Tele overhang/pickguard

B

bonesofwrath

Junior Member
Messages
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I took a look at my strat with the Baritone neck and decided that the baritone neck might sound better on the tele.

After trying to slap them together I dunno. I think the scale and the pickups might complement each other but the W requirements of the baritone are just so unfriendly to the tele. Between the overhang, blind truss rod and the tele's quirks, I just see no way to access the truss rod without full disassembly. The pickup itself blocks the truss rod. Forget adjusting the truss rod, I'm not sure i can even get the pickguard on with a pickup in the route.

I'm starting to think I should just sell this neck. I feel like the Z might be the only body that could make the baritone hang right anyway.

Is there some trick to the tele neck pickup/guard/overhang? its a Neovin stack, Maybe the route needs to be even deeper to allow assembly. Gah. i do know this is my last baritone unless they start making them with more normal neck options. (Like 1-5/8 nuts, and without that funky lip)
 
It does sound like you've got a whole bunch of inconveniences that add up to be really obnoxious. I don't have a Warmoth baritone neck, though I do have a 30" scale conversion neck on a Jazzmaster body. It has heel adjust for the truss rod, but it only took a couple tries to get it dialed in. It's a little bit neck-heavy, but not enough to bother me. Of course a Jazzmaster should balance better than a Tele, but I'd think the Strat would be even better. Why not swap pickups into the Strat if it works better with the neck?

As it is, you shouldn't have to take off the pickguard or fiddle with the truss rod much once it's dialed in. The best thing I can say is deal with it to get it set up, then don't worry about it. Of course, if you're the type that likes tweaking the setup, I can understand your frustration.

You may be able to install a spoke wheel truss rod nut but that will require a bit of work. You may have to trim the body, pickguard, and fretboard extension to open up clearance.

The Warmoth tiltback necks have a headstock truss rod adjust. Fender makes 27" baritone conversion necks. And you might be able to find something from Allparts or a custom builder. The 30" neck I have is by DC Kunkle. He also makes 28.5" necks. eBay store link. Looks like he only has the 30" necks in stock right now, but he lists new ones regularly. You could probably commission something custom if you wanted.
 
After some more thinking, I think putting a noise cancelling neck pickup in a tele just requires rear route or 21 frets, end of story.
 
bonesofwrath said:
After some more thinking, I think putting a noise cancelling neck pickup in a tele just requires rear route or 21 frets, end of story.
Click to expand...

I have two types of noise-cancelling Tele neck pickups both in 22 fret Teles which have a similar overhang. Both have no issues.
 
Apparently Neovins are just really tall. I recall TFS buckskin Baritone tele ended up with a neck pickup and i believe neovins.

This is fully seated

IMG_20230827_143652791~2.jpg

IMG_20230827_143711896~2.jpg
 
Well, take the neck off, put the pickguard on, put the neck on, rock on.

Also, to take the neck off when the strings are on, put a capo at the first fret, then un-tension all the strings. The capo will keep them from falling off the tuner posts and getting tangled.
 
My BariTele has never had this present itself as a hindrance. Because I live in the Pacific Northwest, less than 10 miles from where this neck was born, it has never been out of state, and the humidity conditions here are very consistent. As such, I’ve only adjusted the truss rod once in the past 12 years, and that was necessary largely because I changed string gauges. Unless you live in an area where humidity conditions fluctuate drastically , or you’re changing gauges or traveling region to region, it shouldn’t be an issue.

That being said, I firmly believe baritones express their true voicing best in Tele tones. I’ve even supplemented 7 string rhythm parts on the left with open BariTele chords on the right, and it’s honestly still all these years later one of my secret weapons in the studio. If you love chicken picking or rockabilly, you should definitely try a BariTele.
 
NC humidity does vary between 30% indoors/winter to 120% in summer. Seriously though it does hit 90+% in summer regularly, and I have to keep a dehumidifier running downstairs and humidifier set to 40% in the music room. I guess there's just no way around assembling the guitar with the neck off unless I route it so deep I can submarine the pickup.
 
Need a pic with the pick guard and tele neck pick up installed to see how bad it is.
 
Not sure how much assembled would help. The thing is that the overhang on this baristrat neck is about half of the very short length of pickguard between the neck pocket and the pickup route and its not even close to enough length to flex enough to slide over the pickup which is bottomed out here. The pickguard would break. if I tried. The pickup is mounted to the pickguard so i can adjust without removing the neck

As cool as a baritone tele is, I think I just need yo go back to the 21 fret 7.25" I bought for the project and worry later about what to do with the baritone neck. Maybe a rear routed tele on a z body with a strat neck route, and fhe hardware would match up too. This was just a moment where I thought ya know this would be way cooler on this guitar, rather than a cohesively designed project. I mean even if I do it, I then have a vintage tele neck laying around, so I'm in the same boat still.
IMG_20230828_105335516~2.jpg
 
Loosening the strings and unscrewing the neck to adjust the truss rod is just old-school Fender. It's how the truss rod was adjusted on every Fender through '69. But don't those baritone necks have the side adjust for tweaks? Or does this one pre-date that?
 
No, the Warmoth baritone is a weird puppy, and very restricted on configurations wrt the other Warmoth offerings

Gibson and Baritone Scale Conversion replacement necks for Fender guitars

Warmoth conversion necks allow you to change the scale of your electric guitar from the standard Fender to scale to either Gibson or Baritone scale, without having to make any modifications to the body.
warmoth.com warmoth.com

It almost looks like someone's pet project that got turned into a product.That side overhang is just plan weird
 
bonesofwrath said:
I mean even if I do it, I then have a vintage tele neck laying around, so I'm in the same boat still.
Click to expand...
Clearly, the correct option is "more guitars."

I checked a few of the bodies in Warmoth's builder, and these bodies all support Tele Bridge and Neck pickups:
  • Hybrid Strat
  • Jazzcaster
  • Soloist
  • VIP
  • Musiclander
  • Z
One of those should easily give you the balance you want. They have the "24 fret reposition" option too, so you can push that neck pickup down further.
 
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I might have to make this body to get the baritone to hang properly. It doesn't neck dive but root position is out there. That's why I was contemplating a Z - it's the longest horn on the menu.
 
Side overhang on the baritone necks borrows r&d from the super wide necks and have a slight side overhang. This is normal. Check out Aaron’s vid on baritone necks.

check out my build as well…

Baritone Telecaster Project.

This thread is dedicated to recording the inspiration and process of my Baritone Telecaster project. While inspired by the Thinline Telecaster that first appeared in the 1999 Fender Custom Shop Calendar, this project actually began as the first component (The neck) was supplied as a gift from my...
unofficialwarmoth.com unofficialwarmoth.com
 
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Absolutely, it's normal. I have had two, and currently have one superwide neck, and guarantee, whatever problems you have the overhang is not the issue. I have them on jazzmaster bodies. And they are greaat!

Sounds like there is something funky going on with your pickup, and you probably need to take out your dremel and make the hole bigger. Do you someone in your neighborhood you can trust to take a look at it? Bandmates, busk buddies, luthier?

Also, can you take pic that shows the full body?
 
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