New Memeber! Help me design my punk rock Tele!!

[The Pink Elephants]

Hello to everyone!
I'm a new member and I'm ordering a Tele this week, but I have some doubts, since it's my first Warmoth built. I've sent an email to Warmoth sales about it, they haven't answered yet. Meanwhile, let's see what do you think about my project, and I hope you can answer some of my quetions. I'll copy the email I sent Warmoth, for the sake of lazyness 



Hello from Barcelona!

Next week I'm oredering my first Warmoth body and neck, and I'd wish to clarify some things and ask for some advice before I do.

My idea is to have a Telecaster shaped body (I'm still unsure about the wood), routed for just one Humbucker (probably a Duncan Custom), a tone and a volume. Mounted on a Gotoh HumbuckerTele bridge. Covered with standard pickgaurd (routed for the humbucker), and finsihed in a solid color.

As for the neck, the idea is to get a maple 25.5" Warmoth Pro, stadard thin profile, SS6105 frets, Tele headstock, Satin finished. Not sure about the fretboard wood. I'll be puting the schaller Mini Locking tuners.

So the questions I find myself asking are:

. Will the pickup fit Ok in the Gotoh bridge? I won't need a mounting ring for that one, right? Would you reccomend the Gotoh system over the TuneOMatic, for example?
. About the copper shielding, is it necessary for every guitar or just for the ones with single coils? Would I be ok without it?
. Intonation wise, the bridge, neck, nut and frets I've chosen are a good match?
. Will the Schaller miniLocking tuners fit on the standard holes?
. Do I need string ferrules?
. It's necesarry (or recomended) to put glue on the screws (for the neck, the pickguard) for preventing them to get loose?
. Will the MJ1 jack fit on the Tele body, or do I need the ES1C? And the neck plate, the NP1C?
. Given the neck specs I want, what would be better, to get nut material and get a Luthier tu cut it up, or to get one of your precut nuts? Even if I assamble the gutiar myself, I'll be bringing it to a luthier for adjustment, I just want to see if I can get the nut before it.
. I'm toying with the idea of getting the cavity of the neck pickup done, just in case I wish to add one later on. Of course, it would be hidden behing the pickguard. But will getting this chunk of wood removed have a noticiably effect on the instrument's tone?
. I'm having trouble chosing the woods. I'm debating between Alder, ash, and swamp ash, mainly. Also about the fretboard, between maple, rosewood and ebony. What would be your advise? Keep in my mind this will be a rock guitar, with a kinda trebly high output humbucker. If the pickup choice I made isn't very wise, feel free to recomend me another one. I play lead guitar in a punk - rock and roll band.
. And I know you can't probably get a exact date, but how long will it take for you to built it? Just a rough estimate. And I'd be very grateful if you could get me a shipping quote, too.

Sorry if there are too many questions, but this is my first build guitar and I want to make it right!!!

Thanks a lot for your patience and attention,

David


Thanks in advance to everyone here, too.  :rock-on:

 

[dbw]

Sounds cool, man.  Yes, you need ferrules for a tele.  They can drill for whatever tuners you want, for free.

 

[jackthehack]

Will the pickup fit Ok in the Gotoh bridge? I won't need a mounting ring for that one, right? Would you reccomend the Gotoh system over the TuneOMatic, for example?
. About the copper shielding, is it necessary for every guitar or just for the ones with single coils? Would I be ok without it?
. Intonation wise, the bridge, neck, nut and frets I've chosen are a good match?
. Will the Schaller miniLocking tuners fit on the standard holes?

No, but when you order the neck they will ream for whatever tuner hole size you want at no cost

. Do I need string ferrules?

Yes

. It's necesarry (or recomended) to put glue on the screws (for the neck, the pickguard) for preventing them to get loose?

No

. Will the MJ1 jack fit on the Tele body, or do I need the ES1C? And the neck plate, the NP1C?

You'll need to order the ES1C; comes with the jack, NP1C neck plate is correct

. Given the neck specs I want, what would be better, to get nut material and get a Luthier tu cut it up, or to get one of your precut nuts? Even if I assamble the gutiar myself, I'll be bringing it to a luthier for adjustment, I just want to see if I can get the nut before it.

Simpler and probably cheaper to order the nut installed by Warmoth

. I'm toying with the idea of getting the cavity of the neck pickup done, just in case I wish to add one later on. Of course, it would be hidden behing the pickguard. But will getting this chunk of wood removed have a noticiably effect on the instrument's tone?

No.

. I'm having trouble chosing the woods. I'm debating between Alder, ash, and swamp ash, mainly. Also about the fretboard, between maple, rosewood and ebony. What would be your advise? Keep in my mind this will be a rock guitar, with a kinda trebly high output humbucker. If the pickup choice I made isn't very wise, feel free to recomend me another one. I play lead guitar in a punk - rock and roll band.

If you're playing "punk-rock", sounds OK to me. Not really any difference in sound between alder and ash for the body. Maple's fine for the neck, an ebony board is going to be slightly brighter than a rosewood one. Since from the last question it sounds like you're in a hurry to get it, keep in mind you can order an exotic neck that doesn't need a finish for about the same price as many of the nicer finished maple necks, like this canary one, will sound very similar to maple, may warm the trebly humbucker up a little:

http://www.warmoth.com/showcase/sc_guitar_necks.cfm?type=guitar&itemNumber=TN1697&menuItem=4&subMenuItem=0&subMenuItem2=0&neckWood_filter=5,6,8,9,20,21,22,23,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,33,34,35,41,42,51,53,54,55,59


. And I know you can't probably get a exact date, but how long will it take for you to built it? Just a rough estimate. And I'd be very grateful if you could get me a shipping quote, too.

Depends on what you order... If you can find a finished body/neck (or neck that doesn't need a finish) you like on the Showcase, they can re-route the bridge pickup for humbucker and put the frets and and nut on and ship the order in 3-5 business days, most all the bodies have a neck pickup route, but you can order a pickguard w/o the neck PU hole to cover it. If you're ordering the neck/body built custom, that'll run 6-8 weeks depending on factory work load. If you're ordering a custom body AND a factory finish, that'll take around 10-12 weeks to ship. 

I have no idea about shipping charges to Spain, but think are are a couple of people on the board that ship to the EU that give you some idea.

 

[willyk]

Don't specify the pickguard to be "Routed for a humbucker" specify it be routed for no pickup hole. The bridge route on a standard pickguard accomodates both the standard and humbucker tele bridge. If you order the guard the way I read it you would end up with a hole where you dont want. :redflag:

 

[The Pink Elephants]

Hey, thanks for the replies guys!

Williyk, you're right about the pickguard, I didn't mean it the way I wrote it (thank god it wasn't the final order)

And jackthehack, thanks for you replies. I didn't know they can re-route the cavities of their bodys in the showroom, I'm gonna look closely at them. I'm considering one of theis exotic necks aswell. What are their advantages/disadvantages compared to more standard necks? Specially about the no-finish bussiness.

Anyone has some advice regarding the copper shileding? And about my first question (the fitting of the duncan in the Gotoh bridge)?

BTW, I still haven't heard from Warmoth. Should I write a new email?
Thanks again!

 

[Nando Vallart]

Which colour are you thinking about???

Probably you won't like the colour, but it's just to move:

You can put a non-routed pickguard and it's ready to rock....


Neck with exotic woods:
Good Point: some don't need to be finished to be used, so you WILL have a much more nice feeling...
Bad Point: usually more expensive...

 

[willyk]

I don't have any experience with copper shielding but I have a couple of telecasters with the gotoh humbucker bridge. There is no noise issue with these guitars, one of which is fitted with SD Phat Cats, so I wouldn't bother with shielding. You don't need a pickup ring with this bridge. A humbucker mounts straight in just like it would in a pickguard.

 

[The Pink Elephants]

I don't have any experience with copper shielding but I have a couple of telecasters with the gotoh humbucker bridge. There is no noise issue with these guitars, one of which is fitted with SD Phat Cats, so I wouldn't bother with shielding. You don't need a pickup ring with this bridge. A humbucker mounts straight in just like it would in a pickguard.

Thanks! That's what I needed to know

And NonsenseTele, I'm actually considering that one, along withe black and charger green ones... Mmm, decisions...

 

[dbw]

CHARGER GREEN FOR PUNK!  That's totally it man.  Also I strongly recommend a raw neck, they feel awesome... the all canary would look good with green.

Edit:  Oh, and if you just have a humbucker and aren't doing coil tapping or anything like that you don't need shielding.  Especially because Teles are partially shielded to begin with, what with the bridge and control plate.

Edit2:  There's no way getting a second pickup rout will affect your tone noticeably.

 

[DiMitriR33]

most stock guitars only have sheilding on the pick guards or mounting plate, some use a conductive paint but really it won't do much, the control plate on the tele will be all trhe sheilding you need and will simplify the wiring. the telecaster is about the most ingenius guitar if you ask me. grounds are conected by way of the chrome plate and the bridge/strings is grounded by the pickup as long it has a metalic back plate (all tele bridge pup's and most humbuckers do). some like to use that copper everywhere but any sorce significant noise is likely a poor ground. very hot single coils (like bass pups) can be noisey too but extra sheilding in the contrl cavity wont fix that. the pickup needs sheilding.

i like maple fret boards with a satin finish or no finish. more a visual preference. ebony is great, sounds about the same, rosewood wont make it warmer, just slightly less bright, not as peircing. wont change the overall tone very much at all.

and about re-routing, i think there are restrictions, some routes dont go over others, ask the sales rep.

i think a duncan custom is a good choice for punk.

alder vs. ash, nothing you'l hear. an exeptionally heavy peice of ash vs. an extra lite peice of swamp ash, some diference, not a big one with distortion, light peices of wood tend to resonate. heavy and hard peices wont as much and may sound brighter but maybe more plain, i'd go with what's on the showcase, it takes time to get the custom orders done.

 

[jackthehack]

Since the std. Tele pickup is so small, you can get that re-routed to any size you want. The only re-route you can do I'm aware of on a Tele bridge pickup is to a Humbucker route.

 

[Patrick from Davis]

The pick guard does have to be routed differently for the humbucker tele bridge.  The bridge plate is wider on the humbucker brdge, and the tele pick guard cut out for the bridge is about 1/4 inch wider.  No cost for that though.
Patrick from Davis

 

[The Pink Elephants]

Warmoth answered my mail finally!

It basically says everything that been said here. So, even if I'm still unsure about woods and finish (you're never suer about them, right?  :icon_smile, I'm ordering it tomorrow!

I've decided to go custom, too. The 10-12 weeks will be a bummer but, after all, it's practically a custom guitar!

Thank you all for your kind answers. I'll share the order when I do it and, of course, when I get the guitar I'll upload some photos!

I think it'll really turn out great. Black, green, orange, golg, alder, ash, swap ash, exotic... mmmm still too many choices! 

:rock-on:

 

[Nando Vallart]

Well!
As the name of your band is pink elephant and the logo is a pink elephant, why not get the guitar finished in pink with that elephant painted on it??  :icon_scratch:


:icon_biggrin:  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[The Pink Elephants]

Finally ordered!

I went with swamp ash, solid black. Maple neck (satin finished), rosewood board, SS frets. No changes on hardware. I routed the neck cavity for a single coil I won't be using at the moment. I decided to have the peghead painted black too. I think it's gonna look great!

Got the Duncan Custom, and if I don't like it, I've got a JB and a Jazz lying 'round here, gonona see who sounds better

Thanks to evr4yone around here, you've been uberhelpful  ccasion14:

:rock-on:


PD: We've got a new song up on the myspace page, called Miss Chernobyl. It turn out great! And though we're The Pink Elephants, we've decided no pink instruments  at the moment  :laughing7:

 

[dbw]

You should have ALL pink instruments.  And wear pink Ramones uniforms.  :icon_thumright: