Official Luthiers Forum!

New member - glad I found the forum!! Thought I'd show off my latest build 'in progress'. It's a 'jazz' Tele - chambered mahogany with curly maple top - string thru body with floating bridge. Controls for single Tele neck pickup will be on upper edge. Neck is mahogany with Maccassar ebony fretboard and 24.75" Gibson scale. Stewmac truss rod and jumbo frets. Neck thickness will be straight .85" from first to twelfth. I'm building this one for me for a change!!

Pretty sweet Skip! Really like that maple top.

Thanks -it was a board I bought from Ebay and resawed. Got enough for 2 tops and some extra for boxes, etc.

Very nice !!!

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Looking at those pictures I would only add that you seem to have a LOT of prep left before you apply a finish. I don't see the back, but the sides need quite a bit of sanding and leveling. The top also. Most woodworking projects you can stop at 320 grit. Many luthiers will go up to 800 or 1000. The point its that the wood becomes almost burnished and you can see all the defects you are going to have to deal with when you rub out your finish. You may also want to chamfer the edges of the f holes or at least clean them up to be even and sharp. Finally, the edge of the drop top doesn't seem to mate perfectly to the body. Have you considered binding to cover that joint?

I am not saying this to be mean or dispiriting, I have a couple of my first that I was in a hurry to complete that now bug the snot out of me because of all the imperfections that could have been simply dealt with during final sanding and prep. I wish someone with a more experienced eye had helped me see that what I thought was "good enough" really could be improved a lot with just a day or two more work.

Doesn't have a 'drop top' but thanks for the suggestions. To tell you the truth, I really don't like sanding - this was sanded to 220 and finished with wipe on poly. I'm not striving for factory perfection which I know how to do and have done on past builds. This one is for me and will probably never leave the bedroom. When I said 'new guy', I meant on the forum - not as a builder - I've been doing this for close to 40 years and have built quite a few instruments in that time. I don't really do it for other people any more and occasionally build one for myself. Still, thanks for your comments.