Doing Things Wrong

Body - Teak

Teak is a hard wood with an open pore structure, similar to mahogany. It is seldom used for guitars because it is somewhat difficult to work, and very hard on tools.


This beautiful instrument was built from a teak cutting board that I got for free from Home Depot for review. 32" Eden neck, active electronics. Teak is hard enough for a simple oiled finish. This one was built with a minimum of tools, mostly by hand, to show that it can be done and how.


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Here I am getting ready to cut fret slots. I have marked the fret locations along the centerline, just to confirm that everything is right. Below that is my fret slotting guide. It is a 1" piece of aluminum, precisely drilled with a series of holes based on the standard mathematical formula for fret locations, which you can look up, or use one of the online calculators. I made a spreadsheet of it. The holes are numbered along the top, with the corresponding scale length below. The interesting ones are: (rounded-off)