Telecaster scratch build - start to finish

This is my first electric guitar build. I chose a Telecaster because I heard they were a good choice for a first one because of how basic it is. There are a lot of videos I see on YouTube where the body is made from scratch, but the neck is premade from some third party. Anyone out there reading this and thinking about getting into guitar building, I greatly encourage you to jump in and build the neck too. It is highly rewarding and I found that it is the one part of building a guitar that, in my opinion, seems to bridge the gap between building electric guitars and building acoustic guitars. The process is almost the same except for the acoustic neck joint being a little more complex. Building the electric body seems to me to be just basic woodworking, at least for a non-carved guitar such as a the kind that I built.

Body: 2-piece swamp ash
Neck: maple
Fretboard: maple
Pickups, bridge, control plate: lookup alnicov telecaster pickups on Amazon. They sell a kit with all these together. The given brand name for the product is actually “Alnicov” so I’m guessing the pickups may be Alnico V? I’m still a noob, so I don’t know. The control plate comes prewired, but you’ll have to solder the pickups to it as well as the input jack.
Input jack: Axegrinderz electrosocket jack plate (I got it from Amazon)
Tuners: Wilkinson vintage
Strings: Ernie Ball super slinky (9’s)
Frets: StewMac medium jumbo (I think. I can’t remember exactly what I bought)
Nut: bone
Pickguard: I made mine from scratch out of some matte black pickguard material I got from Amazon. I used a StewMac premade pickguard to get the basic shape for the routing template I tweaked it a bit to better match up to my bridge, control plate and neck pocket.

#telecaster #electricguitarbuild #scratchbuild #lutherie

[adamwetzel]

I had the honor of playing this guitar for a few minutes on Sunday and I can tell you it was awesome! Super smooth action and it sounded great. Chris knows how to build a players guitar.

[ADRIAN-aiff]

dude this one sounds absolutely amazing

[robinleebraun]

The fact that this guitar can be hand built with minimal tools is the genius of Leo Fender.

[clubprojects]

I was inspired by the simplicity of the tools needed for the build. It made the project seem more accessible to me. 😊

[forzerotoo]

My dad used to work on his wood while I was in the room too … I hope your children respect what you are teaching them.

[frogdogify]

I have built/assembled, six Stratocaster shaped objects and one telecaster and absolutely love each one of them. But this is on another level. I can’t even imagine crafting a neck. Fantastic job and congratulations on enjoying the fruits of your labor.

[martinlouden]

A superb video Chris. Hardly a word spoken, yet a million words worth of information and a beautiful result.

[TheMtvdeath]

Oh boy I'm obsessed with this Telecaster!!! WOW!

[NLRider-im]

I think this is the most relaxing and rewarding video I've ever watched.
That guitar looks fantastic. Amazing job.
New Sub here.

[exxekhan]

Man, I can watch this over and over again. You really demystified this process for me. I'm a lifelong guitar player and recently got into woodworking. This could make my two worlds come together. Fantastic job!

[REDRoCKER]

Jiminy Christmas man the work you did on that neck 😳🤟🏽

[Lofi_painter_]

that is really cool man, this inspires me very much to build my own guitar since i want it to become uniqe and mine design. i wish you the best out of best!

[EddieG]

There's a lot of this build that looks like its been done by sight and feel, rather than exact measurements. And I love that.
I also love the way you've finished the body to be almost like vintage violin amber, and it looks really great.

[TallyhalllFan]

I dont know anything about guitars but i think it looks really well made! I dont usually comment on videos but i am impressed about the quality and so im leaving my support :D

[Wallybear]

Great video, and a great sounding guitar. I am about three-quarters of the way through my first Partscasters Tele, still learning all the thing I didn't know I didn't know. Your video provided some excellent pointers, it will make it much easier for me to finish it up. Thanks for sharing.

[gary]

@7:27 is my favorite thing about this build. You did something I've done on my Indo- Chyna Strat, (about five years ago) that is make a true 'bolt-on' neck. Fenders (and a billion others) are screw-on necks. mine (and your's) are machine screws into metal inserts, way stronger and do not deteriorate over decades. Bravo, and nice job all around.

[ryanjesson]

Superb video. The neck must've taken an age to shape! Looks and sounds great! Bravo

[dannylewisguitars]

Nice job! Telecasters are the greatest. I love the router table.

[alibaba]

Man I wish I had a house with a garage to do stuff like this, amazing job on the Tele!

[Ninetyguits]

Nice recap. It turned out amazing which I knew it would. I enjoyed this series.