Telecaster Build - Part 11 - Pickguards and Neck Mounting

This Telecaster build video series is intended for my lutherie students at a Denver area college where I teach electric guitar construction. I decided to make these videos public…hoping that other people all around the world can benefit from them. My students are first time builders and are being required to build a variation of a Telecaster or a Stratocaster. I believe that learning Fender construction techniques is foundational to a well-rounded guitar building education. I am building a Tele in this video series…and I will be building a Strat live at the school. With this foundation, I hope most of the students will continue their education by taking the advanced electric guitar construction course next semester.
This video covers the process of making a pickguard from blank pickguard material. We show the process of using a template for all routing and hole drilling…and how to countersink the appropriate screw holes. We also cover in this episode how mount the bolt-on neck by actually using bolts…as opposed to screws. We are getting close to the dry fit test…prior to finishing…so things are progressing nicely.
Feel free to post a comment should there be any questions…and try to reply to questions as soon as time will allow. Let me know if this serious helps anyone…and any topics that you hope that I will cover in future episodes of this build series.
If you enjoy the intro music on this video, go to ericjasonbrock... to check out more of his songs. Eric is a very talented musician out of Cincinnati Ohio, and I know he would greatly appreciate your support by purchasing some of his music.
The very nice motion design incorporated into the Intro, Outro, and the subtitles as created by Summer Simpson, a professional video editor in the Denver area. Go check out her lengthy resume at www.summerbsimpson.com, and shoot her an email if you need some help with video production.
Make sure you subscribe to the Maximum Guitar Works KZbin channel so that you don’t miss out on future videos. Feel from to post comments and/or questions below. You can also contact me directly at [e-mail].

[@chipsterb4946]

Thanks for the tip about mounting the template on the bottom so that you can follow up with the bevel process.

[@maximumguitarworks]

Thanks for watching my videos!

[@juliansuarez3849]

AMEN!! Love this episode Steve, Neck looks so so beautiful...

[@maximumguitarworks]

Thanks Julian...I appreciate the comments. I'm really feeling good about these guitars! Going to be hard to sell them!

[@MStone-im1mu]

Mojo... Amen! Damn that is coming together beautifully 🎨

[@maximumguitarworks]

Thanks....uh...M?! I'm actually having more fun with these builds...and this series than I expected.

[@gerthalberg9735]

I Think I said that Black would be to Harsh a contrast to the White surrounds and tortoise would probably look odd and White Pearl would almost make the Pick-ups vanish - but it’s the only option thats going to work🤓 Nice trick attaching the template to the back. BTW super cool series of videos both from a beginner perspective and also as a refresher if you’ve done it several times. Yessss bolt inserts in the neck - my favorite method.

[@maximumguitarworks]

Hey Gert...sorry if I totally messed up your quote. I was going on memory...which sometimes is a bad decision! Thanks for your comments and contributions to the discussions.

[@gerthalberg9735]

@Maximum Guitar Works - no worries, you actually remembered quite well🤓

[@happyads9439]

Cool channel and great videos👍

[@maximumguitarworks]

Happy to have you here...thanks for your comment.

[@happyads9439]

@@maximumguitarworksThanks man. "Your guy Matt down at Texas Toast brought me here". Are you going to paint the guitars too??

[@maximumguitarworks]

yes...very soon!

[@happyads9439]

@@maximumguitarworksAwesome im lookin forward to it 👍lovely flame on that neck

[@billyshears6622]

Is that Strat switch slot wide enough for a FreeWay switch? I keep having to hand bevel those to keep the blade from dragging on the slot. 😝

[@maximumguitarworks]

Yes...for a pickguard for sure. A body mount might need more room. I will find out soon.

[@plexibreath]

What countersink bit is that? Amazon has some that look close, but I'm insufficiently convinced of their quality.

[@maximumguitarworks]

Hey John. That is a Festool countersink bit. I have seen them in other brands...but that style is great. It shaves but wood and plastic very well. I have two sizes...the smaller I use on the pickguards...the larger for things like my neck insert recesses.

[@plexibreath]

@@maximumguitarworks Thanks, I'll get a couple.