Had a go at the Telecaster today.  The first step of course is to fit the neck to the body.  Not quite as easy as I would have liked as the neck pocket was just too small for the neck.  However with a coupe of hours work and some very sharp chisels and it’s in.  Since it’s a second-hand neck there are a some witness marks from the old body but I’m sure I’ll be able to find some wax or lacquer to hide those.

I’ve also plugged all the old holes since they don’t quite line up with those on the body.

Put it all together, clamp it firmly in place and drill the holes.

Once the neck is in place it’s a case of working out exactly where the rest of the hardware goes, starting with the intonation line.

From that I next need to work out exactly where the bridge will go along that line.

Having established that, I need to double-check the angle of the neck.  Since the back of the heel wasn’t flat I’ve planed in and squared it off but it’s at a bit of an angle.  I added a small shim right at the heel of the neck in the joint and it looks good…

The height at the bridge looks good now but I won’t really know how it will work out until the strings are attached and at full tension.

The bridge came with 2 inserts that fit in the body, I have to say I don’t like it; the fit is far too loose so the bridge is going to move about too much which is going to make setting up the intonation difficult.  I rather think it will harm the sustain as well so I’m going to mount the bridge directly into the body.

There we go for today then….