Official Luthiers Forum!

(a-la Facebook Like button.)

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Todd Lunneborg
http://www.tlguitars.com/
http://www.fretboardjournal.com/

Cool! But you should post this in the electric forum. It needs the traffic. Love to see the build in the build forum as well.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

IDK... kinda think the cutaway horn needs to be rounder.

Filippo, I must have missed the thread in the electric forum. Just pluggin' it as much as I can as well. I build exclusively electrics, but I build one per year, so not a good choice for a lot of posts about my builds. But I do try to participate there as much as possible, especially given the fact that i waited so long to even see an electric forum here.
But I'm planning at least two builds, maybe 3(if finances allow) this year, so you can expect to see at least one build thread there from me this year.
Chris, I really like your designs, and look forward to seeing more of them in the future.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

i would like to ad one more shameless plug, you should stop by weather you are doing electric work or not there is some pretty cool stuff weather you actually do electric work or not.

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~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/

Where?

I never saw it.

I never saw it.

I miss having one

Never owned a Tele, despite being a member of the TDPRI, lol. But I may remedy that in the future. Thinking of building my own, someday.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

I have to agree that the tele body dimensions leave a lot to be desired, so if I build a tele, I'll most likely tweek them a little. But the reason I don't own a tele is partly because of the body design being uncomfortable imo(no belly contour, nor forearm contour), and partly because I don't dig tele pickups. Way too bright, bordering on ice picky(and sometimes going over that line). If I build a "tele" it'll probably have a single humbucker in the neck position, or be more on the lines of a tele deluxe. Yeah, i know, not really a traditional tele. But then, I'm not really a traditional kinda guy. A Tele build for me will be more about the construction style. Bolt on neck, straight in line headstock, etc. I build set neck guitars with scarf jointed headstocks. The tele is pretty much the basic bolt neck design, and I think I'd like to explore that, at least as a learning experience.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

With all the Tele talk the past few months, and my customers bringing in some rad Teles for me to play with, I whipped one up and finished recently. I posted pics here.
http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=30642&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=25

I never thought I was a fan but I've been working on some of those Teles for 15 years now and the last time my longest serviced Tele came into the shop I felt, "I had to have one" so I broke down and laminated one up.

Tele's have a way of hooking you when you least expect them to. Took 15 years for me to realize I couldn't live without one.

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Todd Lunneborg
http://www.tlguitars.com/
http://www.fretboardjournal.com/

Todd, that's a beautiful tele(as well as the rest of the guitars)!
Chris, as for a set neck tele, i'd imagine as long as you kept the pickups and the scale length it'll probably still sound like a tele. And the addition of midi is smart, especially in a studio context. Mine will probably sound nothing like a tele. But it'll be built like one, and that's the goal for me. As a player(and builder) I really prefer set neck and short scale(24.562). My current build is a Gibson style mortise and tenon with a PRS style carve to the top, but the body shape is more in line with a strat. While the body shape may change in the future, I think the mortise and tenon and the carve top will not (much). But I really want to explore the bolt on design, at least a little. If for no other reasons than a)to learn the technique, and b) to eliminate it as a preference for building, lol(personal preference, but I think the set neck is much more elegant). I hope to build for others one day. It would be nice to have experience with both styles to draw from.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Nice! I like the horn. It has a Jerry Garcia flavor.

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Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

+1 to both liking the horn and being reminiscent of Jerry. And a big thumbs up for Jerry.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Hey Chris,

What's the neck joint in the back going to look like? have you seen Jerzy Drozds new set neck basses? Based on your drawing I think that would be rad-- keeping the cutaway curve as it transitions to the neck and lower bout.

And who needs to bind when your design is perfect (which its pert-near for sure) for the PRS natural binding.

Nice work. A great blend of a classic Tele and your own shape. Super smart.

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Todd Lunneborg
http://www.tlguitars.com/
http://www.fretboardjournal.com/

After reading all the comments (sorry guys, I get distracted by the pretty pictures) I just wanted to add a couple of things.

Ice-picky tone: I've found with Teles especially, that the difference of a maple Fretboard over a rosewood one is incredibly transparent. With maple being the ice picks. I can't stand them. I'm a rosewood guy all the way, they're sooooo much warmer! It's crazy how much the Fretboard changes the tone.

Check out Death Cab for Cuties "Transatlantism" and "Plans" albums. Great, glassy and full guitar tones... All RW Teles.

The other comment I had was the pickups. Anyone ever changed out the pu's to the Duncan antiquities? They're a whole new world of Tele tone.

My longest standing setup cust has 2 1994 ocean turquoise Teles one maple/ one rosewood and changing the pu's... Total case study. Sorry to make your thread the "Tele Forum." later.

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Todd Lunneborg
http://www.tlguitars.com/
http://www.fretboardjournal.com/

That palm relief looks like what I was thinking. I'd add some laminates to trick things out but I'm OCD about laminates and tricking things out. Natural binding can look cheap, I agree but it's all in the framing and prep. It can be done well. I used to hate bolt-ons (im never building one sort of thing) but as I just built one...

cool stuff man!

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Todd Lunneborg
http://www.tlguitars.com/
http://www.fretboardjournal.com/

Nice geetar, Chris!

I would think the main reason for building a Tele would be to capture the bright twangy Tele sound.

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

Feel free to disagree, I can take it!
But my purpose in building a tele with bolt on construction and inline headstock was about exploring that build style, which I did eventually.





Love the guitar and enjoyed the build.
And I don't disagree. I do believe that scale length and electronics is a huge part of whatever tone you're looking for.
Just like this


might be shaped like a tele, but the 24.562" scale and dual humbuckers scream Les Paul when I plug it in.
Incidently, I'm glad you got back to this thread/build. I love the concept, and think this is gonna be a cool guitar.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Cool! I like the look of the headstock.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Paisley!!! I like.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

I'm late to the party in this thread, but no one had a more "ice-picky" sound than Albert "Icepick" Collins. I ran monitors for him one time at a show here in Wichita, and the man's trebly toned Tele practically peeled my ears off. His Tele had a maple board, and he played with his fingers - no plectrums!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I love that marlin shape! I just resawed some mahogany and flame maple today, I would love to approximate that shape on the CNC!