Rear routed B bender Tele project

I’m getting ready to do design my first guitar and cut it with my XC. I want to know if anybody here has done a “rear routed” Tele body with their XC. On the front it will have 3 single coils (Nashville setup) 2 strat pick ups -neck and middle-and a Tele in the bridge. On the back it will have the standard control cavity, the string ferrules and a B bender rout. I haven’t done a dual sided carve yet and will need some help figuring out how/where to put the index holes/pins.

So, I haven’t drawn anything yet. I am familiar with Sketchup and getting pretty good with Easel.
In Sketchup I should be able to draw the front and back routs on the model, I am assuming I would have to have a front and a back drawing? I guess there would have to be a couple index holes that match the same locations back and front on the drawing too?
Thoughts?
@LouisScutti

Hi Bill,

Yay, another guitar builder! I’ve never built a rear-routed Tele before so I had to look it up. Looks cool! First off, have a look at the videos from Acacia guitars on how they use CNC to make guitars. They’re the best ones I’ve seen so far. At 3:20 into the video, he flips the guitar over and you can see the locating pins Looks like one is in the area of the control cavity, the others won’t work for you as he’s building a one-piece guitar and you won’t have a neck to use as a spot for a locating pin. I think if you’re careful, you could use the holes for the control pots as your locating pin locations. You’d just have to make sure you mirror the locations on both sides of the guitar centerline on your fixture/spoilboard.

How much of the guitar are you going to use the X-Carve for? Just the pickup, control cavity and neck pocket routing? Or are you going to shape the body with it too?

Super excited to see how it goes for you. I’m going to be starting on a guitar project in the near future too. Haven’t found a long enough router bit to let me do a full thickness body, but the Acacia video makes me think it might be time to make a capped body.

Good luck!

@RogerAndre I plan to do the pick ups, control cavity, neck pocket and B bender routs with the XC. I will let the XC do the outline of the body and finish it with the band saw. I guess if i do that, I can put the locate pins above and below the guitar outline on the body blank and just transfer them to the waste board.
Love that video…

After I expand its my number 1 project

@Bill_Leach
Hey, I’ve got experience with both 2 sided routing on the x-carve as well as b-bender routs. The most important thing in this process is your locator pins. They need to be equal distance across the center point of the guitar body to line everything up. I haven’t done this in easel because it’s a pain in the butt needing to have 2 separate files and drawings. I really wish they could use layers. But anyways, it is still possible. Let me know if you have any specific questions. Here’a pic of the tele b-bender that was cut from an existing body. I used the string holes as my locator pins to align the pre-made body on my machine.

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Where are you getting your body blank from?

@TinKirFX What software are you using? Layers? I’m intrigued, so what is your process when you started drawing the routs? That’s exactly what I need learn. I routed my B bender that I have now by hand and now I am ready to “let the machine speak”.

That makes complete sense, I use Inkscape for my laser and never thought the process would be so simple for the guitar drawings. Thanks Chris!

All of my drawings are done in AutoCAD. I used some hand drawn plans as well as the actual B-bender to figure out placement. I then routed a few mdf test pieces and laid those out on a tele body before actually routing into the real body. Was a little bit of trial and error to get it dialed in, but worked well.

As for flipping, I’ll have the x-carve drill holes into my spoil board since i know that’ll never move. I also engrave the outline of my body blank to help get a rough position of the blank. From there I’ll double stick tape it down and run the drilling pass again, but this time on the body blank. I’ll then remove the blank, stick the pins in, and match it up with the holes in the spoil board. From there, run your drilling pass once more on the top side, and now you’re ready to mill 2 sided accurately. In the pic below, you can see the locator pins installed in the body blank mirrored across the center of the body. I really like the metal pins used for shelving as locator pins. A lot less wiggle and drift than wood dowels.

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Finally got started on my B-bender, I hope to get the back routed this weekend and possibly some inlay too.

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Thanks Robert, I actually started with Tele drawing that you posted and added the forearm contour and did some work on the lower bout, I’m thinkin about making that a florentine cutaway, and of course I am going shape the heal for easy access on the back side. I would love to see how your thin line turns out,

I used a 10" sanding disc that I use on my table saw to carve the forearm contour.
One of my favorite tools in the shop.

I used my spindle sander to shape the back side. I decided not to take anything off the heal cause I liked the feels.

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The blank was pretty heavy but since it’s a rear routed body with a B-bender going in it
It will probably weigh in about 6 or 7lbs
I had to route the control cavity by hand cause it’s so deep, I hope to have an SVG for the B-bender route done today so I can cut that.
I picked up a super nice piece of flame maple yesterday and I’m already thinking about the next build!

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Long story short, $70 walnut test bed due to the dumb ■■■ operating Easel…that would be me, but, with a little help from the inlay app and a spare piece of cherry that had I laying around, it’s now a semi hollow body guitar…



Uploading…

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(First post)

Wow, I have a Nashville b-bender. and Ive built a few guitars by hand myself. last two were archtop hollow bodies.
But I just had to say your walnut tele b-bender is a beauty for sure.

cheers!,

Mike

Well at least it’s not a total loss, I have a couple buddies that are beggin me for it if I decide to sell it. The cool thing is that I corrected my drawing and I am getting ready to route the back side of a new body today that’s cherry on the back and flame maple on the top, (thanks for the idea @RobertCanning)!

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Welcome aboard Michael, always great to have musical minds to bounce ideas off of. Are you going to make parts/ inlays for your arch tops with your X-carve?

Thanks Phil, the nice thing about the laser is that it’s never too late to add artwork anywhere on the guitar. I’m thinkin about doing some on the front that will cover or go with the 1" plug I had to put in it. Maybe I should open this up for anybody who wants to throw some ideas at it? Anybody?

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