Manton Customs Build: True Temperament Echo MK II Tele Inspired Guitar...Finished!

[Manton Customs]

Hope you don't mind me posting yet another guitar build! I promise to get some bass builds up here soon!

Here’s a project I have been working on over the last few months, the guitar is now basically finished having just gone through lacquering so just needs some time to cure and assembling. This is not my first True Temperament guitar and the project came about as I managed to get a good deal on a pre made True Temperament neck, so all I have to do is build a body for it! I decided on my Echo MK II shape which is very much Tele inspired and it’s going to be red to contrast the Maple fingerboard nicely.

Basic Specs:

Maple Fingerboard True Temperament Neck

One Piece English Ash Body

Translucent Blood Red Finish With Contrasting Black Grain Fill

Gotoh Black Hardware

Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Pickup Set

CTS Pots

Dunlop Straplocks


Here’s one I built earlier….The end product will look similar to this as far as the body goes except without the strat pickup at the neck.

The starting point: the True Temperament neck.

A close up of the wiggly frets. Now let’s get to work!

Here I have made a template from Ply to fit the neck nice and tightly. Those two tiny holes came with the neck and is where they attached a spray handle.

This is the body template…please ignore the hideous handwriting!

I forgot to get a picture of the body blank before cutting out, but here it is after the template has been used to cut out the body. As you can see it’s a really beautiful piece of wood, this is 1 piece English Ash.

Now I use the template made earlier to cut the neck pocket, here’s the result.

Test fitting.

That's all for now, thanks for checking this build out.

 

[Why Nautilus‽]

I love the idea of true temperament necks, and this build is very exciting!

 

[Gilmourisgod]

I know nothing about true temperment frets, curious: how does bending notes feel? It looks like each bend in the fret would change how the string slides across the fret, but i assume I'm wrong about that?

 

[Why Nautilus‽]

I know nothing about true temperment frets, curious: how does bending notes feel? It looks like each bend in the fret would change how the string slides across the fret, but i assume I'm wrong about that?

Maybe it is relative to the movement of the string that it would still bend naturally. Or maybe It'd make cool micro tonal bends

 

[Manton Customs]

I love the idea of true temperament necks, and this build is very exciting!

Thanks! Check out my thread history, website, or facebook for a TT 8 string completed earlier in the year.

I know nothing about true temperment frets, curious: how does bending notes feel? It looks like each bend in the fret would change how the string slides across the fret, but i assume I'm wrong about that?

I've had that question a lot! To me bends (and actually playing the guitar in general) didn't feel any different than a regular fretted guitar. The string slides across the crown of the fret just as it would with a straight fret.

 

[AltGrendel]

Have you tried this out on a bass yet?

 

[Manton Customs]

Have you tried this out on a bass yet?

Nope, but it could happen soon enough . The only available options are 34" 4 and 5 strings at the moment though. I think a 6 string bass version would be awesome. I'll be asking if that's a possibility soon.

 

[Why Nautilus‽]

I'd personally love to see a 4 string Bohlen-Pierce tuned bass. But I'm more partial to Bohlen-Pierce in general

 

[Manton Customs]

That'd be umm interesting!


Onto neck attachment! I don’t particularly like neck plates so I usually use ferrules, here I have just drilled and recessed them with a Forstner bit.

Next I mount the bridge in the appropriate location attaching it with two screws to be used later when routing for the bridge pickup.

Bridge pickup template attached using the screws mentioned above.

All routs completed

Just for fun a mockup with hardware!

 

[Barbaric.Eric]

awesome! Love that body shape! sub'd

 

[Manton Customs]

Here I have completed the sanding and cut the roundover, then attached a spray handle.

An edge shot, showing the roundover and the thickness of the body. I prefer my bodies a little thinner as you can see in this picture.

Then a sealer coat of Shellac is sprayed and the grain filler applied. This really brings out and highlights the grain creating a stunning finish once the colour coats have been sprayed.

The back after grain filling.

Thanks for looking

 

[Jonny5bass]

That looks great! Are you using a black grain filler?

 

[Manton Customs]

Thanks! Yep it's a black grain filler so it will create a nice contrast with the colour coats (red) ensuring those pretty grain patterns stand out .

 

[Manton Customs]

As nice as it looked natural, it’s not what we are going for on this build so now I’m spraying the colour coats. This picture really doesn’t do the colour justice as it proved quite difficult to photograph! It’s more of a blood red in person as you’ll hopefully be able to see later.

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Here several coats of clear have been sprayed and our decal applied, usually the decal would be reserved for the headstock, but this one has the True Temperament logo up there. So I needed somewhere else to display it and think it fits nicely here, the contrast of the red and white looking reminiscent of a sports car!
http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/M...ustoms True Temperament Echo MKII/17.jpg.html

http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/M...ustoms True Temperament Echo MKII/17.jpg.html
Now the guitar was given plenty of time to cure before wet sanding and buffing which has taken place here and we have a lovely gloss!
http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/M...ustoms True Temperament Echo MKII/17.jpg.html

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A shot of the back.
http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/M...ustoms True Temperament Echo MKII/19.jpg.html

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I’ll get the finished pictures up shortly once I’ve taken some proper photos! Thanks for watching.

 

[bobdabilder]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Manton Customs]

Finished! Thank you all for watching, more builds coming very soon and undoubtedly more True Temperament builds in the not so distant future.

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http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/M...o MK II True Temperament 7 headstock.jpg.html
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[Barbaric.Eric]

Great work, beautiful build!

 

[Why Nautilus‽]

Beautiful, beautiful work!

 

[Will_White]

Great work, I love how the grain on the body mimics the squiggles of the frets.

 

[Hopkins]

What are your thoughts about the true temper frets? Is the benefit worth the cost?