While Fi and I were recording our Tree of Souls album in the Autumn 2008/Spring 2009, there were more than a few times when an electric guitar would have come in handy (as you may gather, I don't own one). In particular for the ebow parts and for various overdubs. At the time, I managed by Di-ing my Martin 000 15S and then messing about with the resulting pietzo plasticy signal until it was acceptable. The results were fine but it took quite some time to get there, so I got to thinking about buying an electric guitar for the studio. Having been around the various guitar shops locally, I couldn't find what I wanted (being a fussy bugger) at the sort of price I could justify - what I wanted was a simple telecaster type body with a strat pick up configuration, a wider than normal neck (sort of Tayloresque) a floating trem (WHAT?.. .you say for folk music? Yes, I say...more celtic bends than dive bombs), noiseless pick ups (the last strat I borrowed to record with a few years ago hissed like hell!) and finally, easy access to the top frets (18 - 24) so no clunky neck joint...not asking for much eh?!


WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
So while we were touring 'down south', we called in on Brian and Marion Rodgers. We got to know these two after they kindly put us up after a gig at 'The Man of Kent' in Rochester and have since become the best of friends. The first time I went into their house I was confronted by a multitude of guitar cases in their hall and thought to myself, this looks interesting! It turned out that Brian's a guitar 'tech' extraordinaire (and what he doesn't know about guitars isn't worth knowing!). Brian mentioned to me that he was in the process of sorting out his garage and had a tree trunk in there that he wanted shot of. The trunk was of a tree felled in his neighbours garden 7 or 8 years ago and he'd stored it in his garage for the last 5 or so. 'Did I want it?' He says. 'Can you make use of it...chop it up for the woodburner perhaps?'
So this trunk...8' long, 10'' diameter at the thick end down to about 5'' at the thin and a little bit soft and rotten on the outside. Turns out to be walnut and as hard as nails on the inside..the cogs start turning! Could I get enough wood for a guitar out of this? Fi and Marion look at each other in despair realising all conversation between Brian and I for the remainder of our visit would be exclusively about building my dream electric guitar.
So it was begun...I crosscut the trunk at the 5'ish mark to get it into our van and it came with us up the A1 back to Northumberland and into my garage. Brian agreed to feed me with his expert knowledge and advice over the net or on the 'super guitar' telephone hotline anytime I got stuck!


DOWN TO BUSINESS
Once the trunk was home and I had a bit of time, I spent ages looking at it and thinking deep thoughts (much to Fi's frustration). I realised that to acheive my goal of a guitar with a through neck (as opposed to  a bolt on), getting enough good hard wood from the tree was going to be quite a challenge, but I wouldn't know for sure until it was converted. Firstly it needed cutting in half as near to the middle as possible (a bend in the trunk became obvious at this point). So off to Greenhaugh and Alsitairs' bandsaw. Alistairs' bandsaw tried ever so bravely but could'nt hack it, so back home I went and ventured forth with my trusty hand saw...three hours later or so, it was sliced cleanly in half. (my right shoulder and arm ached somewhat after). Now with the hard heart of the walnut exposed, a lot more deep thinking ensued. There would be enough good wood, but only just! No room for mistakes, no second chances....what pressure!
I go for a lie down.

 


I GET UP
The next move was to cut a slice off the edge of both halves square to the first cut (again with the hand saw...ouch!) leaving me with two good faces of walnut at 90 degrees to each other. After cleaning up the sawed faces with a hand plane I could now move the pieces onto my table saw for further work. The table saw along with my hand held circular saw took some of the sweat out of the next stages of converting the trunk, but with a maximum depth of cut only 75mm on both machines, there was still a fair amount to be done with hand tools.


A few more pics...



Spot the frustrated collie!







WHAT NEXT...
After much huffing and puffing, sweat and sawdust, I ended up with 3 main pieces measuring: 2 off at 18''x 5 1/4'' x 2'' and one piece 38'' x 3'' x 2''. The long piece would make the through neck and the other pieces the guitar body. To allow the wood to stabilise, it was stored away in a dry place for a couple of months, along with various other potentiallly useful off cuts.

Meanwhile I decided to use some really dense and heavy mahogany that I had stored in the garage within the guitars construction, the mahogany was the surround to the origianl hearth in our house that was stripped out when I installed a wood burning stove. This section of timber measuring 2'' x 4'' x 48'' wasn't in very good condition but I reckoned on getting enough useful wood out of it. My thinking was to cut 1/4'' x 2'' strips from the blank then use this down the middle of the neck top to tail. I would also use the strips either side of the neck as part of the guitar body construction. The 1/4'' strips were from the mahogany blank on the table saw, the best were selected then stored along with the other woody bits.

Fi and I were off touring throughout the summer so I wasn't tempted to mess around with the wood bits but with the tour over and a little bit more time on my hnds, my thoughts turned to guitar contsruction, yippee!

 


BACK FROM TOURING
On returning to the guitar wood bits, it was apparent that there had been a little movement. but nothing to worry about, at least I don't think so anyway.

You may have noticed by now that I'm giving all my dimensions in inches, it just seems right for guitar making with things like scale length and finger board radii, being in imperial measurement. I may drift into metric from time to time...truth is I like them both.

After consulting the oracle (Brian), I ordered some hardware from Stew Mac Athens, Ohio USA!
This included:
1. Hot rod 2 way adjustable truss rod.
2. Schaller 'floyd rose' locking tremolo (black)
3. Grover quick release strap locks (black)
4. Compound radius pre-slotted fingerboard (fender style in ebony)
5. Metal mounting rings for singlecoil pick ups (2 off in black)
6. 'Tele' style control plate (black)
7. 'Tele' style knurled knob (2 x black)
8. 'Tele' style switch knob (black)

MEANWHILE...
I took my pen, paper and tape measure down to Core Music the local community music shop in Hexham. I was hoping that they would have something 'telecaster' like in stock...and they did! So with Mike's permission (the boss), I gathered all the critical dimensions and made a paper template of the body shape. Mike did try to sell me this particular 'tele' copy (I don't think he really understood what I was up to) but then he would! By the way, if you ever find yourself in the area, Core Music is definately worth a visit...nice friendly place with plenty going on. Plus they are sponsoring the main stage of BAAFEST. Lovely people!

With all the 'tele' dimensions back home, I realise that my neck blank is too short!!! AARGH. How do I get out of this one? ALSO but not quite as critical...the body blocks are slightly narrow, woops!
Much thinking ensues...


ALL SORTED!
I decide to design the headstock in the style of  a PRS and put the machine heads 3 a side. The resulting headstock design is probably a good 30mm shorter but unfortunately I still find the wood for the neck a little short (about 20mm). I hope by crosscutting the neck block where the tremolo block fits, I can make this up. This is all theory but hopefully it will work out in practice.