I did that because I wanted the pickup to stick up a bit, but not so much that the screws touched the strings. I found how tall the pickup was, and set the stop on the drill press just a bit shorter (thickness of the pickguard). Now its time to cut everything! I used a drill press for this part, though I am sure that a router would work just as well. now forget about that for a little while and make a hole big enough for your jack, but not so big that you cannot fit your jackplate around the hole. after this you will need to put your bridge in its exact location and trace the string holes in the bottom, and the bridge itself, of course. ![]() ![]() Again making a blob big enough for wires, but small enough for the plate to be put on. again, make sure it is small enough so as you can still fit in screws, but large enough to put two or three wires through. you will also need a small cavity that goes from the pickguard to the vol. (also inside the pickguard.) Now, you don't need all that much room for wires, so just make sure there is room to put screws in where the pickguard goes. I traced the pickup on the body INSIDE my pickguard line, and then made a big circle around where wires would go. To do this, I traced my pickguard onto the body, and figured approximately where the pickup would go. You will need quite a bit of room for the wiring in the body. Once you have done this, go to your band saw and, with a thick piece of soft wood (pine, etc.) under it, cut out the fret board's sides and top (leaving room for the nut if you didn't mark it on the template!!!!) Make sure it is the same depth in the middle, also. When you are done, check the other side where you marked the fret depth. Now you need to cut it! This takes some practice, so be careful, but making sure it is straight down and level on the scroll saw, cut where the frets are marked to the line you made on the side (for how far the fret needs to go in). Mark this length on both sides of your fretboard, marking a line clearly from top to bottom. Now find a piece of fret wire and see how far it needs to go into the wood. I did this so I could see where I was cutting. Put this on your scroll saw backwards so the blade is facing inward. Find a scroll saw blade the thickness of the part of the fret that goes into the wood. Next comes the tricky part, or it was tricky for me anyway. Plane this to your desired thickness, but keep in mind how far the frets need to go in you don't want it to be too skinny! Now you can glue your fretboard paper you made earlier to your fretboard wood with temporary spray adhesive. Before you do ANYTHING, you need to plane out a piece of wood preferably maple, rosewood, or ebony. The frets should be exact! After you are finished with this, either print it out or cut it out and save it for a little later. With a ruler and a pencil, I imagine it would take much, much longer. I was lazy for this step and used a computer program, so all in all it took me about ten minutes to do this. Now you will need to get another copy of your neck, and work on measuring out where your frets go, or print it out from the site. Enter the number of frets, scale length, and instrument (ukulele!), click the button, and there you have it! the exact spacing for all of your frets. ![]() To make the fretboard, click on this link or find a website of your choice that has a fret calculator. If you want instructions specific to my design, just ask me on my orange board or inbox, and I will try to work something out! And for all you experts out there: yes, I probably did some things wrong feel free to correct me! Hopefully you will understand what iv'e done! Enjoy! This instructable is not specific to this design, but instead gives you the steps you need to build an electric guitar/uke/bass personalized just for you. (possibly looking a bit like the Gibson Trini-Lopez) This project taught me a lot about making fretboards, wiring, and the importance of being patient while the paint is drying! Although its not perfect, and although i'm not quite ready for the hollow body yet, this experience was very important (and really awesome!) and I plan to build an acoustic guitar next to give me a little more experience with building guitars. I had never built anything instrument related before, and it sounded like an easy way to prep me for building my dream project an archtop/hollow body electric guitar. When I saw the telelele on tumblr, I was inspired to start building one of my own.
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