PSA for Builders - Check this out!

[Mossman]

I swear I wasn't going to think about starting another project until I finished what I have on deck, but I get alerts from ebay for "unfinished guitar bodies" in my email. Most of the time, it's just crap from China, and lately I haven't even been opening those emails, but for some reason I decided to take a look this time and saw this:



Chambered Alder body, 1/4" flame Maple top (bordering on quilt), AND he's willing to cut any pickup routs you want at no extra charge. I was going to have mine routed for WRHBs, but he said that would intersect with the chambering, and I'd have to use a pickguard, as there would be no wood for the pickup tabs to screw down to. Putting a big-ass Deluxe pickguard over that flame would be a crime against nature, so I had him rout for a P90 in the neck position instead (it's a P90 world here in Mossman Land!).

Price: $159

That's a pretty smokin' deal in my book. Median price for a CNC'd Ash thinline body from my regular sources is about $150, and those who do thinlines/chambered bodies don't take special orders. You get standard pickup routs and like it... Or modify them yourself. I spec'd a body like this at Warmoth a few months ago, and it came to $320. The kicker is; these bodies are not CNC'd. This guy makes them from scratch! I have no idea how he can sell these so cheap and make any money, but there were 4 left as of this morning (after I bought mine ). The seller is called: Augustus Guitars https://www.ebay.com/str/augustasguitar ... 7675.l2563

He doesn't use crap Alder, either... They've got some nice grain. Here's a shot of one that's still available (mine doesn't have as nice a grain pattern on the back, but I chose it because it had the best flame on top):

[bleys21]

Thanks for posting that, I've saved his Ebay profile. Those are some seriously nice Tele bodies, and building my own Tele was something I considered, except nice bodies seemed really expensive.

Question for you: who do you use for necks typically? I see those guys also sell necks, but don't have any listed on Ebay at the moment, so I may ask them, as the pics of their necks look as nice as the bodies.

[Mossman]

Thanks for posting that, I've saved his Ebay profile. Those are some seriously nice Tele bodies, and building my own Tele was something I considered, except nice bodies seemed really expensive.

Question for you: who do you use for necks typically? I see those guys also sell necks, but don't have any listed on Ebay at the moment, so I may ask them, as the pics of their necks look as nice as the bodies.

I usually buy unfinished Allparts necks. I've also used a WD neck, which is indistinguishable from Allparts. They're as good as any neck that comes out of a Fender Factory. In fact I've heard that Allparts used to make all the necks for Fender Japan. You can get them from the Stratosphere pretty cheap. Thay also sell WD and Mighty Mite necks, too: (https://stratosphereparts.com/search.ph ... arts+necks). The unfinished Allparts necks (for both bass and guitar) can range from $109-$160. Finished necks are more like $180-$200.

I didn't know Augustus made necks too. I've only seen their ebay store, which is only populated with Tele bodies right now. I'll have to check that out.

You have to do a bit of searching to find makers of decent bodies for a reasonable price, but there are a few out there. Some of them come and go, and not all of them do custom work. My upper limit for an unfinished guitar body is around $150. That's typically what a chambered/thinline body costs from the shops I do business with. Solid body guitars can be had from $60-$130, depending on the wood.

Top of my list used to be Rosser guitars (https://www.ebay.com/str/rosserguitars? ... 7675.l2563). That's who made the body for the Eclipse, and he would rout whatever cavities you wanted. He used to offer only Ash, and it was the heavy kind (I had to hog out a significant amount of wood with a forsnter bit to get the Eclipse down to a tolerable weight). Then he switched to Pine, and now it doesn't look like he does custom work at all anymore, as all the bodies in his ebay store are now pre-made and painted. I've been meaning to contact him to ask if he'll still take custom orders, but I do not yet have a hankering for another Pine guitar besides my CV '50s Tele.

I got the body for the thinline baritone Strat from Supra-Tone (https://www.ebay.com/str/supratonec?_tr ... 7675.l2563). All their bodies are pre-made, and they won't do custom work (which they say is because they're a CNC shop, which doesn't make any sense, but what can you do?), and their finished product is pretty rough. The one I got required a lot of sanding and clean-up time, but they often have some interesting pieces, and they use some really nice looking (and sometimes uncommon) woods. But like Rosser, I'd stay away from any solid bodies made of Ash, unless you want a boat anchor. Assume that to be the case any time you see "Ash" without the word "Swamp" in front of it.

I got the body for the Sun King Strat from Lugini Custom Guitars (https://www.ebay.com/sch/lugini_custom_ ... 7675.l2562). All his bodies are pre-made too, but he uses really nice Alder, and I just wanted a standard Strat body, anyway.

I haven't done any business with Tauro Woodworks yet (https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R ... sacat=3858), but they have some nice looking bodies, and it's all custom order at very reasonable prices (most of their bodies are well under $100). I was planning on having them make a body for my next project before I saw that flamey Tele.

Another interesting source is Saylor Guitars, or Alpine Oregon as they're now called (https://www.ebay.com/str/saylorcustomsh ... 7675.l2563). The prices for their pre-made bodies are a little on the high side, but their shipping is free. I didn't think they did custom work, but I just found out they will if you contact them. I've never been very interested in their wood choices, but they might have more available than what they put up in their ebay store.

[Mossman]

Oh yeah, boy... Look what the postman brought today!:

This is one of the nicest bodies I've ever received. The last body I bought from another shop still had hair on it when I got it. This one is super clean and tight.

1/4" flame maple top... Kinda unbelievable at this price.

Yes, I WILL be doing the natural wood "binding".

Only 3lbs, 11 oz. The miracle of chambering.

Here's a shot of the back... The grain isn't as nice as some of the other bodies available, but I was more concerned about the top.

And here's a nice touch... Recessed ferrule holes:

I've got a fairly flamey Telecaster neck that I can use for this project too... I'm starting to think of this guitar as: "the Flame Thrower". :

In fact, I think I've got all the parts I need for this build already. Bridge, tuners, pickups, pots... All I need to do now is figure out what kind of finish I want to do on it. I'm actually leaning towards a cherry sunburst, but that's not final yet.

I know I've said in the past that flame and quilt are played out, and I don't get excited about it anymore, but I'm pretty excited about this!

[mozz]

You can never have enough telecasters. That should come out very nice.

[Mossman]

You can never have enough telecasters. That should come out very nice.

I think you can have "enough", but you can never have "too many".

In a manner of speaking, this is the continuation of a build that I started a couple of years ago. I have a basswood Tele body with a P90 pickup rout at the neck that I painted, but I stupidly left it sitting on a box that had packing tape on it, and the paint reacted to the tape. I stuck it in a cupboard with the intention to "get back to it later", but I forgot about it instead.

That flamed neck was intended for that build, too.

[rrobbone]

Not a bad deal at all.

[Mossman]

Not a bad deal at all.

I know, right? How many hours would it take you to build a chambered body like this from scratch? Plus the cost of the wood? If I were to buy a 1/4" book-matched, flame maple blank it'd probably cost me about $50 or so (depending on the grade). Granted, he's probably not buying wood in one-off quantities like I would have to, but this has got to be at least AAA flame. It's well matched and prominent all the way across the body. It's got some mineral streaks, but still, it's not cheap wood. I have to wonder if these bodies aren't like chum in the water... Get some product out there to generate a buzz, then discretely raise the prices. Because I can't see how he's making any money like this... Unless his claim that they're not CNC'd is BS.

[rrobbone]

If we're not included glue time and I don't have to prep for paint, I'd probably be able to knock it out in a few hours.

As for the wood, it's not as expensive as all that - especially if he's buying in bulk. I've sold stained pine bodies for $125 - $175 in the past, so what he's charging is very reasonable. The maple cap makes it a really nice deal - no matter if it's handmade or CNC.

Looking closely at the pics, I'd say it's a CNC job - or he's an absolute master, because I see zero flaws or tooling marks. It's too perfect. Except: there's a channel in the bridge pickup cavity that tells me he drilled the tunnels for the wiring by hand. He either got the angle slightly wrong, or the wood deflected the drill bit's path, or both. I use a 14" drill bit, and deflection is sort of hard to avoid.

There's some margin there, but it's tight. Unless he's got a good deal on wood.

[Mossman]

If we're not included glue time and I don't have to prep for paint, I'd probably be able to knock it out in a few hours.

As for the wood, it's not as expensive as all that - especially if he's buying in bulk. I've sold stained pine bodies for $125 - $175 in the past, so what he's charging is very reasonable. The maple cap makes it a really nice deal - no matter if it's handmade or CNC.

Looking closely at the pics, I'd say it's a CNC job - or he's an absolute master, because I see zero flaws or tooling marks. It's too perfect. Except: there's a channel in the bridge pickup cavity that tells me he drilled the tunnels for the wiring by hand. He either got the angle slightly wrong, or the wood deflected the drill bit's path, or both. I use a 14" drill bit, and deflection is sort of hard to avoid.

There's some margin there, but it's tight. Unless he's got a good deal on wood.

It seems $150 is the typical price for a thinline Tele or Strat body, but that's usually Alder, or Ash. No Flame Maple. Sometimes it'll have some kind of exotic veneer, but not 1/4" of it. I paid about $155 (including shipping) for an all Ash thinline Strat body from Supra-Tone, and that was CNC'd, and it was nowhere near as clean as this thing is. It looked like they spun that body out of there as quickly as possible with their coarsest bit and with zero sanding. I could accept that, though. Considering the glue time, and that it was a very nice piece of wood, I didn't think they had a very wide profit margin. But this Tele body just baffles me... I'm grateful, though.

I hadn't noticed that rut in the pickup cavity. I wonder why he didn't rout that channel when he was routing the chambers? I guess that kinda lends some credence to it being hand-made.

[rrobbone]

I hadn't noticed that rut in the pickup cavity. I wonder why he didn't rout that channel when he was routing the chambers? I guess that kinda lends some credence to it being hand-made.

I don't know why he didn't rout that channel before the glue up. Perhaps to keep glue out of it? It would be lots quicker to just drill it out afterwards than to clean dried glue out of that tunnel. Either way, nothing's visible after assembly. Several ways to skin the proverbial cat, as they say.

Another thing I noticed is that the neck pickup rout was originally a single coil. You can see the tooling marks, and it's a little bit of a shaky routing job. Again, no consequence for that, just an observation.

If it's truly handmade, he's got some nice tools. He's using a pin router, at the very least. Technically, I call that handmade. I have gotten fairly good with my plunge router, but you can look at my work and tell it's done by hand with a plunge router.

I don't call CNC cheating as some woodworkers do, it's another tool within a different skillset. More cat skinning.

Either way, nice tele body at a very reasonable price.

[Mossman]

Sorry, I seem to have missed your message until now...

Another thing I noticed is that the neck pickup rout was originally a single coil. You can see the tooling marks, and it's a little bit of a shaky routing job. Again, no consequence for that, just an observation.

The neck pickup was indeed originally routed for a single coil. I asked him to route for a P90. I'm not sure what you mean by a shaky routing job, though. This looks super-clean to me.

If it's truly handmade, he's got some nice tools. He's using a pin router, at the very least. Technically, I call that handmade. I have gotten fairly good with my plunge router, but you can look at my work and tell it's done by hand with a plunge router.

I don't call CNC cheating as some woodworkers do, it's another tool within a different skillset. More cat skinning.

Yeah, I don't think using a pin router disqualifies it as being hand-made, either, and I'm just fine with CNC too. Honestly, even if I had the space for a proper workshop, I'd probably still use CNC'd bodies. At least for Strats and Teles, and standard body shapes. As long as I can see the wood, I'm more than happy to let somebody's robot save me a lot of time and trouble... Especially at $100-$150 a go. Considering the cost of the wood and the fact that my time isn't absolutely worthless, I would have to charge myself a lot more money than that (I'm pretty slow), and I'd most likely have more misgivings about the quality of the finished product, and I'd want a partial refund.

Now if I were doing one of my own guitar designs, real boutique stuff, I'd be much more interested in crafting that myself, but for a garden-variety, Fender-style guitar, I just can't get up the gumption to want to make that by hand. Actually, given my druthers, my ideal shop would have a CNC machine, and I would make no apologies for it.

[rrobbone]

The neck pickup was indeed originally routed for a single coil. I asked him to route for a P90. I'm not sure what you mean by a shaky routing job, though. This looks super-clean to me.

Perhaps shaky was a tad too strong. I was scrutinizing the work, and splitting hairs. What'cha got there will certainly play. I think I may be turning into a picky ol' wood shop rat.

Yeah, I don't think using a pin router disqualifies it as being hand-made, either, and I'm just fine with CNC too. Honestly, even if I had the space for a proper workshop, I'd probably still use CNC'd bodies. At least for Strats and Teles, and standard body shapes. As long as I can see the wood, I'm more than happy to let somebody's robot save me a lot of time and trouble... Especially at $100-$150 a go. Considering the cost of the wood and the fact that my time isn't absolutely worthless, I would have to charge myself a lot more money than that (I'm pretty slow), and I'd most likely have more misgivings about the quality of the finished product, and I'd want a partial refund.

Now if I were doing one of my own guitar designs, real boutique stuff, I'd be much more interested in crafting that myself, but for a garden-variety, Fender-style guitar, I just can't get up the gumption to want to make that by hand. Actually, given my druthers, my ideal shop would have a CNC machine, and I would make no apologies for it.

Nothing wrong with a CNC, but that takes all the fun and challenge out of it. I enjoy the hand-making process, it's a kind of therapy for me.

Then again, most folks are trying to turn a business with CNC - and running a business is challenge enough. And programming those things is another kind of fun for some, I suppose.

[Mossman]

Nothing wrong with a CNC, but that takes all the fun and challenge out of it. I enjoy the hand-making process, it's a kind of therapy for me.

Then again, most folks are trying to turn a business with CNC - and running a business is challenge enough. And programming those things is another kind of fun for some, I suppose.

Absolutely. For my own personal projects, owning a CNC would be kinda over-kill, I meant if I were to build guitars for a living. I meant to mention that I'm pretty sure guys like John Suhr and Tom Anderson use CNC in their manufacturing, and nobody considers their guitars anything less than finely crafted instruments.