Guitar Builders: Redwood Thinline Tele!
Here’s the first Thinline that has come out of building classes! The top is figured redwood, beautifully bookmatched and glued to a mahogany body. It’s easy to see why you wouldn’t want to cover that top with the usual enormous pickguard. The builder found a great solution and executed it beautifully.
He routed a lip around the control recess, which is normally not visible, and then cut out a perfectly-fitted tortoise control plate. The shape works nicely in balance with the single F-hole. The use of the tortoise plastic is a ballsy move here, because both the plate and the top are busy visually, and then there’s all that gold! I think he pulled it off; it’s fancy, and a real pleasure to look at.
No stopping there! He cut a 1/4″ radius with the router all around the top. That radius looks softer than the Tele usually does, but it’s not as rounded as the Strat. Very pretty. This took some guts too, because the least bit of router tearout could have ruined the look of the whole top. But the job is perfect, and adds something extra to the iconic Tele body shape.
Barden pickups, Gotoh bridge, and the cool inlaid control knobs are all present and accounted for. And the guitar kicks! I was expecting it to be a bit more mellow-sounding, but there’s a lot of attitude on tap here. Here’s to taking chances and really getting it done. NICE!