Having been away from the workshop for about 5 weeks I guess I need to do some work to pay for the trip away. This is the only one I wasn’t able to finish before I went away so my apologies to the guy that’s been waiting for it, but I’m on the case now…
I’ve got most of the bits to make a rather nice Tele…
Sadly the finish on the body isn’t very good. I’m no painter and finisher but I think even I could do better than that in my shed. That’s why I sub-contract my painting to someone that can get a good finish. Anyway I don’t want to turn out a dull old guitar so I spent and hour or two with the polishing wheel.
Not perfect but a lot better.
Next the neck. It’s a good neck but again not perfect, It’s got a lovely feel to it but the frets are just a little uneven, not bad, I’ve seen a lot worse but want it to be 100% so I’m going to dress them all.
Taped up to protect the surface while I work….
With the fret-dress complete the next thing it needs is a nut. I’m a traditionalist, I still don’t think you can beat bone. A pre-shaped blank saves time but still needs some work. This one is a little thick and won’t fit in the slot…
Just a little work to thin it down..
Likewise the radius of the bottom doesn’t match the slot…
A little more sanding and it fits nicely…
It’ll still need some work, to get the slot depths right but I can’t do that ’til it’s got strings fitted.
The next problem, the machine heads. They’re not designed for this neck, the holes are the wrong size so I’ve got to drill the holes out, not ideal…
A little tight but got them in.
Next step fit the neck to the body. Frustratingly the painter had also painted the inside of the neck pocket so I’ve got even more work to do to make the neck fit…
With the pocket adjusted to fit I need to make sure the neck’s lined up properly before pitting the screws in…
All I need now is the rest of the hardware, pickups and pickguard and It’ll be good to go…
The owner wanted to build the electrics himself so I’ve just got it back to complete the setup….
Looks good so far…
First thing first, the neck set…
It’s just a little high so I’ll need to tweek the truss-rod. Unfortunately the screw is on the bottom of the neck so I’ll have to take off the scratchplate.
Next the action at the 12th fret. Since the hardware is all new I’ve just eyeballed it. Came out just a little low..
so raise the bridge a little.
With the outside strings done match the rest to the radius of the fretboard.
Then the action at the top. I can see it’s huge…
so each slot will need to be cut a little deeper.
With the bridge height right I also need to make sure it’s in the right place up and down the string so that the intonation is good.
Lastly the pickup heights. The only way to do that though is to plug it in and check the outputs.
There were a coupe of bits I missed earlier that I just noticed, Strap buttons!
That’s better…
Ready to Rock….
