Tele build completed

guitargeek62

I recently stumbled across a stunning Fender CS (below) in Regent Sounds which has inspired my next build. Quite honestly, I would have bought the CS, if it had only been built with a 10-56 V-C neck rather than the med-C. My build will be much the same, with the exception of a few creature comforts, a chunkier neck, and steel saddles!

I'm going back to USACG again for the "chassis" - I've had around a dozen of their necks pass through my hands and cannot fault the build quality at all. My build will differ from the above by having some small creature comforts added:

Neck - I've been wanting to try roasted maple out for quite a while, and this is the perfect opportunity. I found a good supplier for it, and selected the piece below. I didn't want anything too OTT, but ideally still something that had a bit of figure and character. This piece will be paired up with a nice piece of IRW with similarly non-uniform grain. From there, it's getting a very chunky V-to-C neck, med-jumbo frets, 12" radius, MOP dots and perhaps a 1-¾" nut width*.

Body - This'll be a light 2-pc Swamp Ash, finished pretty much as the above CS Tele with sunken grain and a light relic (wink wink @lamf68 - hopefully this'll be coming your way when you've got room!). I've chosen to have rib & heel contours added, along with a larger strat radius on the rear side of the body for comfort. The body will be routed to take larger pickups in the neck, once I decide what's going there later.

*I can't make my mind up on the nut yet - I like the width on my Taylor, but it'll make buying guitars in future that much more difficult... hmm. I have to decide quickly though!!!!

TTony

Are you building this yourself Si?

lamf68

Take your time Simon mate, I'm always here. Just drop me a line when you're ready.

Rich

guitargeek62

TTony said:

Are you building this yourself Si?

Nope, just the assembly and setup - Tommy at USACG is doing the neck, and Rosser Guitars are making the body for me this time around.

Will do Rich, thanks.

Andyjr1515

Nice bit of maple and fully approve of the V-C neck profile. Never did understand why they went out of fashion...

guitargeek62

I had the same profile carved on the Chibson... I didn't expect it to actually turn out that way, but they did it, right down the 0.2mm tolerance of what I'd requested! I had a CS Strat a while back with the 10/56 profile which was fantastic, the measurements came from that.

Actually, that settles it, I'm going to rescind the wide nut and stick to 1-11/16".

guitargeek62

Tuners are purchased, I went with locking in case I end up adding a Bigsby later on... I suspect I might.

guitargeek62

The neck arrived an hour ago... literally 5 mins after I left to go on hols for a week!!!! My wife kindly sent this through to tease me though:

http://i.imgur.com/oCOTucs.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/q7RfFZX.jpg

It looks quite plain here, but that lovely wild figure is hiding underneath. I'm just trying to make my mind up between tru-oil or nitro now to make it pop.

guitargeek62

It's been a while since I made an update;

I've decided to try out a "new" builder for the forum (I believe?), Rosser Guitars. He's US-based but I've watched his builds with interest on eBay for quite a while now, and had a good chat with him to agree on the final spec and price etc. Unfortunately there was a problem with the first topcoat so it's had to be stripped back and refinished, so I'll have to wait a little longer!

https://www.facebook.com/RosserGuitarsLLC

I've gone for a semi-hollow Swamp Ash body, with;

- Rib contour - Heel contour - 3/8" rear edge radius - Neck P90 route

guitargeek62

Almost forgot! I've made progress on hardware acquisition too:

• Crazy-Parts aged pickguard (It's a bit hard to see but the section under the strings is lighter than the rest)
• Crazy-Parts nickel staggered wall bridge plate, half-polished/half-satin
• Hipshots 6IL staggered locking tuners, nickel
• Allparts heavy-knurl flat-top knobs
• Rutters compensated steel saddles (superb!!!)
• Rutters control plate, volume pot moved back ⅜" - this one's a bit rough actually, quite noticeably hand-made 
• Electrosocket, nickel
• Threaded inserts & bolts

guitargeek62

....and the body is now in transit! It's in the UK and "just" needs to make it through customs.

 With a bit of luck I might even have this finished off by christmas, although I've got to wait for a shipment of magnets to be delivered to Marc at Mojo

guitargeek62

Time for another update!

The body arrived safe & sound from Rosser Guitars last month, it's quite possibly the lightest body I've ever held - the total build is just 5lbs 3oz before pickups!!!

All that's left now is for me to decide on the pickup configuration. I'm leaning towards a mojotron in the bridge, and one of his goldfoils in a filtertron cover in the neck position.  I'll also be sending the neck off to @lamf68 to be shot with nitro, have a decal applied, and aged to match the level of wear given to the body - in the meantime though the roasted maple feels lovely so I've been playing it unplugged to get used to the character and help the decision re: pickups.

Since arriving I've also routed/chiselled out the bridge pickup cavity to accommodate a filtertron, and sourced a second bridge that'll let me keep a vintage look.

Good points

• All specs have been well & truly hit from my initial wish-list
• The guitar is loud & lively, sustains very well too even with 9's and top-mounted strings!
• I love the look of the finish - Rosser Guitars will certainly be getting more custom from me in future. The basecoat of LPB shows through beuatifully under the wear, and gives the finish an almost pearlescent depth as the light changes.

Bad points

• It could end up being too light - though that gives me a nice excuse to add a B5 later on.
• The finish is darker/greener than I'd hoped for, but I like it all the same.
• I learnt a very hard lesson when fitting the neck ferrules and that's that roasted maple does not like being stressed. Thankfully I got away with a fairly clean crack that won't affect the neck in the long-run and was easily repaired - quite a close call though to writing it off entirely!

To the pictures!!!!

Here was everything loaded on the scales:

Some of the Lake Placid peeking through:

A wonderfully subtle forearm contour here - I didn't even notice it for the first hour or so!

guitargeek62

Another front-shot:

And finally, a close-up of that forearm wear:

capo4th

A small rodent appears to have been eating your guitar!

Looks great and a nice choice of colour

impmann

Wow, that's nice.

I've got a Rosser body in my eBay watchlist - one of his original designs inspired by the old Supro guitars. This one:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/361446518062

If I wasn't trying to cut down on the number of guitars in this house....

guitargeek62

I love that shape, I've been toying with the idea of a Jr-esque version from him one day.

guitargeek62

As some of you may remember I built cheap bodies & parts for a couple of years in the MR days and used USACG necks to build up full guitars. Ironically out of the 30-odd builds I did in that time, this is the one that I've had the least input into during the actual build process and yet it'll be the first to receive a Fusion Guitars logo!!!

The "Cyclotron" name comes from a type of particle accelerator, and seemed very fitting given the pickup configuration and general aesthetic that I was after with Fusion Guitars. I've just dropped @SimonRF an email to see what the best method is to export the mockup to them.

guitargeek62

It's finally playable!!! My Mojo pickups arrived earlier this week and are a thing of beauty both visually & tonally! The pickguard's a little shoddily done (I miss my router) but it'll do for now at least. Overall, pretty happy with how this is turning out.

 Next up is a neck finish, decal, and fret fettling.