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First Commission Build - Is A Super-Tele A Thing?
- Thread starter TerribleTim68
- Start date
I am NOT telling my wife that!
Well.... for the next one you definitely need a CNC.
Nice work, well done for getting back at it. I'm also struggling with a stalled build, just need to find that bit of mojo to kick-start it again!
Mine was a wife yelling at me "GET IT DONE!" Have you tried that?
Mine was a wife yelling at me "GET IT DONE!" Have you tried that?
No, send her round!
I've been away from the forums for a few months, but I did guitar things. Without further context, I'll leave this here for those interested.
Got tired of staring at it, so I glued up the fretboard. I give you the obligatory "clamp tower" pic -
Squeeze out looked good. As they say in the South, "I ain't mad at it".
We'll let that sit.
Squeeze out looked good. As they say in the South, "I ain't mad at it".
We'll let that sit.
Pretty slick! I've tried my hand at inlay and realized it's...hard.
Yes, it certainly is. Honestly, I'm not 100% happy with it, but aren't we all our own worst critics? My wife keeps telling me "Have you ever done that before? Then I think you should be pretty happy with it." I'm trying to learn how to accept that.
So who has done a recessed Floyd Rose trem? I got a few questions.
Trying to plot out this fretboard height. I know I need to remove some material from the top of the neck-thru section for my body top anyways, so we're going to be shaving off some here. I'm doing a recessed Floyd, and my measurements and interweb searching shows the saddle height to be 10mm from center of base plate, so my peon brain says maybe 8mm from top of base plate.
My fretboard with a fret in it is 6mm to the top of the fret (I mocked it up by banging a scrap piece of fret wire into a fretboard offcut). So I'm thinking I should take an extra 2mm off the neck-thru section to get where I need to be. But I see a TON of internet photos of guitars with recessed Floyds that the bottom of the fretboard is sitting right on the top of the body, there's no extra height to them.
So I'm a little unsure here. Anyone done this before? Advice?
Trying to plot out this fretboard height. I know I need to remove some material from the top of the neck-thru section for my body top anyways, so we're going to be shaving off some here. I'm doing a recessed Floyd, and my measurements and interweb searching shows the saddle height to be 10mm from center of base plate, so my peon brain says maybe 8mm from top of base plate.
My fretboard with a fret in it is 6mm to the top of the fret (I mocked it up by banging a scrap piece of fret wire into a fretboard offcut). So I'm thinking I should take an extra 2mm off the neck-thru section to get where I need to be. But I see a TON of internet photos of guitars with recessed Floyds that the bottom of the fretboard is sitting right on the top of the body, there's no extra height to them.
So I'm a little unsure here. Anyone done this before? Advice?
Pft..... Nevermind. I'm being stupid. I guess if I need 2mm of string height I'm prolly right where I wanna be here. Lots of measuring and I can confirm that the saddle height is 9mm above the base plate, so if the mounting studs can give me a couple mm of adjustment in height, I'm just fine. Crisis averted, I just need to think more. 
Glad you got it. I’ve done that before but only on Strat style guitars and the Korina tele I’m pretty sure I posted towards the beginning of this thread. All I’ve ever done is get the recess the depth of the plate and it’s been good. Those have all been bolt on necks though and the last time was a while ago so I couldn’t remember if I had to adjust the neck or pocket or not. I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure I’ve only shimmed necks for Floyds that sit flat on the body. 
Thanks Matt. I also asked Rockhewer since he works at that fancy custom shop now and he said the same thing.
Small progress today, not a lot of pics because I was filming for the YouTubes and always forget to also take pics.
Anyways, I figured it would be a good time to shape the headstock. So first step was to glue a flame maple veneer on it. This veneer isn't a perfect color match to the body top, nor does it have the burl that the body top has, but it's close enough that I think it'll work for what I was going for. Once glue dried, out of the clamps, double sided tape the template on and attack with the little DeWalt cordless trim router and a small Amana pattern bit. Then pop that template off and attach my "step" template and route the small detail step in it to expose a small area of the neck laminates underneath -
The keen eyed among you will see a bit of tear-out at the rounded ear, I'll need to deal with that at some point. I may just sand it flatter, we'll see. Silly purpleheart is moody when approached with router bits. I'm really leaning towards just sanding it "less curved".
Anyways, then I decided "Hey Tim, you've got the router out and set up, you might as well run it down each side of the fretboard to trim the neck to width while you're here."
Seemed like a good idea, until I didn't pay attention and routed all the way to the end of the fretboard at the heel end. So that meant that the area where the body wings will glue on had now been matched to the fretboard width, I was planning on leaving it with a bit of a step in width, kind of like a Thunderbird, mostly because it's just easier to deal with. But I guess that's behind me now! So let's drag out the hand planes and start shaving off the rest of the neck beam to match this new width and taper. Not that I don't like it, I just managed to make extra work for myself. Regardless, after some work with the little block plane at the nut end and the big ol' #6 (I really love that hand plane) I now have a neck beam with a good looking taper from nut end all the way to body end -
I'm kind of torn between carving the neck next or starting to fiddle with the body wings and get them indexed with either dowels or biscuits or something along those lines. I think I'd rather move on to the body wings than carve the neck just yet. Getting the body wings somehow indexed where I can start rough shaping the body and start laying out for this Floyd Rose and so on would be nice. There's a lot of work to do on this body and I'd prefer to let the neck chill for a bit anyways. There's the Floyd and all those dimensions, I need to figure out my "step" in the neck beam for the body top along with my bridge height for that Floyd. So I think I'm moving in that direction next. We'll keep the neck square for now. But it's looking like a thing now and I sort of feel like I
m past the big part that was freaking me out for the better part of 6 months, so there's that.
Next I can stress about the Floyd for 6 months!
Anyways, I figured it would be a good time to shape the headstock. So first step was to glue a flame maple veneer on it. This veneer isn't a perfect color match to the body top, nor does it have the burl that the body top has, but it's close enough that I think it'll work for what I was going for. Once glue dried, out of the clamps, double sided tape the template on and attack with the little DeWalt cordless trim router and a small Amana pattern bit. Then pop that template off and attach my "step" template and route the small detail step in it to expose a small area of the neck laminates underneath -
The keen eyed among you will see a bit of tear-out at the rounded ear, I'll need to deal with that at some point. I may just sand it flatter, we'll see. Silly purpleheart is moody when approached with router bits. I'm really leaning towards just sanding it "less curved".
Anyways, then I decided "Hey Tim, you've got the router out and set up, you might as well run it down each side of the fretboard to trim the neck to width while you're here."
Seemed like a good idea, until I didn't pay attention and routed all the way to the end of the fretboard at the heel end.
So that meant that the area where the body wings will glue on had now been matched to the fretboard width, I was planning on leaving it with a bit of a step in width, kind of like a Thunderbird, mostly because it's just easier to deal with. But I guess that's behind me now! So let's drag out the hand planes and start shaving off the rest of the neck beam to match this new width and taper. Not that I don't like it, I just managed to make extra work for myself. Regardless, after some work with the little block plane at the nut end and the big ol' #6 (I really love that hand plane) I now have a neck beam with a good looking taper from nut end all the way to body end - I'm kind of torn between carving the neck next or starting to fiddle with the body wings and get them indexed with either dowels or biscuits or something along those lines. I think I'd rather move on to the body wings than carve the neck just yet. Getting the body wings somehow indexed where I can start rough shaping the body and start laying out for this Floyd Rose and so on would be nice. There's a lot of work to do on this body and I'd prefer to let the neck chill for a bit anyways. There's the Floyd and all those dimensions, I need to figure out my "step" in the neck beam for the body top along with my bridge height for that Floyd. So I think I'm moving in that direction next. We'll keep the neck square for now. But it's looking like a thing now and I sort of feel like I
m past the big part that was freaking me out for the better part of 6 months, so there's that.
Next I can stress about the Floyd for 6 months!
If you’re feeling brave ol’ Will says you don’t even need templates! 
PS, I’m not that brave.
It's been a bit since I’ve done a recessed FR but I’ve got the Tele that I posted earlier hanging up. I can take some measurements.
PS, I’m not that brave.
It's been a bit since I’ve done a recessed FR but I’ve got the Tele that I posted earlier hanging up. I can take some measurements.
Hahahaha! That's a pretty big negative on going without templates. I already purchased a set of the StewMac templates for the full recessed deal, so I will be going the template route....pun intended.If you’re feeling brave ol’ Will says you don’t even need templates!
....
Yeah, if you don't mind, that would be great. Mostly I just need to know the height from body top to the top of the fretboard. I'm assuming I can adjust any differences in fret wire or desired action from there.
My fiddling with it found that the saddles on the Floyd should be roughly 9mm above the base plate, and if the base plate is mounted recessed it kind of ends up flush to the body top... -ish. So if my fretboard is 6mm and the fret wire adds another 2mm, that's 8mm and you need a couple mm of string action so I think we're in the ballpark with just the fretboard mounted flush to the top of the body. I also looked at like a bazillion photos online of various guitars with recessed Floyd Roses and they all seem to be that way too.
It’s been a bit since I made this. I think we were still in Idaho so maybe in the 10 years range? It’s a Mitey Mite neck from the Bay so should nominally be Fender spec and I remember making the neck pocket standard depth and I don’t remember installing a shim. The fretboard glue line looks parallel with the body top anyway.
Measuring from the center of the fretboard to the body top is 20/64” or 5/16”, 0.320” or call it 8 to 8.25mm.
The frets come in about 4/64” or 1/16”, .060” or just under 2mm. So jumbos I guess?
I’m running 0.010 - 0.052 strings. I’m wierd, I know. The bridge plate sits just above the top of the body and floats perfectly. In fact, I haven’t played this one for a while, it’s been all bass at church for a good bit, and just now the B and high E were a little off from the guitar being in tune with itself and one dive bomb and pull up and it’s all good. In fact, I just plugged in the Stroboflip (spell check suggested Stromboli!) and it’s just slightly sharp of A440.
If you need more accuracy I can drag out the Mitotoyu or the digital calipers.
The bridge will adjust up and down from the posts but you can also shim under the saddles with shim stock, tin can or get all fancy and buy the actual bridge shims so there’s some flexibility there to.
Measuring from the center of the fretboard to the body top is 20/64” or 5/16”, 0.320” or call it 8 to 8.25mm.
The frets come in about 4/64” or 1/16”, .060” or just under 2mm. So jumbos I guess?
I’m running 0.010 - 0.052 strings. I’m wierd, I know. The bridge plate sits just above the top of the body and floats perfectly. In fact, I haven’t played this one for a while, it’s been all bass at church for a good bit, and just now the B and high E were a little off from the guitar being in tune with itself and one dive bomb and pull up and it’s all good. In fact, I just plugged in the Stroboflip (spell check suggested Stromboli!
) and it’s just slightly sharp of A440. If you need more accuracy I can drag out the Mitotoyu or the digital calipers.
The bridge will adjust up and down from the posts but you can also shim under the saddles with shim stock, tin can or get all fancy and buy the actual bridge shims so there’s some flexibility there to.
And....once again without much context, for those interested in watching the visual version....
