My Mahogany/Pau Ferro Tele Build

[SalsaNChips]

Today (August 6th) received the email from Warmoth that they had just shipped two packages, 1.8 and 7.8 lbs. Looks like my Tele build is on the way (a little earlier than expected)! 

Showcase body, Mahogany with Pau Ferro top. Custom neck, Mahogany with Pau Ferro fingerboard, black dot inlays and a black inlay Celtic cross at 12th, SRV contour, compound radius, gloss finish. Black Tele bridge with GFS Modern Vintage pickups, Toneshaper Tele module with 5-way switch and single coil taps on neck and bridge, black Gotoh tuners, Dunlop strap-locks, black screws and misc. hardware throughout.

My workbench is warmed up and ready. All required parts and tools are in place. The mental planning is complete and ready for execution. All I need now is Time.

I figure 8 – 10 hours for the full build, spread across 3-4 days and another 2 – 4 hours for tweaking the action and intonation. Less than a week.

UPS has my cell number activated for shipping updates. Tracking it across the country, it should be here by Friday. I will post “open box pics”.

Yes, I am excited. I am 52 years old and feel like a kid on Christmas Eve. I am finally adding a mate for the custom Fender Stratocaster that has served me so well for 25 years. Building my second electric guitar, made to my specs, a one off custom like no other, is a Big Deal.

Argh. Is that a GAS attack I feel coming on?

 

[Phinox]

grats keep us posted

 

[Cagey]

Yes, I am excited. I am 52 years old and feel like a kid on Christmas Eve. I am finally adding a mate for the custom Fender Stratocaster that has served me so well for 25 years. Building my second electric guitar, made to my specs, a one off custom like no other, is a Big Deal.

Argh. Is that a GAS attack I feel coming on?

I know the feeling. I was 50 when I built my first Warmoth, and the anticipation was acute. The realization was sublime. Trust me; you're going to be very happy.

If you think you're suffering from GAS now, wait'll you're done with this one. It may not even take that long. You'll be surfing the Showcase, wondering how you can reproduce that joy again. They're like Lay's Potato Chips - no one can eat just one.

 

[Updown]

My workbench is warmed up and ready.

I figure 8 – 10 hours for the full build, spread across 3-4 days and another 2 – 4 hours for tweaking the action and intonation. Less than a week.

Yes, I am excited. I am 52 years old and feel like a kid on Christmas Eve.

Cool  :icon_thumright:

My workbench is ..... my king size bed  :laughing7:

You will need to adjust the hours you set out for yourself .....
You forgot to add in at least 2-3 hrs of just starring at it when you open the box's up :icon_biggrin:

Your not alone, I'll be 52yo with-in 2 weeks.  :blob7:

BTW .... Don't forget the pic's  :icon_thumright:

 

[tylereot]

Yes, I am excited. I am 52 years old and feel like a kid on Christmas Eve. I am finally adding a mate for the custom Fender Stratocaster that has served me so well for 25 years. Building my second electric guitar, made to my specs, a one off custom like no other, is a Big Deal.

Argh. Is that a GAS attack I feel coming on?

Ah, I see I have found like compadres, here.  I'm in the same age bracket, and am about 2 weeks into the wait for my Jazzblaster componants.  Waking up in the middle of the night with ideas about how to do it, reading build threads all over the internet...
By the time the parts get here, I'll be in full obsession mode.
Congratulations, and have loads of fun.  Take pictures, too.

 

[ZionWarmoth]

At 55 I feel the same, please post picks!

 

[SalsaNChips]

UPS delivered it Friday afternoon. Delivery guy left it sitting on a bench tray in my garage while I was inside working in my home office. Went out to garage later and there it was. Let’s put it this way -- work came to an abrupt end. Justifiable early start on weekend!

Opening package. Jaw --> Floor.

Went to work on it immediately. First was getting the neck in the neck pocket. It was tight. WAY TIGHT. I had to do a LOT of sanding in the neck pocket, some dremel action. Eventually I got it. I did notice a very slight defect in the clear coat around the binding while doing this. Perhaps from the stress imparted on the wood trying to mate the neck in when it was too tight (my fault). It’s facing down anyway -- not a big deal.

Installed neck inserts no problem:

Custom neck plate on, everything fitting well and snug:

Opening up the string ferrule holes a bit:

Ferrules installed. One on end is a slightly different shade. What’s up with that?

About to open up hole for electro-socket:

Had to do some routing to get the ToneShaper IC module to sit flush (pot shafts were too short:

Done for the evening. This is after about 6 hours of work:

Do I look happy? YES I AM!

Have stuff to do this morning, can’t start on it again until this evening but expect to finish basic assembly and have it strung up. There are a lot more details on the build I will post later when I have more time. Including pics when it is finished and maybe a video of me playing it and going through various pickup combinations (GFS Modern Vintage set) with the ToneShaper and 5-way switch.

Later!
arty07:

 

[runem]

Very nice

Early weekends as a result of guitarbuilding is perfectly justifyable! Looking forward to see the final result  :cool01:

 

[Cagey]

Beautiful! Love the body binding. You must be very excited!

 

[tylereot]

Oh, that's a beauty!  I've still got weeks to go before that box arrives at my door.  Thanks for showing us all the things req'd to put it together.

 

[SalsaNChips]

Tonight I got the pickups installed. Also copper lined the rear chamber under the toneshaper and back plate. Bridge plate is on and saddles.

Not as much as I wanted to get done but I had some engineering challenges to overcome with the front pickup mount -- the cover plate did not match up with the holes on the GFS front pickup exactly. Also I wanted to use black pickup height adjust screws and wanted to countersink them, that took a while. Details, details.

Tomorrow afternoon I will hopefully install the tuners and wire up the ToneShaper now that I've figured out the bridge/neck pickup hot/ground and single coil taps. The Toneshaper I bought has a 5 way switch and it will give me some sweet combinations. I would like to get it strung up tomorrow and test the wiring, if that checks out start the main setup as far as intonation, saddle height, truss, etc., etc.

Good stuff. I am definitely enjoying building this guitar

 

[DangerousR6]

Very nice tele, looks awesome... :headbang1:

 

[SalsaNChips]

Last night I finished all the basic assembly of the guitar and strung it up and played it.

Wiring up the Toneshaper was quick and easy. Used shrink tube on the PU ground braids and tie-wrapped everything. I used the Toneshaper Tele 5-way Switch Humbucking Neck switch config that gives me (back to front) bridge humbucker parallel, bridge humbucker parallel + neck single coil, bridge humbucker parallel + neck humbucking, neck single coil and neck humbucking. I set it for the volume mod (no treble roll-off at decreased volume setting) and used an initial 33uF capacitance value (that may change soon).

The tuners went on with no problems. I used black roller-looking (but not actual rolling) string trees from Warmoth.

I used a little Mothers paste wax on the top, sides and back of the body and neck to clean it up and remove some of the "workbench rash" I had managed to impart on the finish despite my best efforts to avoid that during assembly (little micro-scratches visible at the right angle). The wax did a great job making these disappear.

Finally set the bridge saddle to a neutral position and string it with extra light DR Blacks. Action was WAY high and I lowered the saddles considerably. Putting tension on the neck, had to tighten truss a bit to pull it out straight which it did, like a ruler. Very slight twist apparent when sighting down neck, total non-issue. More lowering of saddles. Finally got the action more or less acceptable and played it for about an hour. The GFS pickups are sweet, but man, they are HOT output-wise. Had to lower the pup height to strings considerably. The single-coil neck position on the neck pup just growls. I wanted high-output pups and that is what I got, definitely has a nasty demeanor. Need to back off the volume a bit to clean it up when playing it in church

Action-wise, it's good, could be lower. No problems with fretting out. Bends are nice and clean. This evening I will set up the intonation an check the scale length again.

One problem I am sorting out is -- the height adjustment allen screws in the saddles for the Tele bridge I bought from Warmoth are WAY too long. With the saddle heights adjusted the way I need them to set the string height for this guitar, the allen screws are sticking out the tops of the saddles and ripping up my palm when I am playing. I emailed Spike at Warmoth about it last night, maybe they sent me the wrong type saddles for my bridge. Or can send me replacement allen screws that are shorter. Or maybe I will just get a set of String Saver graphite saddles like these:
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailpieces/Electric_guitar,_non-trem_bridge_parts/String_Saver_Saddles.html
I need to get that problem resolved ASAP.

A few pics of final assembly:

 

[Updown]

One problem I am sorting out is --
the height adjustment allen screws in the saddles for the Tele bridge I bought from Warmoth are WAY too long.
With the saddle heights adjusted the way I need them to set the string height for this guitar, the allen screws are sticking out the tops of the saddles and ripping up my palm when I am playing.
I emailed Spike at Warmoth about it last night, maybe they sent me the wrong type saddles for my bridge.
Or can send me replacement allen screws that are shorter.
Or maybe I will just get a set of String Saver graphite saddles like these:
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailpieces/Electric_guitar,_non-trem_bridge_parts/String_Saver_Saddles.html
I need to get that problem resolved ASAP.

Looks great  :icon_thumright:

I'll answer that one .....
Warmoth can NOT do anything for you about the saddle screws.

They are just passing on the other parts from other suppliers.
If it was something to do with the neck or body, well yes contact Warmoth.

You have answered your own Q's .... You need to buy some Graph Tech saddles.
Just like the rest of us have  :icon_biggrin:  when using that bridge.   

 

[Cagey]

That's a gorgeous instrument you have there!

re: saddle height adjustment screws - I used that same bridge on one of my Teles and had the same problem. Changed to the Graphtech saddles and more or less solved it while also improving the saddles, but went a little further still and ordered a pile of some short (1/4") set screws from here and replaced them on the Graphtechs. I used them on all six saddles, and on my guitar they end up level or slightly below the surface of the saddle and make the whole thing very comfortable.

Note that those are the 4-40 thread screws, which are what fit the Graphtech saddles. Some saddles take metric sized parts, which they also sell.

 

[SalsaNChips]

Cagey, thanks for that link, those screws are hard to find by themselves. I just ordered some which is what I am going to use to solve the immediate problem until I get around to ordering the Graph Tech saddles.

One question for you all -- does the bridge plate have to be grounded exclusively by itself or does it ground sufficiently through the contact with the metal base plate on the bridge humbucker via the pickup mounting screws (which are in contact with the base plate, etc.)? I did not notice any problem when playing it last night but wanted to check.

 

[Cagey]

I'm surprised that works, but since it does I wouldn't mess with it. Normally, you would ground the bridge plate directly.

 

[SalsaNChips]

I'm surprised that works, but since it does I wouldn't mess with it. Normally, you would ground the bridge plate directly.

Yeah, I just checked it with my meter, which I should have done last night but didn't think about it. Bridge plate is grounded, has continuity to ground screws on the bridge humbucker and all the way to the tone/volume pots, etc. So I will leave it alone. Probably would be a good idea to put some copper under it and run a wire off that to a common ground in the control cavity when I get a chance though...

Edit to add -- the cover plate for the neck pickup however is NOT grounded, but it doesn't have any electrical contact with the pickup so it should be okay.

 

[SalsaNChips]

Update -- playing it a lot, tweaking and getting closer to a state where I can say "it's done". There was too much relief in the neck, I got a little more serious with the truss adjustment and the action improved a LOT (after re-adjusting the saddles). The G string is still a little bit of a problem, it needs to be higher than I would like to fret clean. Otherwise the action is real good, almost as low and clean as my Strat. Switching to 10/46 strings helped as well. I decided not to do the Graph Tech saddles (for now). I have finally (for the most part) figured out the optimum height for the GFS pickups to get a balance of clean tones AND sufficient output/definition. I located Black height adjust screws for the bridge pickup, that will complete the black hardware. Adding felt washers under the strap lock buttons. Finally, I have decided to add a series/parallel micro-switch for the bridge pickup a inch and a half down and between the volume and tone controls. Probably not going to be used that much but I want it anyway. I hope to have it "done - done" in a week so I can take some final pics and maybe put it in the September GOM vote

 

[peter.k]

I really like those black dots against the fretboard. Was the board a Unique choice or did Warmoth choose it? I am stuck between choosing Rosewood/Pau Ferro/ Maccassar Ebony for the neck I will be ordering soon. I want something as light as yours so the black dots stand out as such. Very nice.....