2 tele questions

[crash]

1.  I measured the neck pocket depth at 5/8".  I searched and this looks like what it should be.  But the neck looks awfully high (see pic below).  Is this normal?


2.  The bridge saddle height.  As you can see from the 2nd pic below, I have them as high as they can go in order to get rid of buzzing frets.  If I were to raise them any further, the allen screws would come out the bottom.  I loosened the neck a bit and that didn't really help things.  How high are everybody else's tele saddles?

It seems that something like the 720 mod would work nice here.

 

[Jusatele]

Crash, before you go hacking on that guitar, bring it to a professional tech to set it up for you it may be a small thing and not knowing, you could do something you do not want to trying to fix it before a professional looks at it.

 

[Danuda]

I would have someone look at it.  By the looks of the first picture it looks like the strings are angled up quite a bit off the frets.  If you are getting buzzing it is possible you have a high fret or the neck truss rod needs to be adjusted.  The bridge as is looks to be adjusted too high with how those strings are angled.

 

[Cagey]

I had that exact same problem on The Build That Would Not End. Everything measured right, but went together wrong and created that same situation. I even had other necks laying around I could try on for size. The only thing I could figure was the pocket was angled and somehow I wasn't measuring it right. In the end, I re-routed the pocket and bought a slightly taller bridge, so now it's perfect. That's a scary operation, though, not to be undertaken lightly. I figured if I screwed that up, I'd have just created some expensive firewood. But, as it turns out, it's not so tough. As usual, the proper tools make things relatively easy.

Do you have a dial caliper around? That, along with a straightedge, should allow you to find out if the pocket is angled. Hold the straightedge edge-on to the body so it overhangs the neck pocket, then use the depth feeler of the caliper to measure from the top of the straightedge to the surface of the pocket at the forward and back points. It doesn't even matter what the dimension actually is, what you're looking for is a difference. There shouldn't be one. If there is, the pocket is tilted. It doesn't take much to ruin your day.

 

[crash]

Thanks Cagey!  I measured the depth of the pocket and it is within 0.005" back to front.  The problem is that I think it is too tall. 

The distance from the crest of the fingerboard to the deck of the guitar body is 0.38". 
The distance from the top of the 22nd fret to the deck of the guitar body is 0.425". 

That makes for a really high saddle in order to clear those frets.  In the pictures above, the guitar plays great, the action is set where I like it, and have no fret buzz.  It just looks really goofy with the saddle height maxed out.

 

[Jusatele]

Have you had a Luthier look at it and see if the neck joint can be re routed? Just remember that the screw length can get critical if you take to much
that is one really nice looking tele. I would take it to a pro to route it.

 

[Cagey]

Thanks Cagey!  I measured the depth of the pocket and it is within 0.005" back to front.  The problem is that I think it is too tall.  

The distance from the crest of the fingerboard to the deck of the guitar body is 0.38".  
The distance from the top of the 22nd fret to the deck of the guitar body is 0.425".  

That makes for a really high saddle in order to clear those frets.  In the pictures above, the guitar plays great, the action is set where I like it, and have no fret buzz.  It just looks really goofy with the saddle height maxed out.

That is a bit tall. I measured three Strats here, and they're all roughly .350" from the deck to the highest point on the fretboard. So, it sounds like you're about .030" high. All three of these have 6100 frets on them, so you could add their height but I'm not sure there's any point to it. But, really, .030" in the grand scheme of things isn't that much, assuming the neck is parallel to the body as you've indicated. It should be easy to eat that with saddle height adjustments that don't run to the end of their travel. I need to go back and look at the bridge we're talking about here.

edit: That appears to be a Hipshot Tele bridge? This isn't apples-to-apples (these all have Wilkies on them), but it appears that I've got roughly .450" from the deck to the top of the saddle(s), give or take a bit for string position. Just a number you can use for reference purposes...

 

[llmtelecaster]

Haven't seen this mentioned. Are both the body and neck from Warmoth?

 

[crash]

Neck is warmoth, body is from a seller on eBay that sells a lot of bodies.

 

[Jusatele]

well Crash, I am sure there are some compatibility problems then,

 

[crash]

Every measurement I took with my calipers matches up to what a tele should be.  I think my issues are with the bridge.  I have a traditional tele bridge with the 3 brass saddles waiting for my other tele.  I took some measurements of that compared to the one in the picture above.  It looks like the saddles on the traditional tele would barely have to be raised.  Tonight I'll swap out the bridge just to see how it fits.  The bridge pictured above is a no name bridge.  I'll look into a Wilky bridge.