Scale length too long?!?

[swinginguitar]

Just finished the finish and fretwork on a warmoth tele neck and installed on a MIM body.

I'm using the warmoth humbucker tele bridge

was doing my setup and "something wasn't right". ENded up popping the high E string trying to dial it in. I put a tape measure from the nut to the saddles and am getting a measurement of 26"....and the saddles are about as far forward as they will go!!

Have I done something wrong? it appears i won't be able to intonate this guitar properly...

 

[swinginguitar]

EDIT: probably a "shame on me" moment, but i used the existing bridge holes on this body...should i have moved the bridge forward a hair and redrilled?

not sure - if the bridge were moved will the location of the ferrules be off? the pickup rout will certainly be off.


use longer saddle screws?

 

[swarfrat]

http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Necks/faq2.aspx

That sucks. I'd be hesitant to carve up anything. You could always keep the neck, start buying the rest of the pieces you need, then flip the MIM Tele when you have it together. 

 

[swinginguitar]

meaning what..i have an oddball tele body?

ordered the wrong neck?

 

[pabloman]

What Tele body is it? It sounds like you put a modern bridge on a body that had a vintage one.

 

[swinginguitar]

What Tele body is it? It sounds like you put a modern bridge on a body that had a vintage one.

i think u right - just an unknown MIM body i got from a friend. already stripped etc so i don't know what it was.

the difference between modern and vintage bridge is that much? i thought the humbucker bridges were built spaced the same way.

if i get a warmoth body routed for humbuckers, is it safe to assume this will all line up?

 

[Cagey]

the difference between modern and vintage bridge is that much? 

Yeah, it's huge. It'll never intonate with the wrong bridge. I had this problem recently, and didn't even know it existed so I was blaming the body.

You could move the bridge mounting holes, but then you'd end up with the string-thru holes in the wrong place. There's not really any good way to fix that. What you need is the right bridge. Luckily, Tele bridges are relatively inexpensive.

 

[swinginguitar]

is there a "right bridge" that allows a full size humbucker?

i have the bridge/pickguard from warmoth.

 

[Cagey]

I think Warmoth sells the part for a "modern" Tele. This unit is designed for "vintage" bodies. Kinda pricey, but you do get individual saddles so you can actually set intonation.

 

[swinginguitar]

so that WD bridge will be spaced and punched differently then what i have? http://www.warmoth.com/Gotoh-Humbucker-Tele-Bridge-Chrome-P604C709.aspx

hard to tell in the pic but it does look like it has less airspace between saddle and pickup

 

[Cagey]

The bridge you link to is a "vintage spec" mounting, with 4 mounting holes spaced in line under the string saddles. "Modern" Tele bridges have their mounting holes in the corners of the plate. They're a little longer and won't work on a "vintage" style body.

 

[swinginguitar]

well i'll give that one a shot then - yes that is the hole pattern that was on this body

sure beats buying/finishing a new body!

thanks!

 

[Cagey]

Trying to build Fender replicas can be a bit of a pain in the shorts sometimes. Stuff won't fit together. Oddly enough, the aftermarket suppliers are usually more true to Fender specs than Fender is. Fender is surprisingly fickle about where and how things are made, so you rarely know what you're getting.

 

[swinginguitar]

..and you would thing as standardized as they are it would all work!

thanks for the link - i'm hoping that WD bridge will be the answer.

where exactly is the 1/2" difference between those bridges? space between pickup and saddle? does it throw off the ferrule/saddle relationship at all?

will that WD bridge be the same width as the Gotoh/Warmoth (i.e. line up to the warmoth pickguard correctly?)


...lesson learned the hard way here! same thing happened to you I take it?

 

[bagman67]

If there's enough extra space on the bridge plate you could also just install longer screws.

 

[swinginguitar]

If there's enough extra space on the bridge plate you could also just install longer screws.

thought of that - there is room. but that would be some long screws - would it not have enough spring tension? would the break angle over the saddle be wrong since the ferrules are in the same place?

 

[bagman67]

I think you'll be fine as long as the thing intonates correctly.  If the springs don't provide any resistance at all, you can replace the springs, too.  Try a pickup suspension spring.

 

[swinginguitar]

the WD bridge came in - other than the obvious screw pattern difference (which doesn't matter to me at this point since i've already drilled out for the modern bridge) the only difference is that the saddles are....1/2" longer!

So that makes up for the 26" scale length...problem solved.

I ended up leaving the Gotoh plate on there and putting these saddles on there (guess i just paid $55 for a set of saddles) - the vintage style plate leaves a slightly larger gap between the pickguard since it was cut for the modern plate.