First build-need some help possibly along the way.

[Kbowers6948]

I'm looking for something different though. If I just wanted to buy him a regular tele I'd grab the fender catalog. The guy that's helping me do it (also a friend of my brother) said he saw one with the TOM bridge and said it looked sharp. I looked it up,  sure enough there's pictures all over of teles with TOM setups and single coils.

 

[dmraco]

Maybe a nice p90 in the bridge spot

 

[Kbowers6948]

He's not a p90 fan :/ I had mentioned those while asking him what pickups I should get for "my" guitar build.

 

[stratamania]

The other way to do it and not have height problems with a TOM bridge is to use a recessed TOM with the strings through body rather than a tailpiece. I just checked and there are none in the showcase.

But you can do it in the builder, carved top Tele with recessed TOM and Tele bridge pickup, LP type controls.

Although personally I would do a guitar like this with TOM/STP and angled neck pocket and humbuckers but it's not for me...

 

[Cagey]

Is theTOM/STP a make-or-break part? It's really not that great of a bridge. Plenty of better units exist.  Plus, the TOM doesn't have individual saddle height adjustments, so you can't compensate for different neck radii. You need to have an 18" bridge radius to work with a Warmoth compound radius neck, and there's no such thing as a TOM with that dimension.

Also, is the body you picked out etched in stone? Because if you order it custom rather than from the Showcase, you can get your pickup cavities routed for whatever pickups you want, and you could still use the TOM/STP bridge as they can route that to be recessed. It would eliminate the pickup height problem, but you'd still have radius match-up problem. You'd never have an optimal setup.

If this is your first rodeo, I'm not sure you want to jump through as many hoops as you're setting yourself up for. Best to get parts that are designed to work together.

 

[Fat Pete]

I looked it up,  sure enough there's pictures all over of teles with TOM setups and single coils.

Maybe post an example of the kind of thing you've seen? Most Teles with a TOM and a standard Tele bridge pickup have Bigsbys. Not criticizing your choices btw, just asking. Most of us are here because we like something different from off-the-shelf offerings.

 

[Kbowers6948]

And no, it's going to be a custom one.

 

[Kbowers6948]

And I realize you're not fat Pete, I realize I kinda sounded snooty in my reply and I didn't mean to, I'm not trying to run off any help I can get.

 

[stratamania]

Both of the pictures have the TOM lowered into presumably a recess. The first one has the strings going through the the body using top and bottom ferrules and the second Francis Rossi replica has a tailpiece much lower than a normal stop tailpiece found on a Gibson.

That's more similar to a tailpiece found on a Musicman Morse model, which also uses a recessed TOM. I don't know of anywhere you can buy such a tailpiece but it may be possible to have one machined.

The reason a normal stop tailpiece won't work is that they are designed to be higher off the body so unless that was recessed also it would be too high for the bridge.

 

[Kbowers6948]

Anybody have any other suggestions on bridges and what not that would give me a similar look to the tune o matic or something that might give it a "wow" factor or "you don't see that much"?

 

[Geekydad]

Well I am the best man, and the brother, I'm supposed to be one sided. Gonna build him this guitar and keep the get away car running just in case. No reason to make any rash decisions you know.  :laughing7:

Give him headphones as well- that part of the gift is for the wife.  :icon_thumright:

 

[bagman67]

HEre you go:


http://www.guitarfetish.com/Xaviere-Tele-Roller-Bridge-for-Vibrato-System_p_4418.html

And mount a top-mounted stop-block tailpiece like the one on this EBMM Steve Morse model:

 

[Kbowers6948]

I asked the maker of the pups I'm going to install if he could make a set of the pickups in a single coil humbucker type setup to make it work or something and this was his reply. Maybe someone else can kind of explain what he means about some of it (not too savvy on all guitar lingo)


"Hello Kevin.

It's iffy.  However my BT bridge pickup does have 3/4" magnets above the baseplate.  I'm not sure if that will be enough to gain you the height under the strings.  Definitely check the measurements and let me know."

 

[Fat Pete]

What are the pickups? I'm guessing that you're looking at a set of handwound/boutique traditional-style Tele pickups - if so, I would strongly suggest going with a (more or less) traditional Tele bridge too. Doing otherwise seems to me like you're pulling the build in two different directions.

Instead of dropping $400+ on the ti bridge/tail setup, the benefits of which are, at best, highly subjective, why not put the money into some really special wood and finish?

 

[Kbowers6948]

These are the pickups, but I like that bridge bagman67 posted and it looks a little more "traditional" so I just gotta find that top mounted stop block tailpiece now

 

[Fat Pete]

Sorry, I knew I'd seen Amalfitano pickups mentioned recently, now I realize it was in your original post!

Unfortunately it doesn't look like they offer that bridge left-handed. It's not without issues anyway - it's still tall enough to require an angled neck pocket or a shim. Personally, I wouldn't recommend it unless you're going with the matching trem (or a Bigsby).

There are quite a few interesting/rare/expensive Tele bridges - maybe check out Gotoh, Callaham, Babicz etc. Warmoth themselves exclusively sell 2Tek bridges and left-hand Tele plates are available for these.

 

[mayfly]

I asked the maker of the pups I'm going to install if he could make a set of the pickups in a single coil humbucker type setup to make it work or something and this was his reply. Maybe someone else can kind of explain what he means about some of it (not too savvy on all guitar lingo)


"Hello Kevin.

It's iffy.  However my BT bridge pickup does have 3/4" magnets above the baseplate.  I'm not sure if that will be enough to gain you the height under the strings.  Definitely check the measurements and let me know."

It seems that he's saying that the pickup will end up being too low.  However, if you do the recessed TOM or that cool guitar fetish bridge, that would do you.

I have another idea - let me do some research on it first...

 

[mayfly]

ok!  This sucker will work with the tele pickups, is a TOM style, and it's got a bigsby!

You definitely don't see those every day. It will work with standard tele body and pickups.  A bit expensive mind you, but it's pretty cool.  IMHO of course. 

Whatdoyathink?

 

[Kbowers6948]

Would it look awkward or change the tone bad or anything (and can it be done) to get the bridge pickup cut at the right angle to use the xavier tele bridge?

I'll check out the other bridges though. But I do like the look of that one. And wouldn't warmoth be able to cut the angle from the get go for it considering it's custom?

 

[mayfly]

do you mean make it a left handed version?  Yes warmoth can cut the bridge pickup hole the correct way.  Also, you can get the B5 bigsby in left handed:

https://www.allparts.com/TP-3640-L01-Bigsby-B5-Vibrato-Tailpiece-Left-Handed-Nickel_p_4237.html

I'm just looking around for that bridge plate with the pickup hole the right way now...