Telecaster Body CAD: Looking For Someone To Make Modifications

To whom it may concern,

I’m looking for someone capable of making modifications to a telecaster body template.* I’m working with an artist and we’ve been trying to inlay a material (stained glass) into the face of a telecaster, but haven’t found a suitable way of creating a physical template for this.* We are now pursuing using a CNC machine, but I’m in way over my head here.* What we basically need is the telecaster template as-is but with a shallow recess in the body the width of a piece of glass, leaving a wooden lip around the whole body, as well as around the control plate, bridge, and the neck pickup rout - so the glass can be recessed into the body in a uniform way.* Would anyone here be capable of doing this, and if so what would you charge?

Thanks!

If you have a CAD model of the shape,its an easy job.If not,you will get what the person making assumptions about an approximation gives you.Would I be right in guessing that you lack experience with CAD and CNC?If so it makes it really difficult to convey any accurate idea of what you require.Would you be looking for a template for the inlay as well as one for a slightly larger recess in the guitar body to sit it in?

Hi Roualot, thank you for the response. You're absolutely right via zero CAD and CNC experience - I'm completely clueless. There are some local shops that say they're able to run a file if I bring it to them. I've found downloadable CAD models of a generic telecaster, they seem to be fairly prevalent online for download. The adjustments I'd need would be a recess throughout the body about a quarter of an inch, and a wooden lip around the edge of the body, control plate, bridge, and neck pickup rout, also about a quarter of an inch. I wouldn't need any files for the inlay itself - I'm just looking for the modifications of the full body recess for material to be inlayed. I'm capable of creating a sketch of the idea in a program like photoshop to show someone with the skills to create the file, but I don't have any of the necessary skills to create it myself.

You would need to have the shapes and dimensions of the components you wished the recess to pass around and then it ought to be a speedy job.Your sketch plus some dimensions would be a huge help to the person doing the job.For programming the recess you will need to specify the depth to which it is to be cut.

Hi Roualot, thanks again for the detailed response. I will decide on the components for the guitar and measure them as accurately as possible, as well as generate a sketch. Do you do this kind of programming work, or do you know someone you'd recommend? Thanks again!

Ok, this is Tele body with pickguard overlay.
You will have to find dimensions of bridge and pot/switch plate.

The diagram is a useful starting point,you just need to find the correct size of the real thing and scale it up.Just so VictorVG knows,I have been programming CNC routers for about 20 years and using various CAD packages for a bit longer.It isn't super difficult to learn CAD and something basic like LibreCad or Qcad will get you started,they are both free downloads.If you create a .dxf file of the shape of your recess and reference it to the guitar outline you will be providing enough information to work with.If you need the entire guitar body you will need to include all pockets for the components as well as the outline and they all need to be in the correct places.

The diagram that has been posted might give you a lot of help as some packages allow you to import image files,scale them and then trace outlines.The traced outline can be exported as a .dxf.Inkscape might do it and some older Corel programs also.In my opinion it is harder to learn Inkscape than some CAD programs but there are tutorials on youtube.

Thank you for this file, ZASto! Greatly appreciated!

And thank you for all the help Routalot! I will download these programs.