#Project- TeleJem ! *with pics*

[skins345669]

One problem with the pickup chooser is it doesn't offer maple as a body wood. If maple is quite bright, I'd go for a darker pickup to balance it out. Tone Zone / Breed combo, anyone?

[ET Guitars]

Nice work and good project Tom!

This is a cool coincidence. We are about to release in a month or so, something very similar. We are doing a signature model for an American shredder, who requested a hybrid between an RG and Tele. There will be both 6 and 7 string versions, but the 7 will be released first. Our body is very similar, but the neck and headstock is custom for the signature model and will have our logo. Also the body has a striking finish (but not swirled LOL), and a clue is its a laminated top...

Concerning your pickups... don't be misled by the name Queensland "Maple". Its not like the North American maple, so I don't believe it will be anywhere near as bright in tone. I don't have a lot of experience with it, but I'm led to believe it will be like many other Australian hardwoods (eg. Vic Mountain "Ash", and Tassie Blackwood) - there is nearly as much depth as Mahogany, but increased clarity. Best analogy being a Mahogany with Maple top... not that either to be exact but its the closest common example. It will be more agressive in tone. So I don't think you can go wrong with pickups, even brighter ones would sound good in this thing, like Evos. There is no way you could put Evos in a hard Maple body (not unless you wanted to make all the neighbourhood dogs ears bleed from the ultra highs ), but in this thing they would likely scream. Check it out but I think you'll find "Maple" is very misleading.

[kwaka100]

cheers ET guitars

yeaah i've heard alot of mixed thoughts of the wood, and yours is definately the best explained!

but yes that is a cool coincidence, i was looking through some of the guitars on your site and there are some REAL beautifull peices of work there! im realy looking forward to see what yours looks like! specially with a laminated top


cheers everyone, haha the pickup picker is indeed fun!

=]

[kwaka100]

Update!

This is what i got done just a few days ago, im on a week holidays now

Routing! Now this was the scary part.. but it didnt go to bad, we were having a lot of problems getting the correct router and bits from school.. but in the end i got what i needed and i got the pickups routed using this jig.







As you can see for the middle route (look abit like more of a soapbar pickup route) but with the amount of time we have to do this at school, and the resources it was alot easyer just to modify the humbucker jig and route the center pickup like that. It's all going to be under a pickgaurd anyway


but thats all for now, should be a bit more progress mid next week when school goes back. =]

[LonePhantom]

Yeah Kwaka, the Luthier Supplies site has an explanation of what the Queensland Maple is similar to:

Flamed Queensland Maple has been used for many years in the Australian guitar industry. Australian guitar manufacturers Maton have used this timber for the backs, sides and necks of most of their steel string acoustic guitars for several decades. With a consistency much like Brazilian Mahogany it also works very well for electric guitars. Like any highly figured timber the highly figured blanks are prone to grain pull out during machining so sharp tools are a must.

Quality - We have the highest quality blanks of Queensland Maple available, the figure in the highly figured pieces is as good as it gets while the well figured pieces are still really nice.

Look - These blanks have a diagonal quilted figure which changes depending on the direction you look at it. Colour is generally a pinky orange but can have grey hues.

Sound - It is a light weight crisp timber like Honduras Mahogany, the more figured pieces are denser, which adds to the sustain of the completed guitar.

[nickcoumbe]

What is the actual botanical name?

If you know I would be interested.

[ET Guitars]

Flindersia Brayleyana, from the Rutaceae family.

[kwaka100]

cheers LonePhantom i knew i had read a good explination of it somewhere!

I cant wait to get it finished and see what is sounds like start again on tuesday.

[kwaka100]

Time for another update!

Back to school this week ..but the up side is i get to continue working on my guitar.

Soo back to routing. It was a little.. or alot dodgy.. free hand routing ftw! although blunt router bits aren't so fun. But with some chiseling i've gotten in looking not to bad.



This is my first go at it, *DODGY* the router was very jerky and as you can realy obsiously see in 2 places it jumped to the side scarily close to where the pickgaurd covers. I also decided to do a route for a 9v battery, or 2 of them.. didnt guess the size to well, but i have been thinking about trying the 18v mod on my set of emg's i might be using in this guitar, atm there in my squier.. i think they deserve better.. lol.



After some fixing I also router the deeper bit for the pickup screws.. might make it easyer when installing the pickups! But yes i am abit anoyed how big the routing has become.. the router was very jerky, although i have a few idea's up my non-existent sleeves in what i can put under there maybe the emg afterburner and/or a few other fancy kinda things.

[kwaka100]

Continuing ! (sorry it keeps seeing my 3 pictures as 8?) anyway here my last one.





With the pickgaurd. Just as a reminder to myself that you won't be able to see the routing... haha but with some more chiseling i should be able to get it looking nice and clean.

Now THIS is where i'm going to need a little help. Next step is getting the bridge in. I'll be using an ibanez edge pro, but i'm not sure about where to place it on the body? i've never realy understood the scale on a guitar. All i know is that the bridge has to be 25.5" away from somewhere else on the guitar, i'm guessing the nut? But i'm not sure how to go about it, i've got another copy of the Jem plans i had printed, but where do i measure the 25.5" from, the upper side of the nut to the where the strings touch the saddles? And where do i go from there, is it as easy as measuring the distance, lining it up with the centre of the neck then just getting it drilled and routed?

Cheers everyone!

Tom =]

[Pursuit]

The scale length is the "speaking length" of the string, which is the part of the string that vibrates when hit.

So basically it is from the string leaves the nut to where the string comes in contact with the bridge saddles.

[screamndemon69]

Originally Posted by kwaka100

Continuing ! (sorry it keeps seeing my 3 pictures as 8?) anyway here my last one.

It recognizes the smileys as pics, hence seeing 8 instead of 3.

Interesting project. Cool idea.


~Bones

[Serratus]

25.5" from the nut to bridge (as you said, to where the string goes over the saddle - though usually the top E saddle is at 25.5 and the other strings further back to get it to intonate properly). I think that regarding the rout for the trem, 25.5" comes to the front of the hole that goes all the way through the guitar, same as on a strat. Hope that helps!
And that's a really nice project, I'm surprised that no-one's done it before.

[nickcoumbe]

Originally Posted by ET Guitars

Flindersia Brayleyana, from the Rutaceae family.

Over 15 years in the tree business and I have never heard of it. To be honest I thought it would have been an Acer of some kind. Looks interesting.

The project looks great.

[eviltwin]

There is another thread about the precise positioning of the trem posts,

Scale length is actually 684mm, not 25.5, small difference, but it's best to stick with metric units.

http://www.jemsite.com/forums/f21/di...ighlight=648mm

http://www.jemsite.com/forums/f15/je...ighlight=648mm

Once you've drilled the holes for the trem posts, the only adjustment you have left is the intonation.