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Here is my latest, my second electric. I've mostly built steel string acoustics. This guitar has a chambered alder body, spalted mango top, book matched figured black walnut pickguard, cocobolo control plate, quarter sawn maple neck, ebony fingerboard, Joe Barden pickups (modern set), and Gotoh tuners. EM6000 finish. I am pleased with the playability and sound.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I burned a small spot on the horn when buffing... After all the time, attention to detail, and dogged precision, it is ruined in an instant. I should have been more careful... A rookie mistake. I am thinking that perhaps the best way to fix this spot is to use a small brush to touch it up and sand it smooth and rebuff. Also, a small piece of binding is gone. I'm thinking that I might be able to dissolve a little bit of binding with acetone and brush that on, sand smooth, rebuff. If you have any thoughts or suggestions please advise.
Thanks,
Steve

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Nice, I really like the burst on the back, personally I would just leave the spot on the horn, one gig and it may have several

Looks great Steve!

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

Leave it, touching it up might make it look worse than it really is.
Play it and enjoy - I like it a lot!
(good choice on the Bardens, too!)

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

Very nice Steve - looks like a great ax!

She's a beauty for sure, in spite of the little mishap.
Did you use any CNC for this, or was it done with templates and routers?

I'm about to embark on making a matching set of a Tele and a Strat, because I've always wanted one of each.
I'm debating between a metallic green or a metallic gold body with a birdseye maple neck for each.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Okay, so I also have to ask about the pickups. I've thought long and hard about getting a set of the JB's Danny Gatton pickups. How do you like what you have, and why did you pick the Modern set over the regular Gatton set?

Thanks.

Wish I had some advice about the finish, but have never used the EM6000...

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Don, no cnc was used, just templates. I found that the telecaster forum was a good resourse. There are free plans that you can download in pdf. You can take a flash drive to office depot and print them out. I even found plans for a thinline which made it easier to make a template for the chambers. I thought I would make this one a little nicer by using wood for the pickguard and the control plate. I actually used a plastic pickguard and a chrome control plate as templates.

As far as the Barden pickups go - I read a lot of positive things about them. Interestingly, people either love them or hate them. I think they sound great. The tone suites my style well, especially the neck pickup. I'm not really a country twangy guy. I find the Bardens to be touch sensitive and the "modern" bridge PU is a little more meaty than the standard Danny Gatton. I had them in a fender thinline. I decided to put the stock PUs back in it and put the Bardens in this one.

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Telecaster forum????

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

First of all, I'm not normally a big solid body fan, but I think this is a VERY COOL axe! I cannot advise you on the buffing mishap. If it were mine, I'd touch it up. But it isn't mine and that's the point. If I were to attempt the touch up, I'd make it a very localized repair and I'd hand buff my work. The results would show under very close inspection, but they'd look fine from arm's length. You can see Dan Erlewine spot-touch blemishes and chips like this on the Stew Mac web site videos.. Just watch and decide if you want to attempt something similar.

Congratulations on a fine little axe for your second electric.

Don, check out this link.

http://www.tdpri.com/forums/tele-home-depot.46/

Thanks Patrick. I was hoping it wouldn't look too "artsy crafty", but I'm happy how it turned out. I have already started doing a spot repair. The first thing I'm doing is building up the lost binding by disolving bits of binding in acetone. I took the slurry and painted it on the low spot. Then I put some drops of black transtint in some EM 6000, mixed it up and gently painted it into the void (I had used a sharpy initially because I went through the pigmented layer). Tomorrow I'll gently paint some finish into the area. Once it dries, I'll carefully sand flush and rebuff. It should be hardly noticable when I'm done (if I'm lucky). I'll post a photo of the repair after I'm done.

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Thanks Steve... I must have signed up on that forum awhile back, because my first screen name of choice was taken...
I managed to find the latest "Rev E" files and now have the chore of building a bunch of 3D models so that I can machine the neck. I also managed to find 2D CAD files for that and a '50's Strat, so I have my work cut out for me to convert files to 3D models and create CAM files for them. I realize I could simply buy templates or buy the parts, but I'm in the habit of using the cnc for stuff now, and it's kind of fun. Unless things go badly......on expensive wood.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Don,
Must be nice to have a CNC machine available... I used the plans to make templates out of MDF. ...a low tech alternative, but effective. If you do some searching you can find a neck drawing that can be printed and used for a template. I prefer to make the body and neck rather than buy a ready-made body and neck and make a partscaster. I want to craft it, rather than simply assemble the parts... BTW - do a search on the tele forum for the Joe Barden pickups. There is a lot of commentary on there. They are definitely not cheap, but they sound nice...

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Please do show results. This nice guitar already has lots of fans!

Very tasty looking!

Very nice!

Beautiful woods.

Steve,

Curious as to your impression of how the chamber helped you... was it just a weight thing, or do you feel it may impact the tone? When it comes to electrics, I'm a complete novice...

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I've perceived chambered guitars to give a warmer sound. I love them.

Don, Not only does the chambering reduce wait, it also adds a resonance that I find pleasing. BTW - I've been working on repairing the burned spot and its should not be noticeable when I'm done. I've been waiting for the new finish to cure and will be wet sanding and buffing out soon. I'll post before and after pictures... and explain how I fixed it.

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Thanks! Can't wait to see the repair.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Hey Steve,

I had another question.
With the chambered body, did you experience any issues with the output jack? It doesn't look like there's much to those, so I didn't know if the thinner wall presented any sort of problem there...

Oh - and what wall thickness did you use for the chamber? Looks like either 5/8" or 3/4" ?

Thanks...

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Don, there is no concern about the output jack... As far as the wall thickness, I just used a template for a thinline. The wall thickness really isn't a concern.

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Okay, so I'm feeling stupid. The drawing found on the Tele site would indicate that the two pickup pockets are different depths...
The bridge pickup at .850" deep, and the front one, which is part of the same route as the neck pocket is .625" deep. Doesn't make sense to me... Can that be right Steve?

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."