Hey Sam,
Nice to see a fellow guitar player who knows what I'm talkin about! Yea,
you hit the nail on the head...looking to build a tele body at the moment.
This "project" actually started out last year...I have a "Rhythmline" tele
clone that I had gotten years ago. The body on this guitar isn't even a
good laminate...it's -really- cheapo plywood, however it made for a good
piece to practice refinishing on. Quite by accident, the finish actually
turned out pretty nice (sort of a classic tobaco burst) so I went ahead got
some new parts and turned it into something more playable. Now after a few
months I've been thinkin...I've got this decent neck, decent pickups, etc on
this really crap piece of wood....hmmmm! LOL!

I have another one I did a while back...sort of a "double fat" tele that I
had done out of ash. Now this guitar's got -fantastic- tone that'll rival
any LP, but the ash was a bit pricey and more importantly, was a -serious-
pain to work with. I have another project that I'm working on...the wife
and I are building her a new bass (yea...she's a musician too!). This one
we're doing out of poplar and so far the poplar is -a lot- easier to work
with then the ash was. We went with the poplar on this one because my MIM
Strat is poplar and it does have a really good sound.

I'm actually going to be doing a Strat later this year (when the money makes
itself available) and that one is going to be my "Dream Strat" and I'll
probably go ahead and order a decent alder body blank off the net for that
project...I plan to sink $400-$500 into that project so it'll be worth
getting a good alder blank for it.

This guitar on the other hand, I really don't want to sink that much money
into...like I said doing a new body for it is really kind of an
after-thought. I've thought about doing maple or even pine as I saw some
really nice pieces (of pine) at the lumbar yard, but in either case, it's
not really going to provide the sound I'm after for this guitar. I'm
putting this guitar together primarily to learn slide blues and I really
want that "classic" tele tone from it...which is why I'm leaning towards
alder if I can find it (yea, I know I'm being aweful choosy for a guy that
don't want to spend any money! LOL!) . I'll probably just end up using
poplar again as it's cheap and readily available...I can glue up a 3 piece
body for around $18 and I'm sure it will sound fine. I just really wanted
to try working with the alder once before I start that Strat later this
year....kind of get an idea of what I'm getting myself into.

Bright Blessings,
Jim



wrote in message
oups.com...

Fellow buckeye,
I don't think alder is common to Ohio so I doubt you will find any.
Based on your post, I'm assuming you're building a bolt-on-body Fender
style. Although not typical of a Fender, I suggest try using local
soft maple which is common, available, and similar to alder. As a
drummer and guitar player, I believe the maple is more "bright" than
alder due to a higher spcefic gravity. I also think 8/4 soft maple
will be easy to find cheap.
Sam