Importanat Tele Deluxe routing issue! WARNING WARNING WARNING

[Ampguy]

:sad:  Well... I ruined my $600+ body through stupidity...  WARNING:  If you get a Warmoth Tele Deluxe body with the "standard" top route, it WILL NOT FIT ORIGINAL FENDER WIDE RANGE HUMBUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!

It is relieved in the pickup pockets FOR GIBSON HUMBUCKERS!

!@$!

The rectangle is large enough, but the screw pockets are nowhere close...

So, I saddled up the drill press and got to work. 

Did I set a depth stop, no.  Was that incredibly stupid, yes.

Sizing up to the final size, on the last hole (of course) the bit caught and went all the way through.

Yeppers, I was stupid.

Don't make my mistake.  Set a depth stop, or get out the router and tape off.

Or, perhaps Warmoth would be kind enough to route the !@#$ pockets to FIT THE ORIGINAL PICKUPS!

<sigh>

Well, I am not going to toss it... I will bondo closed the hole and see if I can gently work a refinish on the afflicted area.  Gonna be a bitch with a metal flake finish...

 

[AutoBat]

"original pickups" that were used on a few models from 1971-1979

 

[vetteman]

If you can't repair it you could slap a tremolo cover plate back there to cover it (better if it was the bridge pickup route).

 

[Cagey]

That's a good idea. Repairing metal flake finishes is nearly impossible.

 

[Re-Pete]

:sad:  Well... I ruined my $600+ body through stupidity...  WARNING:  If you get a Warmoth Tele Deluxe body with the "standard" top route, it WILL NOT FIT ORIGINAL FENDER WIDE RANGE HUMBUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!

It is relieved in the pickup pockets FOR GIBSON HUMBUCKERS!

!@$!

The rectangle is large enough, but the screw pockets are nowhere close...

So, I saddled up the drill press and got to work. 

Did I set a depth stop, no.  Was that incredibly stupid, yes.

Sizing up to the final size, on the last hole (of course) the bit caught and went all the way through.

Yeppers, I was stupid.

Don't make my mistake.  Set a depth stop, or get out the router and tape off.

Or, perhaps Warmoth would be kind enough to route the !@#$ pockets to FIT THE ORIGINAL PICKUPS!

<sigh>

Well, I am not going to toss it... I will bondo closed the hole and see if I can gently work a refinish on the afflicted area.  Gonna be a bitch with a metal flake finish...

Just a side note on this issue of standardised routings for humbuckers.

The Gibson sized humbucker has taken over as a quasi standard for routings but be careful with other manufacturers prior, to say, the early 1980s who sized their humbuckers just a little bit different.

I had a Tele body routed in the neck position for a 'humbucker' which a local repairer did without fault. I then tried to install my old Guild Humbucker from the 1970s and the darned thing wouldn't fit. It was a little too broad. I very roughly routed out some extra to fit it in and thankfully that mess is hidden under the pickguard. I then found out a while later that Guild's humbuckers were made for a Fender sized string spacing and that made the casing just that bit wider... While these Guild humbuckers (the second gen. ones with the two screws on the top (bass) side of the pickup) are collectable, they are not drop in replacements for Gibson humbuckers.