Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Hi to you all,
There have been a few projects coming out of my workshop recently. I have always wanted a Thinline Tele so after finding some recycled Cuban Mahogany for the body, material for four neck blanks and enough African Paduak to build two teles I set to building. Why three you are probably saying! So am I!!! During the start of the build for myself I had a visit for a great mate that I worked in a band with for eleven years. He was here holidaying and seen what I was up to and before going home he asked if I could build a Tele Thinline for him as I had two Paduak tops and four neck blanks. It has been a pleasure to build one for him as I know it will be played and appreciated. I asked what he would like and he said no binding just the Paduak top and I sourced two Queensland Maple bodies. You can never have enough wood. He said later I wish you had talked me into binding for his build. Still I like the outcome. So I was working away at two Thinline Teles and another muso mate I hadn't seen for years called in and seen what I was up to and asked the question could I make him one as well. So I sourced a figured Queensland Maple top and already had a spare body and neck blank. These builds have been on the go since June and I finally finished the last one last week. Sorry for the long winded story! The boys have the Fender N3 noiseless pickups and mine has all second hand parts that I have collected over the years with some second hand Nocaster pickups. I like them very much and spending a few days shielding them with the sticky backed copper tape was well worth the effort. All three sound different I am working on some sound bites at the moment. There was 60 grams in weight between the three of them each near 3 kg, very comfortable. One has left the nest so I will only have two to demo. Thanks for suffering through the story but these two guys are special to me so I couldn't say no to them. Its such a good feeling and a privelidge to have two great players using my guitars. Some pics and thanks for looking.
Cheers
Alan

Plenty of mojo there.

cool stuff!! love the tele's, keep coming back to look at them, bottom is my fav

Thanks Jeremy, Jim and Hank.
Hank: The bottom one is mine. I call her Bitza as she is all second hand parts except the machine heads. The back is recycled Cuban Mahogany that was given to me. There was more material than I needed but I had some cracks to work around. Two pieces where book matched and the other centre piece was from a different tree. The body is back sawn as is the neck and it is fatter than the other two. I think it makes a difference to the sustain and the Mohagany has a sweet tone. Mine also have second hand Nocaster Pickups fitted and they where installed using the Stew Mac copper 2" tape and she is almost noiseless. Better than the other two that have N3 Fender noiseless pickups that have a very slight earth buzz when you take you hands off the strings. I earthed the pickups from the bridge to the input jack and still the buzz. Here re a few pics of the body material:
Cheers and thanks for you comments guys.