Blackbird Telecaster: Assembly and Set-Up...

[Verne Bunsen]

Fantastic!

 

[BigSteve22]

Pictures!
Front & Back,

Headstock Decal,

Neck Plate,

Engraving Closeup

 

[rgand]

Wow, looks great front and back. This one is a winner!

 

[DangerousR6]

That's one you'll want to keep in a glass cabinet... :headbang1:

 

[timezon3]

Really nice.  I'm not generally one for "black everything", but it really lets the engraved hardware stand out here.  Just curious if "Blackbird" here is reference to the venerable SR-71, or the song, or you just like the bird?

TZ

 

[BigSteve22]

Just curious if "Blackbird" here is reference to the venerable SR-71, or the song, or you just like the bird?

Both the aircraft and the song actually. I worked for a Mil contractor for many years, we made avionics for a lot of military aircraft, and I always liked the look of the SR-71. I was also a huge Beatles fan in my youth, and always loved the song. The serial number on the neck plate tells the tale: "PCS7067" is the catalog number of Disc-1 of the Beatles "White Album", "B3" is the designation of the third song on the B side, Blackbird.  :glasses9:

 

[swarfrat]

Dang that's classy. I've been looking at black and red pearloid or tortie, but ... that's classy.

 

[BigSteve22]

Quick setup update:

After a week of playing the initial setup, I checked the set of the neck and found that it hadn't move at all. Relief was still just under .005". Only problem was that I still couldn't set the low "E" action any lower than about .060" without getting a buzz. So, I swapped out the .047" fret wire on the Zero Glide for the .051" I had originally tried. The extra .004" changed the geometry enough to let me set the low "E" to a bit under .050" and the high "E" to around .040", which is within in the range I like.

Now, this is a little strange, because when I did the fret work and jig set up, I couldn't set a decent range using the .051", which is why I went to the .047". Must be the faeries playing trick on me, again! Anyway, I'll keep an eye on things and post if it changes.  :dontknow:

 

[Cagey]

One or more of your frets is too tall. Adjust the truss rod so the neck is flat, then run a fret rocker on the low side, middle and high side of each set of three, moving up the neck 1 fret at a time. When you find a high fret, mark it with a sharpie.

Then, fix it.

 

[bagman67]

That's a great-sounding axe and a treat for the eyes.  Tremendous work.  Thanks so much for sharing your journey.

 

[Fat Pete]

Dang that's classy. I've been looking at black and red pearloid or tortie, but ... that's classy.

Tortoise looks great on black, but who'd have thought of a black gloss guard on a black satin body? Excuse my ignorance if this has famously been done elsewhere but man, it works well here.

 

[BigSteve22]

One or more of your frets is too tall......

Thanks for the advice and insight, I checked very carefully during my adventures in fret work for this project, but I may have missed something. That said, I'm not going to play with it just now. Action on the low "E" is currently set at .045" at the 12th fret and .017" at the 1st fret, which is fine for me. By comparison, My Jazzmaster weighs in at .040" and .014" respectively.

Thanks so much for sharing your journey.....

You're very welcome. I sometimes worry that I'm sharing too much. It's a privilege to share with such a distinguished group.

Tortoise looks great on black, but who'd have thought of a black gloss guard on a black satin body? Excuse my ignorance if this has famously been done elsewhere but man, it works well here.

I don't remember seeing it before, but that don't mean much. Glad you like it.

 

[swarfrat]

I've played around with black on black with a red stripe pickguard. Looks cool in the builder but I imagine, as my grandma would say "It'd never be noticed on a galloping horse".  The white stripe does pop though, even though it's subtle.

 

[BigSteve22]

I've played around with black on black with a red stripe pickguard. Looks cool in the builder but I imagine, as my grandma would say "It'd never be noticed on a galloping horse".  The white stripe does pop though, even though it's subtle.

I looked at the black/red pickguard, but didn't know how to compliment it correctly. Finally decided I couldn't come up with a solid plan, so I went strictly black and white, using the gloss against the satin to create depth and contrast.

 

[ghotiphry]

Dude, that is one sharp guitar.

 

[rgand]

... so I went strictly black and white, using the gloss against the satin to create depth and contrast.

Truly a fine idea. The white looks great and I think the red would be a bit less effective.

 

[BigSteve22]

A few more Pix.......

Longer intonation screws required longer springs. These are Fender short, (3/4"), humbucker mounting springs.

Doug's wonderful engraving on the Control Plate.

The most extravagant item on the build.

A better shot of the Neck Plate.

Headstock decal.

Safe in its case. The SKB case actually holds a Tele snugger than a Strat.

 

[rgand]

:icon_thumright: :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright:

 

[DangerousR6]

:kewlpics:.... :headbang1:

 

[BigSteve22]

A few final(?) notes on setup.....

Action:
After playing my new Tele for a while with the low "E" action set between .045-050", I decided to try a different approach to my goal. I straightened the neck a little more, reducing the relief to about .003", and let things sit for a couple of days. I then again tried lowering the saddle on the low "E" string. Results were much better this time around. It now sits at .040", with no buzz. I'm quite happy with this.

Intonation:
It appears my Korg Pitchblack tuner does not play well with the Bill Lawrence NF pickups I chose. Although it works fine for normal tuning, (as long as the selector switch is set to both neck & bridge pups), it proved less reliable when setting the intonation. This could be a trait shared by pedal tuners in general, but I can't say because this is the only one I've used.

At first, I set the intonation using the Korg as a reference. Open chords, and positions below the 12th fret, were indeed "in tune", and sounded "OK", but not particularly "ringing". But further up the neck, it was a totally different story. The A played at the 12th fret on the "A" string was considerably sharp as compared to the A played on the 14th fret of the "G" string. So too was the E played on the 12th fret of the low "E" string as compared to the E played on the 14th fret of the "D" string, and so on across the fretboard. WTF??

So I rechecked tuning using my Peterson Clip tuner, and open tuning was correct, but checking 12th fret notes, everything was way off. I've always found clip-on tuners to be a pain for checking intonation because the vibration of the string is so reduced when fretting at the 12th. So I decided to try something else.

Seeing as how guitar intonation is tempered, like a piano, I used a combination of both tuners, an additional Snark, and my own ears. I first set intonation of the "G" string, using the Korg to set the open note, and then checked both the open and 12th fret using the clip ons. (It shold be noted that the Korg and Peterson give virtually identical readings when checking the open notes.) Once I was satisfied, I set the open tuning of the "A" string, and checked intonation against the 14th fret on the "G", adjusting string length until it looked and sounded right. I then worked my way back and forth across the fretboard, checking intonation against the same note fretted on another string, as well as against the open notes, my own ears being the final arbiter.

The final result is an intonation that sounds beautifully in tune at every position. It was a rather circuitous path to enlightenment, but again, I'm quite happy with this.

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