Where's a good place to buy a PINE Tele body?

[Mr 9finger]

I checked guitar mill and they don't have the options I want. Any other suggestions? USACG and Warmoth are out. They don't offer pine.

[akio]

Perhaps here?

[the guy who invented fire]

Perhaps here?

If the quality is there those prices are pretty good!

I have to ask...why pine???

I only ask because a pine Telecaster (or Strat for that matter) is not really the sound we have all come to know as a vintage Fender sound.

[DrNewcenstein]

I always thought using pine for a guitar body was a joke? Like snipe hunting, or wood stretchers, or muffler belts and blinker fluid for your car.

[the guy who invented fire]

I always thought using pine for a guitar body was a joke? Like snipe hunting, or wood stretchers, or muffler belts and blinker fluid for your car.

Leo Fender used pine on the earliest Telecasters and esquires because it was cheep and easy to get but it didn't last long because it's rather soft and in the end didn't have the tonal properties Leo wanted. However in recent years a hand full of guys have gone nuts over pine Telecasters and Esquires so a few guys are building them.

[JeffB]

It sounds good. But it is different. Its not very complex sounding. Its kinda like poplar, with more clarity.

[Mr 9finger]

I have to ask...why pine???

Leo Fender used pine on the earliest Telecasters and esquires

You answered your own question without realizing it. Why not? There has to be something redeeming about it. To put it where it makes a little more sense, at least from my point of view. I'm not a Telecaster fan by any means. I've owned 2 in the 20 some odd years I've been attempting to play the guitar. Like my love/hate thing for Strats, there is a mystique to them I can't get past. To solve this "problem", I'm going to make a trek down Leo's path and start again.

In this case, it's a pine bodied Esquire with an all maple neck. If it sucks, then it sucks. The upside is, everybody and their brother makes Telecaster bodies and the basic Telecaster design is cheap. As long as I get the neck right the first time, the bodies are expendable.

[ratherdashing]

I'm with TGWIF. I don't get it. There are a lot of good reasons the Tele is no longer made from pine. Why would you want to build something that has already been tried and rejected by the man himself?

It's like building a new PC with a Jazz Drive in it.

I dunno ... building a pine Tele just seems like a fad that has come around these days, and it's one that has little, if anything, to do with how good pine is as a body wood. I personally would not want a guitar built out of anything that soft.

[zenmindbeginner]

Pine is a great wood, it dries fast and thoroughly lending itself to lots of sustain and tone.

GO FOR IT! There are plenty of cheap and well made pine bodies on eBay at any given time FWIW.

[tonechaser]

Like you said pine is cheap and there is no easier body to make. Why not just make it yourself. There's plenty of help over at TDPRI along with tried and true plans if you needed them.

[MojoMonster]

The only reason I'd build a pine bodies Tele would be if I got hold of some really cool antique barn/church wood made from some old-growth pine or heart-wood or some such.

[bruce bennett]

Leo Fender used pine on the earliest Telecasters and esquires because it was cheep and easy to get but it didn't last long because it's rather soft and in the end didn't have the tonal properties Leo wanted. However in recent years a hand full of guys have gone nuts over pine Telecasters and Esquires so a few guys are building them.

yes but it shoudl be noted that he didnt' use just "pine" it was Sugar pine which is VERY different from regular pine..

first its very lightweight, much more so than regular pine, and its related to spruce, and has a spruce looking grain structure, so its very resonant.

I've been building sugar pine Teles and esquires for nearly 25 years now. and they sound awesome back in the mid 90s I built a run of 12 tele prototypes.

[starsighter]

Pineguitarbodies (dot) com is NOT a good place to buy your guitar bodies. The work is lackluster, neck pockets are sloppy routing is not clean, pieces of pine were chipped off my body in several places then glued back in place. Try spatlkingguitars, much more reputable. Good Luck !!

[Funkfingers]

Welcome to the forum, starsighter.

Why do you have pieces of pine on your body?

[Myaccount876]

I could make you a pine body.

[Little Pigbacon]

I could make you a pine body.

How much is the upcharge to have little chunks taken out of it and glued back on?

[Myaccount876]

How much is the upcharge to have little chunks taken out of it and glued back on?

I think that should be a downcharge.

[Funkfingers]

Glue, clamps, labour. In my book, that's an upcharge.

[Myaccount876]

Glue, clamps, labour. In my book, that's an upcharge.

Well yeah, point of why bodies cost money.

If it is sloppy, then it should have a price that matches how sloppy the work was. You get what you pay for. I take pride in my work.

[ItsaBass]

Pine is great IMO. If it had "more attractive" grain, Fender might have stuck with it when they went to blonde, and it might have become the world's most popular wood for bolt-together guitars. It's nice and light, very easy to work and finish, and very balanced sounding in general.

As for the body, I'd go to Marc Rutters! My current build project's body was made by him. One piece sugar pine, slimmed down to 1-1/2", with custom truss rod channel, no jack flat, and no router bump. It's custom, it's non CNC made, it's of great quality, and it cost significantly less than it would have at Warmoth (who would not have even done any of the custom specs for me).



My pine bodied and pine necked G&L, which is hands down one of the best guitars I've ever heard: