White Blonde Telecaster

[SoundAsAnOldEngineer]

This topic describes a rebuild of an existing Telecaster. The existing guitar consisted of a Fender Telecaster Special body, Warmoth neck, Fender '52 re-issue bridge pickup, Seymour Duncan mini-humbucker neck pickup and a Warmoth pickguard. The present project is to replace the Fender body with one from the Showcase.

Here's the new body:



It's an Ash body with White Blonde finish (which Warmoth call Mary Kay) and black binding. I really like this body.

 

[SoundAsAnOldEngineer]

Inserted the standard Warmoth ferrules. I started by clearing oversprayed surface finish from the holes with a round rasp. Even so, I needed quite a lot of pressure with a pillar drill (drill press) to get them moving. I don't think I would have liked to use a hammer, on grounds of a possible expensive mistake. I don't think a soldering iron would be any help whatsoever.

The Warmoth holes and ferrules leave the flange proud of the body. It's not a problem, but not as neat as the recessed type.

At least there is no chance of the ferrules dropping out during a string change!



Added some copper foil screening to the bridge pickup and control cavities:



A real problem with the control cavity is making a good contact with the plate without letting the foil show on the outside.

No prizes for neatness, but I'm an engineer, and I reckon the screening effect will be okay.

 

[SoundAsAnOldEngineer]

I bought the Electrosocket from Warmoth, but it doesn't really work well on a modern Tele body. I didn't like the gap at the sides, so decided not to use this.

 

[bagman67]

I've run into the same issue with the Electrosocket.  It's a seductively attractive part, but yeah, it only works against a flat surface.  Didn't have an alternative handy at the time, but if I had, it would have been the square jack plate.

 

[SoundAsAnOldEngineer]

The rest of the assembly was straightforward. I transferred the existing neck (Warmoth flame maple/rosewood, 59 back, Gotoh Kluson-style tuners) and pickguard without any issue. The neck heel is a snug fit in the pocket, and the neck angle is perfect.



I'm happy with this. The tortoiseshell looks nice against the White Blonde and black binding. The vintage tint maple looks good. The only part I'm a bit dubious about is the rosewood against the tortoise. Should I oil the fingerboard and, if so, will this make the rosewood darker? I think that might be an advantage.

I used the standard three-way selector, with an S-1 switch in the volume control to select the phase of the bridge pickup. Of course, this has little or no effect except when the selector is in the middle position, but the out of phase combination of '52 reissue bridge and mini-humbucker neck is quite useful.

This will need a proper set-up now, and a different jackplate. I'll aim for a four-hole type as suggested by Bagman67.

 

[Cagey]

Absolutely gorgeous!

 

[bagman67]

Full of WIN!  Nice piece!

 

[stratamania]

Very nice lines with the White and black. I like it,

 

[SoundAsAnOldEngineer]

Fitted the rectangular jack plate obtained from Axetec here in the UK. It does the job nicely, the chrome finish matches other hardware, and it's flexible enough to conform with the shape of the body simply by tightening the fixings screws. However, I have to say that the screws supplied are (a) a sloppy fit in the holes in the plate and (b) made of material only a little harder than butter. I rounded off the slots in one of the screws but luckily managed to extract it relatively easily. I used some stainless No. 4 self-tappers instead.

 

[Great Ape]

That's a STUNNER!! Great job!

 

[anorakDan]

Very cool!

I am not really a fan of rosewood on Fender style necks, but with the Mary Kay and tortoise pickguard it works perfectly! Nicely done!

The black binding is an especially nice touch. You should be proud. Hope she plays as nice as she looks!

 

[SoundAsAnOldEngineer]

Thanks for your kind and encouraging comments!

It does sound very good indeed. The previous incarnation had been in bits for a few weeks, so it's difficult to make a proper comparison, but I'm fairly confident that the Warmoth body sounds better than the rather generic Fender alder body in the earlier version. It certainly looks way better.

The neck pickup is warm without being boomy. The bridge pickup is bright without being abrasive. It's everything I was hoping for. I do miss the bell-like character of a Tele neck pickup, so maybe that will feature next time.