Progress

Believe it or not, it took me about 3-4 hours to create those couple of cavities in the body.

I should have known that it wasn't going to be a simple day when I switched my iPod on to see that it had about 5mins charge left. After charging it overnight. I've lost count of the number of new batteries that I've put in the thing.

Being very aware of the power of the Router, particularly its power to destroy pieces of wood in unforeseen, unexpected and undesired ways, I've admit to a little hesitancy in creating the cavities. So I spent the first hour or two preparing a decent mdf template for the neck pocket and the pick-up cavities. That might seem a little OTT for building one guitar, but I'm hoping to build a few Teles, so I'm looking on it as an investment.

Stick the template to the body, nicely aligned on the centre lines, and then clamp it for some extra stability. Take the router down in 5mm steps to create some nice clean cavities. All good so far.

Unclamp the body, and gently prise the template off the body. OK, try again, not so gently. Right, still no movement, so try again but really pulling it this time. Still nothing. The double sided tape has become supertape with the adhesion properties of Spiderman in his special extra-sticky suit. I ended up using a chisel (carefully) between the edge of the template and the body and levering it off. Unfortunately, some of the supertape remained stuck to the body (with bits of the mdf template) so I needed to scrape them off with a blade. And then remove the chisel marks with more sandpaper.

So a simple job took 3-4 hours. I bet the professionals don't have these problems ...

But, it's looking good, and I have returned undefeated (apart from a slight indentation in my finger which is leaking red stuff ... note to self ... remember that chisels are sharp and can damage skin).

Next, rout out the control cavity and find a long (very long) drill bit for the pick-up wire channels ...