Albers Guitars #31-40

40. Alder/Box Elder P-bass (Nov 2011-?)

I had a purchased a few boards of box elder and I started bookmatching the thinnest board. I thought the board made more than just two bookmatches, but I can't seem to find any third set. Hmm...this is what happens when you have 20 projects unfinished.

At any rate, this was one of the bookmatches. I topped a piece of alder and cut and shaped the P-bass to near completion. During the process, the alder kept flaking off in weird spots. as I was beginning the round over process more of the alder flaked off on the backside causing there a need to sand it down to overcome the missing wood. Each time alder flaked off and finally I had had enough. I then took the whole body to the drum sander and grinded off $20 in alder so that all that remained was the box elder.

Currently I have recreated the alder P-bass and I'll be re-gluing it and continuing where I left off.

Project still in the works in 2012.



39. Mahogany/Box Elder Thinline Telecaster (Nov 2011-Jan 2012)

From the same board as the Pbass this bookmatch came out of it. I was in the position that my bodies were getting recognized on ebay and I purposely wanted to build a made-to-sell body. I thought this piece would give a very unique instrument. I topped a piece of mahogany with the box elder but chambered it as a thinline. It was a near awesome build as the only two issues were that I precut the wiring channels and when cutting the bridge pickup rout the part of the box elder that is usually glued, but now floating over a channel had a slight tear out. Then when I drilled the wiring channels to the control cavity I knicked the inside of the control cavity.

Sold to Paul Cannon in Collierville, Tennessee in Jan 2012.











38. Jon Cook Thinline Jazzmaster (Nov 2011-Jan 2012)

Jon came back with a request to build him a thinline'd Jazzmaster. He enticed me with homebrewed beers. How could I say no? He sent me a board of kelobra, a very soft wood (like redwood and pine), to book match the tops. I supplied the African mahogany.

This was a challenge as I had to make my own thinline template for the chambering, as well as build it with a 24.75" set-neck. Yep, that neck is glued in, not bolted. The control plate and toggle switch cover were hand made out of the kelobra top.

All in all it came out well and the Les Paul style neck looked awesome! Although if I would build it again, I would put a brighter veneer between the kelobra and mahogany (like maple or purpleheart) for seaparation of color (purely aesthetics reasoning).





37. 1 piece Northern Ash Tennessee Strat (Sep-Oct 2011)

I found a 14" wide piece of ash in town. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to build a one-piece body. The board yielded 3 bodies worth. This is the second build.

On a whim I decided I wanted to experiment with cross-breeding (per se) body and routing types. I had purchased a large amount of Fender parts from an Ebay store called "The Strat-osphere" and one of the avatars they had on their site was a Strat body with Tele controls and a custom pickguard. To me the pickguard was the limiting factor as getting a custom one would be pricey. So I decided that instead of the 1/2" round normally on a Strat, I'd build it with the 1/8" roundover of a Tele, but still retaining the belly cut and forearm relief. This way an actual Tele pickguard could be used.

The guitar was built up, and played. Sounded great, but weighed a ton (stupid northern ash...why don't they carry swamp ash in town?!). Body sold to Todd Jarrett in Williamsville, New York in Oct 2011.




 






36. 1 piece Northern Ash Telecaster (Aug 2011)

I found a 14" wide piece of ash in town. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to build a one-piece body. The board yielded 3 bodies worth. This is the first build.

I built it up regular Tele style. Felt like a ton of bricks. It had a few crack in it, but I filled it with epoxy. Sold to Chase Nash in Tooele, Utah in Sep 2011.













35. Honduran Mahogany Les Paul Junior Clone (Jul 2011-?)

This was a build I started once I bought the Les Paul templates. I found a large enough blank of "Genuine" mahogany that yielded a full two-piece body and two necks. The idea was that this guitar would be built of the same tree, and the same board.

Currently it sits awaiting my learning of neck building so that I can do a set neck with it..

Project still in the works in 2012.


Honduras mahogany body on top, African mahogany body (for Rene's LPJR) on bottom. Not final shaped.



34. Rene's Burl Maple/African Mahogany Les Paul Junior Clone (Jul 2011-?)

This was a build I started once I bought the Les Paul templates.My brother-in-law wanted another guitar after the successful build of his Zebracaster (#13). He liked the pairing of the mahogany with a brighter wood, but he wanted something of interest, like the stripes of the Zebrawood. We decided on a figured maple top but instead of flames or quilts he wanted to try burl maple.

Currently it sits awaiting my learning of neck building so that I can do a set neck with it..

Project still in the works in 2012.



Shown with my Gibson Les Paul Studio for referencing bridge distance.



33. Alder Jazzmaster (Jul 2011)

This build turned out great. But unfortunately my hatred for 60-cycle hum (especially living in an old house where grounding was optional) was the straw that had this camel selling the body right after the build. I built it to replace a Fender parts-Jazzmaster I had just bought all the parts for. I started this hoping to have a back up to the finished Fender. But once the pickups were in, I couldn't stand the buzz. I needed a guitar that could handle clean and dirty. The Duncan single coil jazzmaster pickups were only acceptable for cleans, and I didn't have the money at the time to invest into custom made hum-cancelling versions. Because the jazzmaster pickups routes/pickguard combo weren't useable for any other type of pickup combo, I decided to sell it as is rather than cut P90 or humbucker routes into it..

Sold to Hank Hughen in Atlanta, Georgia in Feb 2012.







32. Relic Black Alder Strat (Jul 2011-?)

Basic Alder Strat. It was supposed to be a 70's clone of U2's the Edge's strat, but somewhere along the line I decided to relic it. And I relic'd it way too much apparently. In the works to rebuild this one, but so far my alder is coming up with internal cracks and I haven't found lumber around town that doesn't have it.

For now it's still in the collection but I'm still leaning on building a black on black with maple neck/fingerboard with the 3 bolt neck plate (this one has the standard 4 bolt). If that is the case, I won't need the relic in black. So now I'm considering getting a heat gun and heating off the finish, filling the bumps and bruises and re-relicing it to a "light" relic.

Currently has a Fender rosewood/maple MIM neck that was relic'd and Seymour Duncan Hum Classic Stack plus hum-cancelling single coils, with Fender Roadworn hardware.

























31. Limba Telecaster #4 (Jul 2011-?)

So this was my final attempt to rebuild the Black Korina tele I had with #5, and #9/10. I finally found a grain pattern that was not over the top, and not plain. It's still not perfect. I think the strat neck and humbucker ring hosed the pickguard (in fact its cut at a weird angle). I'm also considering making it a string thru. The strings have a over loop end for the ball, and that part rides up on the saddle, which isn't good for intonation.

Currently its had it's bridge pickup rotated out from a Duncan JB to a Pearly gates, but so far the white 59 neck pickup has been set (though maybe not the color).  It's wired 3 way with two push pull pots-- one for each pickup. The neck is currently a Mighty Might Strat V neck (headstock reshaped to a Tele shape).

I think this has a good grasp as being a "permanent" in the collection. Korina grain patterns are probably the most unique I've found out of the core lumber I use, so I'm hesitant to sell any of the Korina builds I own as each board has been completely unique from tans, dark browns, to purples, to oranges.

Albers Guitars #21-30

Once I passed the 20th body I figured this one-time hobby was turning into a potential business. I could buy the lumber for two bodies, and sell one for the cost of the lumber, keeping the second for my own use. I began to buy up lumber as it came available to me and stock piled as much as I could, including various exotic drop top material.

30. Black Korina Stratocaster #4 (July 2011-?)

So after the hardtail single coil version of the korina strat I had won an actual Black Top Strat pickguard assembly on ebay and thought I should get a feel for the tone of Korina with heavy humbuckers. But for versatility I decided to build a strat in the theme of the Blacktop strats, with a flexible pick up arrangement in case I changed my mind.

Body was finished in Nitrocellulose lacquer and was built into a Blacktop Strat. Undecided if this one will stay in the collection.







Update: August 2012. This korina strat ended up being the best finished of all my korinas, as well as one of the better spalted ones. After getting a number of mahogany based guitars completed I decided that korina wasn't "my" tonewood, so I decided to sell off the korina based guitars. I did want to keep at least one so this one is now permanent. I also replaced the Fender Black Top pickups with a Seymour Duncan JB/59 combo.







29. 3 piece Black Korina Stratocaster #3 (July 2011-?)

In staying with the minimal waste, I had three boards of limba that were not wide enough with only two. I used a third piece to construct this project. Of all my builds it was probably the easiest and cleanest with no issues. The string thru ferrules were even the straightest I've seen. Amazed, yet not surprised, this body sold for the most I've ever made on ebay for a single guitar body @ $150 + s/h. Maybe I do have some skills...

Sold to Chester Carman in Tampa, Florida in Oct 2011.







28. Jon Cook Walnut/Alder telecaster (July 2011-?)

A lot of the time I sell bodies on Ebay, I usually have 2-3 people asking me to build something like I'm selling but different, or altogether different. I always send them my contact info and usually they end up disappearing off the face of the earth never to be heard from again. But this guy Jon Cook hits me up and asks me to build him one. He's got about 4 feet of walnut he wants to use but in discussing with him the dimensions it turns out its too skinny. We discussed options and it turns out that with a piece of flamed maple, we could build two tops - one for him, and one for me. I would contribute a thinline body that was destined for the fireplace due to a rough routing job of the humbucker routes. The humbucker routes were filled and body was shaved down to accept a 1/4" top as it would clear the slate for the pickup routes.

Jon's original walnut board.


Resawing one half of the boards.


The two bookmatched tops. Jon opted for the design on the right.


The original body, chambered and pickup routes filled.


The completed thinline (mineral spirits were added to show grain). Note the humbucker routes still visible in the P90 routes.


Shielding the pickup cavities with shielding paint hid any remnants of the original pickup snafu, with a beautiful walnut/maple top to show for it.


27. Black Korina "Charvel" Stratocaster (July 2011-?)

I had leftover korina and decided to build a strat in the theme of the Chavel strats. Everything came out awesome, except that I couldn't figure out a control cavity for it since it was top loading.

Originally I was in limbo with what to do..top route it or back route it. The humbuckers were slightly off compared to a H/H pickguard so it was either keep as is or put in the swimming pool route. I ended up finding a template for a backrouted cavity and routed it out and built a korina plate to cover it.  When I posted it on ebay a buyer asked me to end the auction early and build it out as a Charvel Floyd Rose style guitar.

Sold to Thomas Igielski in Howell, Michigan in April 2012.








26. "Gretsch" Flamed maple/Mahogany Thinline Telecaster (July 2011-?)

So according to some of the photos this body may actually be #23 or 24 as the shaping of the back and chambering took place in May 2011, but It may have sat long enough for me to consider the sapele bunch as "started" before this one materialized.

My intention with this body was to mimic the Brian Setzer-style Gretsch 6120 but as a Tele Thinline. I had already seen this done by the Fender Custom shop as a carved top in white and Orange, but I wanted this one to look more Tele-ish than 6120-ish. Additionally my skill level could not compete as I didn't know how to do carved tops yet.





Then I saw a custom shop Gretsch Tele in green (for Bono), but it was a flat top. After seeing that model, I decided to build this thinline.



As of now I haven't been able to fund the rest of the build as I'm still determining pickups (TV Jones vs regular Gretsch Filtertrons) and bridges (standard bridge ala Cabronita or tuneomatic with bigsby), so the build sits on a hanger on the wall with the Allparts neck I bought attached to it -- in otherwords near the pile with the sapele/maple thinline, lacewood Thinline and Zebrawood body.

Project still in the works in 2012.





25. Sapele Maple Thinline (July 2011-?)

Out of my run with the sapele came two full width sapele bodies -- the 72 Custom and this body. It began as a beautifully grain solid body, but after #23 and #24 I opted to shave down the thickness, chamber it, and top it with some figured maple I had leftover.

I guess my learning curve needs a bit of resanding sometimes, as this one pulled a Houdini and somehow moved on me during glue up. The ofshift was 1/16" and it's minor as the top is shaped to the base. The strange thing is that my centering template matches the top, so somehow the base was shaped correctly off-center. As its somewhat unappealing to my-own-personal-eye, I plan on trying to confuse the sense by double binding the top and back and potentially recentering the back with a herringbone type of inlay (wishful thinking). This is a new adventure down this road, so I'm hoping I don't screw it up. Again.

Until I figure it out, it sits in the pile with the lacewood Thinline and Zebrawood body.

Project still in the works in 2012.










24. Sapele Mahogany Telecaster (July 2011 - Feb 2011)

After starting the Zebrawood/Sapele Tele and recognizing the design of the stripes, I decided to use more of the left over sapele and build one that had smaller, more centric stripes. The motif I saw with this body was reminiscent of the old surfboards with the darker sapele and the lighter Honduran mahogany.

This project took a detour as I had accidentally dropped it on rough concrete while spraying the lacquer on in my backyard. I did what I could to sand out the bumps of the bruise but they were there to stay. Towards the end of 2011 I decided I should finish off some of projects I had sitting around. As this was near completion I relacquered it and prepped it for parts.

More bad news arrived when I noticed a gap in the neck pocket. The neck fit fine but there was a small gap towards the heel section (ie. not the sides of the pocket). With a 22fret neck it wasn't noticeable but I knew it was there. Update: I feel quite stupid, but I was wrong. The "gap" was actually the difference between the round of the Strat heel and the squarer Tele heel. With a Tele neck the neck pocket fit perfectly. Derrr...



At the time of the original blog I was undecided if I'd keep this build. In April 2012 I opted to lighten the collection. Sold to Christopher Kulik in Hometown, Illinois.



23. Multi-Zebrawood/Sapelle Telecaster (May 2011)

I consider myself an advocate for recycling and a green earth. I believe in not being wasteful if at all possible. A lot of the boards I bought were wider than necessary, so I cut the boards so that it maintained a minimum length for the Tele shape and have been stockpiling these pieces to build racing stripes in bodies or to build a Les-claypool-esque body.

Below is Les Claypool's Carl Thompson "Rainbow" bass made up of walnut, curly maple, padauk, purple heart, ebony and cocobolo.


So with the Rainbow bass in mind, I set off to use some of my offcut material for the center of body. I had a chunk of zebrawood that was long enough for the Tele and a few pieces of sapele left over from the 72 Custom build. I diced them up evenly and glue up the board.





After shaping the body I realized I didn't like the juxtaposition of the stripes like this. I then decided to add some flare with a bookmatched zebra top. The zebrawood I had ended up being too thin, so I decided to re-cut a new top, but use the thin zebrawood as a back.





Body was cut for dual humbuckers (most versatile cut) and back routed. I custom shaped a lid to the control cavity and countersunk the lid into the body. The body was sealed, epoxied the pores shut, and clear-coated with Stew Mac Nitrocellulose lacquer.

I sold the body to ebay buyer Mike Naylor in Feb 2012.








22. Sapelle 72 Telecaster Custom (May 2011)

I had a growing interest in the 70's Fender teles wanted to build myself a 72 Custom/Deluxe with the widerange pickups. I won a Fender Roadworn body on ebay and built a template out of it. I had also just started using sapelle, which was a mahogany substitute. Sapelle is more dense that African mahogany and therefore heavier, so once this project was completed I opted to not keep it and sell it to a lucky bidder.

Michael Salmon in in Rocky Hill, Connecticut became the lucky owner in Oct 2011.



Below are pictures I took for the auction comparing the body I built to the Fender made (hence why it refers to the auction).





21. Hardtail Black Limba Stratocaster (Apr/May 2011)

After the successful build of the Mahogany Strat (and even the Mary Kaye white Strat), I decided I wanted to build a Strat out of Korina as I had favored the Strat body for some time and wanted to hear how a single coil tone was affected by the black korina tonewood. This is the first one I built out of a growing four or five black korina Strat bodies.

As all of my Strats were tremolo equipped I decided that I would make this on a hardtail. I used the Telecaster template to located the bridge location on the Strat based on the neck screw/pocket placement.

Currently this guitar is still in my collection.



The body was then paried with a trio of noise-cancelling Duncan Classic Stack pickups, Fender hardware, and a maple Mighty Might neck, that was later replaced with a birdseye maple Mighty Might neck. The pickup covers are now all matching white, and it is wired like a standard strat.