The Tiny Tele

[coydog]

Hi all,

I just finished my first attempt at building a 5 string electric and thought people on the list might be interested.

I'm calling it the Tiny Tele. I shrunk down some Tele plans for the body, designed a 13 7/8" scale neck with a string spacing at the nut approximating the feel of playing an 8 string (a little closer than most e-mando's I've played), and cut down a Strat bridge to leave room for 5 saddles. I have a single coil and a humbucker on order from Steve Ryder but in the meantime have installed an EMG Select blade-style bass humbucker which actually sounds pretty good IMO. Will be interesting to compare when the custom pickups come.

Had a chance to play it the other night through a friend's Mesa Boogie amp complete with Tube Screamer and Wah pedal. What a blast. Taking me some time to get used to the extra C string but definitely keeps your mind working. Anyone in the SF Bay Area? I'll be bringing it to the Co-Mando gathering in Inverness next month.

Anyway, here's a pic.

David

[John Flynn]

Looks great! How many man hours do you have in it?

[mandroid]

The CF cases must be like a term paper, easily distracted from the previous project, Eh ?

[mad dawg]

Wicked cool!!! Nice work!

[coydog]

I would estimate it took me in the neighborhood of 80-100 hours but that included making all the templates (which I have now for the next batch!?).

Yeah, the cases have me up against the wall. As I mentioned in the last update, anyone with experience with interior fabric/upholstery and/or rubber/plastic extrustion, I could use some help. Exterior shells are solid. In the meantime, not willing to put anything out that's not quite there. Still feeling silly about my "optimistic" initial time predictions, but that's why I never considered taking any deposits. The Tiny Tele's a distraction but every project seems to help...


David

[Dave Voyles]

Coydog:

Are you willing to share templates and plans. I've looked all over and there are no plans for a good emando. I'd pay for duplication, etc.

Dave

[coydog]

Mandobear,

I basically just scanned some full size tele plans into the computer. Initially, I resized the entire plan to transform the 25 1/2" scale of the tele into the 13 7/8" scale of the mando but found that the body ended up really small. Next, I randomly decided to rescale to end up with a body that was approximatly 12" from the butt to the lump. Printed the plan out, traced onto 1/4" clear plastic, cut it out and used it as a 1:1 template on the router table.

As for the neck, using the process described in the Koch electric guitar book (Stew Mac Koch book) I established my nut width, marked 13 7/8" to the bridge saddles and established my bridge spacing. Allowing some space on either side of the outside strings for the fingerboard, connected the lines, traced to plastic, cut out, and used as a template. BTW, I used a rosewood pre-slotted fingerboard from Stew Mac.

Headstock was just a freehand modified tele shape made to accomodate the 5 tuning pegs.

Took (and is still taking) a while to get used to handling grain and router bit direction to avoid tear out but I found that this blueprint/graph paper -> 1/4" plastic -> router table method was a great way to produce parts and leaves a template that can be reused over and over.

I'm really just getting started learning this stuff but feel free to get in touch with questions.

David

[mikeomando]

What a sweet lookin' emando. #How does it play? #C string loose? #E string tight? #Love the wood grain of the neck, what's it made of? #How's the intonation? #I've never played a tele style emando, and I've always wondered whether the switches and controls get in the way of your pickin' hand. #Could you post a picture of the back so we could see the neck profile? # I wish I could build something like this... #Did you ever consider a slightly longer scale length? #Congratulations on a great looking emando. #Did you slot your own fretboard?

[coydog]

I think the current string gauges I'm currently using are .11, .14, .26 (wound), .38, .48 from a set or D'Addario light jazz strings. All strings seem to play pretty evenly. The C is actually not as loose as I thought it might be. Feels similar to the G's on my acoustic.

Neck is maple from a electric guitar blank from Stew Mac. Sprayed it with a vinyl sealer then lacquer. That's it. Just a nice piece of wood. I'll try to post a picture of the back and neck profile tomorrow. Went for more of a flat electric shape rather than a real "V." Intonation is good.

The location of the pickup controls and the knobs took a little getting used to but I really wanted to preserve the Tele look. Basically, I just pick a little forward - basically right over the humbucker and try to keep my right hand precise (working on the same on acoustic).

As far as scale length, I really wanted this instrument to have the sound flexibility of an electric but to play like an acoustic, hence the 13 7/8" scale and the close spacing at the nut. I also started with a pre-slotted fingerboard from StewMac.

Thanks for checking it out!

[Mastersound]

Coydog! What a beauty! It's a fun pursuit isn't it, and maybe somewhere along the way someone else will want to buy the fruits of our labours... maybe! ;-))

A question... How did you do the headstock logo? It looks very professional!

[coydog]

Headstock logo is inkjet printable "decal paper" from a local office supply store. Not really adhesive. More like those little stickers the oil change places put in the upper left corner of your windshield to remind you to get your oil changed more often than you probly really need to...

Definitely thinking about making two or three more as a "batch" and seeing if I could find homes for them. I really enjoyed making this one. I have the templates and it's getting the tools set up for each operation that takes the time. Actually shaping, cutting, etc is quick so may as well run a few pieces through each set up. I think this "batching" is a common efficiency practice among luthiers.

[Dave Voyles]

Coydog:

What is the StuMac part number for the neck you used? I have some other questions if you could send me your email address. I'm going to get the Koch book as a starting point.

Dave

[mrmando]

So coydog, which of the Davids are you? May I list this instrument at emando.com?

[coydog]

After a little delay, as promised, here's a couple pictures of the neck. The Stew Mac part number is "Electric Guitar Neck Blanks Curly maple #5132"





Also, Dave Walker (B@n!0 player) and I (Dave Zimmerman) make (trying anyway) the Coydog Cases. I built my first Coydog mandolin before we started working together and use the "handle" for myself. I'll update my profile on the Cafe with e-mail and other info.

I'd love to have this one listed on emando.com!

[ZZCHOP]

Hi coydog:That's one nice looking tiny tele!!!!!I was wondering how thick the body on the tiny tele was after it was finished?I was also curious as to how thick the neck was were it meets the body?
Awsome work coydog!
Jim

[mrmando]

Finally got around to adding this to emando.com.

[berkeleymando]

But Mr mando, I see you added the Coydog link in the builders section, but when one clicks on the link it brings one to a 404 file not found error. I'd like to see it!

[mrmando]

try it now...

[Dfyngravity]

coydog...great looking mando. if you think you'll be doing a tiny strat any time soon i may consider buying it. email me at dfyngravity@comcast.net and maybe we can talk a little bit about it.