first build

[fatfingers]

Hi,

I'm working on my first build - I have a standard tele body (black), "F" logoed bigsby, tortoise guard, and I'm waiting on the neck:



Headstock Telecaster®
Construction Warmoth Pro
Orientation Right Handed
Shaft Wood Purpleheart
Fingerboard Wood Figured Zircote
Nut Width 1 11/16"
Back Contour Fatback
Fretwire 6130
Tuner ream Schaller (25/64", 11/32")
Mounting Options Standard 4 Bolt
Fret Number 22
Radius 10-16" Compound
Inlays Abalone Face Dots
Nut Install Earvana GraphTech Black TUSQ XL
Scale 25-1/2 in.

I have a couple of questions on the build -
1) The neck will be predrilled, but the body is not.  I read somewhere about cutting four screws to the right length and putting them in the neck holes with the point sticking out, then setting the neck in the pocket so you could drill the holes in the right spot.  Will that work?  Has anyone tried it?
2) I'm guessing that I set the neck first, then do the bridge, so I can make sure the scale is right, but I wanted to double check - is this the way to do it?
3) Thinking about putting a humbucker in the neck and tapping it.  I've never had a guitar with a coil tap - will the split coils sound as good as a real single coil?

Thanks!

 

[Mor Paul]

I have a couple of questions on the build -
1) The neck will be predrilled, but the body is not.  I read somewhere about cutting four screws to the right length and putting them in the neck holes with the point sticking out, then setting the neck in the pocket so you could drill the holes in the right spot.  Will that work?  Has anyone tried it?
2) I'm guessing that I set the neck first, then do the bridge, so I can make sure the scale is right, but I wanted to double check - is this the way to do it?
3) Thinking about putting a humbucker in the neck and tapping it.  I've never had a guitar with a coil tap - will the split coils sound as good as a real single coil?

Thanks!

That's gonna be a wild neck, man

Neck and bridge order doesn't matter. That's what intonation screws are for
Coil splits vary vastly between pickups. It won't generally sound the same, and most people will say it won't sound as good.

 

[tubby.twins]

Shaft Wood Purpleheart
Fingerboard Wood Figured Zircote

Good choices!  That's going to feel so nice.  I recommend a few coats of pure lemon oil on the purpleheart.  It will help it to "darken up" nicely and bring out the beauty of the grain.  Don't be afraid to rub in the oil...
:toothy10:

 

[fatfingers]

Got my UPS shipping notification last week - neck arrives tomorrow - only about 4 weeks from the order date!  I've got all the pieces ready - I'll post some pics as soon as it comes out of the box.  This has turned into quite a project - on a whim I bought a cheap ($59) tele body on ebay to try out assembling a guitar - that $59 body is now going to be surrounded by about $900 of other parts.  I started to think that I should invest in a better body, but since I've never done this before, and all of the drilling is on the body, I think I'll go with it - at least of I screw up a hole, I won't feel to bad, and if I don't like it later, and can upgrade the body.

 

[SlingBass]

AND remember...

 

[-CB-]

What SB said

 

[fatfingers]

here we go - arrived today:

 

[Schlieren]

hell yeah

 

[Maltozombie]

Love the neck, extremely nice figuring on the fretboard. it's gonna look sweet.  :icon_thumright:

 

[tubby.twins]

Gorgeous neck!

 

[Gingrel]

If you want a humbucker thats good for splits, try the SD StagMag. Its designed to sound pretty much exactly like a strat pup when split.

 

[fatfingers]

Got it all put together tonight.  I bought a callaham control plate prewired, but I did manage to get everything soldered to the right spot and it plays!  Needs a good setup, a nice amount of buzz and the intonation and saddle heights are all bad, but that will come over the weekend.  Right now I'm drinking a glass of scotch and looking at it.  It was a lot of fun - I made a few mistakes:  a couple of the tuners are crooked, and I don't think the neck/bridge/bigsby is exacly aligned, but maybe a good luthier can help me with that.  The only problem is I can see myself wanting to build another one in about 2 months.

Pickups, pickguard, and bridge plate in:

Electronics in, tested with a screwdriver to make sure there was noise.  Soap residue is from the screws on the control plate - I couldn't find any parafin, so I used Dove - maybe it will have a softer tone:

Neck on, ready for the Bigsbly:

Bigsby installed, ready for strings:

All done:

 

[-CB-]

Very very nice

 

[jay4321]

Any reasonable person would want to rock that

 

[DslDwg]

Very sweet build - you're giving me bad gas for a Bigsby Tele.  arty07:

 

[Maltozombie]

I like it! i bet it sings. i've always had a soft spot for the tele, and it looks like you went the right direction on this one  :icon_thumright:

 

[Cagey]

That little lovely is gorgeous! Yet another Tele tickling the GAS. Gonna have to build one this year. How do you like the feel of that neck?

 

[Spartan117]

that looks awesome man

 

[whyachi]

I love how the purpleheart goes with the tortoise pickguard.  :kewlpics:

 

[fatfingers]

Thanks for all the kind words.  To answer your questions, she's starting to play great - still working on the intonation and getting the neck right, but the neck feels awesome - like holding a baseball bat, which is what I always thing of when I think of teles - "a cutting board with a baseball bat screwed to it"