I don't really need a skunk strip on either neck, but I'm thinking I might add one just 'cause it looks pretty. I'll be using Stewmac HotRods either way..

Bobc

Lee-Neisen(sp), the plane people, make a dowling plate.

Michael McClain

funny you (bpoling) mention an all mahog. tele with fralins. my buddy wants a mahogany tele with blues special fralins and a birds eye maple one piece neck.

i guess i need to trundle off to my local "exotic" wood store and find some suitable fillet material

now only to track down some dowel...

thanks guys

ps. would i be crazy if i wanted to bend rosewood binding for the body?

No, rosewood bends really easy. You should have little problems with that. Just just use something to support the bend on the back side.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

I have a set and they work!!

http://www.woodcraft.com/search/search.aspx?query=plug+cutte r

[QUOTE=Bobc] Years ago I used to have a gadget that had various diameter holes drilled in it with a sharpened edge. You would take a square piece of wood and drive it thru the hole with the diameter dowel you wanted and Viola instant dowel of any wood you wanted. Sure would like to find one of those gadgets again. [/QUOTE]

Sorry just learning how to post.
Here are those plug cutters.

http://www.woodcraft.com/search/search.aspx?query=plug+cutte r

something a la Veritas® Dowel Maker ???
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=42331&cat=1,18 0,42288

Bob, I've got an older Craftsman router book that shows a jig that uses a router to cut dowels from any wood. The router sits on top with the bit extending down into different sized holes. The square stock is fed into it using a drill. I'll make a photocopy of the jig at work next week that I can scan in and post.

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA