Thinline Toronado Project

[defspace]

A few years ago I built myself a telecaster. I ended up selling it to a friend. He loved it and really put some mileage on it. He approached me with the idea of doing a thinline. I wanted to do something a bit more...offset. How about a Thinline Toronado with tele appointments? He was game.

The basic specs:
Mahogany body/maple top
maple/maple 25.5" neck
Tele bridge pickup/PAF neck
black on black - going for that 70's Fender vibe.
Slider switches for cocked wah/Jaguar strangle

The initial photoshop mockup (the headstock will not be a Fender shape):


The body blank after bandsawing and planing:


the top gluing up after jointing and bookmatching:


More to follow...

[kdanie]

I dig it, the Toronado is an underrated shape.

ken

[defspace]

Routed with a terrifying bit:


All routed out. Looks like I got a bit too close to the line with the bandsaw.


Cavity template screwed in place. We decided to go as hollow as possible so that is a hollow cavity between the pickups. This thing will be 2.25" thick, so weight relief maybe important:


But before routing - time to hog out some wood.

[wproffitt]

I’m digging it! I can’t wait to see more. Subscribed!

[Shadoweclipse13]

LOVE it! Toronado is one of my favorite Fender shapes, and as Ken said, very underrated. Your pickguard shape is incredible, and honestly, you just "solved" a problem that a lot of people can't. In my opinion, getting the pickguard shape right is the trickiest part of guitar designs.

[defspace]

Thanks a lot.
I agree about the difficulty of getting a pickguard right. The telecaster bridge does provide a convenient design constraint - it's at least one part of the design I can't mess up! I'll also openly admit that I took a lot of pickguard inspiration from the Rhoney Vireo. Paul did an amazing job of designing an offset t-style guitar.

[dinosaurkale->]

this makes me miss my (stolen) toronado
cant wait to see the finished product

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

Wow, Defspace! Hats off!
Absolutely love it!
I just love "non-f"-f-holes like your's is more based on a Rickenbacker Cat-Eye, right?
The pickguard first reminded me of Bill Rowe's (rocknrollrelics) Thunders Bass...but cooler!

I absolutely love non contoured (but double bound) offset bodies - and this and one of the other Toronado building threads got me thinking... to do a custom deluxe tele/Jazzmaster hybrid (like somewhat close to that Jazz-Tele that just came out, 4 knobs, 2 JM or WRHB pickups and JM Vibrato... going with a big f***ing CBS Style Headstock, with block inlays in my case!
Has anyone done something like this?
I could use some help with the hybrid pickguard design!

Can't wait to see how your baby here evolves!

[Rgand]

This is off to a good start. I've liked the Toronado design for years. Looking forward to seeing this come together.

[defspace]

After removing most of the chambered wood, I slapped the template back on and hit it with the router:

For the curious : the body blank weighed 7.2lbs before chambering. After chambering it weighed 3.6lbs. Assuming the wood is of uniform density, that's half the wood removed.

I use the two screw holes in the pickup routes to ensure that all templates will fall exactly where I want them.

I hit the inside of the cavity with two coats of Tru-Oil. This thing has a sound hole, so it's going to have to look good on the inside too. You can see the top hiding beneath the body.


The mahogany blank used for the back ended up being 1 7/8" thick. The desired total body thickness is 2.25". This means I'll have to use 3/8" for the top. Sort of thick for a thinline, right? I just flipped the cavity template around and recessed the top from the rear. 1/8" off the back of the top means we'll end up with the 2.25" total thickness with a 1/4" thick top over the cavities:


The screw holes in the pickup cavities made it really easy to accurately align the top and back. I was also able to use them to apply clamping force. Here we are all glued up:


I made sure that the top was always on the bottom when gluing. It wouldn't do to have glue streaking the interior of the guitar.

[Shadoweclipse13]

Ooh yeah This is coming along really nicely.

Question for you guys who've been doing this awhile or just might know: would there be a sound difference building the body as a Thinline style like defspace is here (solid body chamber routed out from one piece of wood with a single top cover) vs routing the chamber all the way through and using a cover for the top and back of the guitar?

[s_mcsleazy]

im looking forward to seeing how this one goes.

[kdanie]

Ooh yeah This is coming along really nicely.

Question for you guys who've been doing this awhile or just might know: would there be a sound difference building the body as a Thinline style like defspace is here (solid body chamber routed out from one piece of wood with a single top cover) vs routing the chamber all the way through and using a cover for the top and back of the guitar?

I've never done it that way but I doubt there would (wood?) be a noticeable difference.

ken

[Shadoweclipse13]

I've never done it that way but I doubt there would (wood?) be a noticeable difference.

ken

Sweet. I've had a few project ideas for awhile, and one is like this. Thanks Ken!

[defspace]

If you're smart, you carve the F-hole before you glue up the top. If you're smart, you don't design an F-hole that has acute interior angles.

Unfortunately, I'm not the brightest guy ever.

Here's the top glued on and routed flush to the back. I've roughed out the F-hole by drilling lots of 1/8" holes and punching out the center:


Cutting the F-hole is a huge pain. I just went after it with some carving hand tools. The old trusty x-acto hobby knife proved the most useful.

You can see that I got fed up with the F-hole and went ahead and routed the main cavity:


Here's a look down the cavity. You can see the back-routing of the top. Fortunately, everything lined up okay and there are no surprises:


One more shot. You can see that I'm getting closer and closer with the f-hole, but there's still some rough area I need to take care of in the corners.


I think there's probably a clever way to cut the f-hole using a router bushing and a small (1/16"?) cutting bit. Maybe next time...