The Frankencaster

So. First actual day of building and not just ordering crap from online.

Have decided my headstock shape (see photo of the outline).

Checked the neck and body. Alignment seems ok but I will check that properly...now that I have the requisite wooden straightedges to check. Bridge hasn’t arrived yet but should be here next week.

I have the tools I bought from pit bull and using the notched straightedge, the neck seem fairly straight, with no relief. That should change with string tension but I think straight when I’m doing fretwork is best. So about to cut headstock and tape the fretboard so I can start levelling and finishing the frets.

The body seems ok. Some machining marks but sandable and basically wood quality (so far).

The neck, as I said, is straight. Some small indentations in the end (see photo) which could be, maybe punch marks or something. Not a problem as it will be covered up. 1 minor scratch in the back but sand able.

Let the fretwork taping and head stock cut out begin!

Here are neck indentationsAttachment 38917

Tiny and removable.

Also, the neck alignment. Seems to fall away a couple of mm at the 20th fret.....I never use it anyway!

Attachment 38918

A FrankenCaster eh? Igor and I shall watch with great interest.

The hard bit will be waiting for a thunderstorm to apply the right jolt!

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Originally Posted by Eponymous

The hard bit will be waiting for a thunderstorm to apply the right jolt!

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LOL! Thats really a lovely Tele body you scored there,I love the tight parallel grain structure, Should come up wonderfully.

Yeah. It is quite lovely. My plan (as it is a first build) is to just paint it, rather than do a finish that will bring out the grain. Almost seems a shame but all the stuff is on the way. The paint job I have in mind is like the PRS Nebula with the colour shift paint, going through blue/red/purple with a 2 pack clear on top.

The neck is going to be a stained bloodwood from dingo bass, though

Neck work finished. Headstock shape cut and sanded, frets levelled, crowned and polished. The fret ends have been sanded and sharp edges removed. Ready to stain and apply finishing oil tomorrow!

Attachment 38948

The new bridge is in the mail. I’m getting a Gotoh engraved tele bridge with both top load and through load string arrangements.

I’m also thinking of getting the hipshot 6 a side, staggered height locking tuners. That way I can do away with string trees..

Onto neck staining tomorrow.

Will do a trial setup on Friday, when the new bridge arrives.

Love that headstock shape.

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Thank you. It started as a freehand drawing, then much, much sanding until I was happy with it!

Neck staining time this morning.

Sanded the neck to 1200 grit...probably excessive but it sure feels smooth.

Using the Dingobass bloodwood stain (which has turned out more orange yellow...like Donald Trump’s face...almost..perhaps he should rename the stain “trump face orange?) but it is also like “haven’t had enough fluids my pee is a bad colour yellow..which is kinda the same thing as trump face orange.

Happy with the result though. Now hanging in my music room to dry for 24 hours (or so.....)

From this:

Attachment 38959

To this:
Attachment 38960

So, I had hoped that soaking into the wood would tone the colour down but it is still really damned orange. Not sure whether to hit it with more of the bloodwood stain to deepen the colour or maybe add another stain on top...maybe a blue, which would maybe go some kind of dark purple kind of colour (bearing in mind my paint for the body will be a blue/purple colour shift paint).

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Not sure whether to hit it with more of the bloodwood stain to deepen the colour or maybe add another stain on top...

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You can do that if you really want to, but I would try sanding back and re-apply diluted DT. I have not used DT so don't know if it's alcohol, water or spirit based, but I'm sure someone here can advise.

With a diluted stain/dye, you can gradually build up to the desired depth of colour you want. (How quickly it builds up will depend on the dilution ratio). FWIW Feast Watson Golden Teak is a popular stain used around here on necks and appears to be nearly the same colour as the DT Bloodwood.

Thanks. That is great advice. I might sand back and try with the DT Acacia, which seems to be lighter in shade. I think the feast Watson sounds like a good option too but I’m kinda committed to giving as much of the money I spend on this into the local guys doing this, so dingotone it will be. I might ask if I can dilute it though.

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I think the feast Watson sounds like a good option too but I’m kinda committed to giving as much of the money I spend on this into the local guys doing this, so dingotone it will be. I might ask if I can dilute it though.

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That's a great attitude. Good onya.
I did some searches about thinning DT, but couldn't find what I was looking for. I'm sure someone here knows!
Look forward to seeing how you go.

Have now sanded the neck back to wood. There are two parts (where the heel angles down to the neck and where the neck angles back up to the headstock) where the wood is end grain and it soaked up a lot of the bloodwood stain.

See the picture below and you can see the darker areas at the heel section and headstock section.

Attachment 39123

So, sanded back, there is still a little colour at those points and a little colour in some of the grain, which you can see in the picture below.

Attachment 39124

I have a neck that wasn’t right, so I have used it to try the new colour, I got. I thought the Coolangatta Gold (aside from bad Australian move references) seems ok in the Dingobass range, so the picture below is, starting from the left is

1. A really light application of bloodwood

2. A heavier coat of bloodwood (resulting in Donald Trump face orange)

3 a single coat of Coolangatta Gold

4. A heavier coat of Coolangatta gold

5. A kind of bloodwood Coolangatta gold mix.

Attachment 39125

I’m thinking number 3 works best.

It’s raining here, so I might wait for a less humid time to do the stain.

A bit of fret levelling to go and the neck should be pretty set.

I’m measuring scale length and marking bridge position, so will upload photos for that soon.

Hi, 3 is good, in fact they could all be good!
I used straight CG (3 coats !) on my FVB-4 which had the maple neck, and then lots of coats of tru-oil. The heel sections did absorb a bit more of the stain.

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Originally Posted by Eponymous

It’s raining here, so I might wait for a less humid time to do the stain.

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But how good is this rain!





(...aside from annoyances to do with guitar finishing...)


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This rain is...AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

Well, this is a ticklish issue.

Having now received bridge, pick guard and checked the frets and neck, I thought it was time to measure up for bridge placement.

I’ve checked the centreline and it matches the timber join where the 2 billets were glued originally..actually almost invisible...nice.

When I insert the neck, there is a small gap at the end.

Attachment 39178

Not huge, as you can see...maybe 1 or 2 mm.

Since the neck and body weren’t part of a matched set (as in a complete kit) but bought from the pit bull body and neck section, it isn’t that surprising. Probably not an issue.

Where it does become a bit tricky is, after measuring scale length...both from the inside of the nut, midway to the crown of the 12th fret fret marker and then from there to the body, but I also measured from the inside of the nut 25.5” and the line I drew with pencil was the same. The neck was straight and square.

I then ran into trouble with the cavities and the bridge with the pick guard fitted.

The first position for the bridge was with the saddles having roughly even travel either way...so they could go forward and back the same distance. I marked those holes and punched them. Problematically, the space for the bridge pickup went over the bridge pick up cavity. See the photo below.

Attachment 39179


Worth noting, it exceeds the gap at the end of the neck by quite a bit.so, that doesn’t seem to be an issue here.

When I move the bridge back to a position where the cavity aligns with the pick up slot, there is a gap between the pick guard and the bridge, which looks untidy.

Attachment 39180

Also, the travel of the saddles, (unsurprisingly) is somewhat less efficient. I mean, it’s only about 3 mm or so but, it looks untidy and isn’t as functional.

Being the over equipped type of person I am, I have another bridge, which is an original fender, ashtray style...which isn’t as fancy as my gotoh engraved one but it has exactly the same problem, vis a vis the pickup slot/ cavity location.

Attachment 39181


So, the bridge isn’t the problem.

The question is, would it be best to snug the bridge up to the pick guard and chisel a small amount out of the pick up cavity (my preferred option) or to chisel some out of the neck pocket to bring the neck back that 3mm?

I think the second one is bad, because I would have to make sure everything is square again and it really is only the corners of the pick up cavity.

I have punched holes for drilling but haven’t drilled as yet. The punch marks will be under the bridge, so not a huge problem.
Attachment 39182

Will wait for advice from the wise and considered counsel of the community.

This is an oft encountered problem. The typical fix is to expand the PUP cavity with a dremel, a palm router, chisels, files or rasps.

Playing with the neck cavity might introduce some alignment issues if you aren’t deadly accurate.

if you sand the corners of the neck heel to snug it back into the cavity, will that minimise the amount you need to take out of the PUP cavity?

Yep. I think expanding the cavity is the way to go. The gap in the neck won’t make up that difference, although, I’m tempted to just rasp out the corners just a little. So long as I am careful, it shouldn’t do anything to the alignment.

So, I think probably a chisel to expand that cavity and I can think about drilling the holes for the bridge.....after I measure again.


Thanks for the advice!

FW is right. Unfortunately a common issue with the TL kits. Expanding the pickup cavity is generally the primary fix.
I am a bit dubious about enlarging the cavity with a chisel though, but that just me.

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The gap in the neck won’t make up that difference, although, I’m tempted to just rasp out the corners just a little.

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Just to be clear, we're talking about removing material from the corners of the heel of the neck not the pocket here. When you say "rasp out", I interpret that as from the pocket.
Whilst it may not make make up all the difference, it will make a difference overall. The better the fit, the better the end result.

Back to the bridge...

I presume the long line perpendicular to the neck is your 648mm mark. If that's the case, with your Gotoh bridge placement, routing the pickup cavity enough so the treble E saddle falls on that line and you'll be right.
However, it's best to first adjust that saddle so there's about 2mm of intonation screw thread entering the string slot of the saddle. This will allow adequate forward adjustment if needed. I have had some six saddle bridges intonate as short as 647mm. Better safe than sorry.

As for the gap between the bridge plate and pickguard, this is also very common, even on genuine Fender Tele's. A lot of little things like that go unnoticed until we start building our own guitars and putting every little detail under our personal microscopes.

Great tip about reducing the neck, not the pocket. That is what I was going to do...not now. Will just work on the neck heel.


That long perpendicular line is the 648mm mark and I wanted that to be easily seen, when I placed the bridge.

When it is in that rear position, the treble e saddle is almost at its maximum forward position...there is only about 1 mm in it. When I have it in the forward position it has around 4-5 mm travel each way but there is no reason I can’t have a slight gap and possibly less to remove from the cavity and still get a better range of intonation.

I will remeasure to confirm again tomorrow and look to where I best position the bridge so that it fits with what you have described.

No chisel? Well, there goes my trip to bunnings...no sausage in a roll for me!

Will use a rasp and sandpaper to expand that cavity.

Thank you for the advice!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by McCreed

As for the gap between the bridge plate and pickguard, this is also very common, even on genuine Fender Tele's. A lot of little things like that go unnoticed until we start building our own guitars and putting every little detail under our personal microscopes.

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They're supposed to have that gap, aren't they? All the pictures of a tele on Fender's website show a gap around the bridge plate. Out are we talking about different things?

Busy day today. I remeasured most everything, just to make sure. Still haven’t drilled holes but will probably do that tomorrow.

The first bit of work was to recheck that my centreline is correct. Having watched many YouTube’s on the issue, it seems finding the correct centreline is really important..also, not easy. So the YouTube community seems to think placing a straightedge against the neck and drawing down your guitar body will help. Not sure why this is. Don’t the necks have a taper? Mine is 46.5mm at the nut and 50 odd at the 12th fret. Still. It should give at least a stable base for a centre finding ruler do mark actual centre.

Also used centre finding rule on the neck pocket. That has to be the bit that centre is most crucial.

Between those 2 sets of figures, I came up with my centreline. It seems very slightly (maybe 0.5 mm) from the joint but I have checked is against the centre of the neck pocket and I’m happy that I have got the right centre line now.

Measuring against the diverging straightedge against the neck lines, also confirms that I have the centreline accurate.

I adjusted my saddles so they were about mid travel. I then remeasured the scale length. Again, from the crown of the 12th fret to the nut 324mm and then from the crown of the 12th fret back, another 324 mm, giving me the scale length of 648mm or 25.5”, if you prefer the old money.

Rechecked that scale length against the information on the webpage for a 21 fret telecaster neck. All good.

🤞

My remeasured and reconfirmed body now looks ok.

Placing the pick guard and bridge in place, with neck attached (I made a jig to prevent fret wire damage)

Attachment 39196

That’s craftsmanship!

Making sure bridge was centred and now, halfway saddles aligned with scale length (found it to be ever so slightly not square when I remeasured centreline and ruled the line using a set square...so confirmed it was straight against centre line and against now required scale length).

I found I could set the bridge quite firmly against the pick guard and still have plenty of travel both ways with my saddles. It lined up perfectly with my first set of holes, so no need to remark but I then marked out how much bigger the cavity would need to go. Marked out the offending bits.

Attachment 39197

And this is what it looked like without the bridge in place

Attachment 39198


I started to try and use a rat tail rasp to take it out...then I remembered that old carpenter’s saying....”when in doubt, borrow your brother’s router...make sure you give it back”.

Have run out of photo opportunities...only 5 per post, apparently.

To be continued...



And like this with the bridge in place

I see both photos made it last time.

All good.

So, it now looks a bit demented under the bridge but it will fit the pickups and be well hidden when I put it all together.

I should have mentioned this before but I sanded back the corners of the neck (leaving neck pocket well alone) and reduced that gap from this:

Attachment 39201

To this

Attachment 39202


That was when I remeasured scale length. I didn’t make that clear in the post above but I didn’t remeasured until I was happy with that gap.

Once I finished that process, I decided it was time to restain the neck, with my now preferred Goolangatta Gold stain from Dingobass.

And it now looks like this:

Attachment 39203

I think that is much closer to the colour I had in my mind, when I started.

This is the stained headstock, front


Attachment 39204

So, that is now curing and I think that will be it for the day.

Nice work mate, that neck in the picket is now nice and tight there, all looks sweet!

There is a gap between the sides of the bridge and the cutout on the pickguard but I have it so the end of the bridge butts up against the pickguard, so no gap there. The photos show where I have it positioned

This a reply to the comment that all tele’s have a gap around the pickguard. I may have deleted that post instead of my reply. Apologies, if I did.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FrankenWashie

Nice work mate, that neck in the picket is now nice and tight there, all looks sweet!

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Thanks!

I’m happy with how it is turning out. I need to check again, when I have the neck dried and clamped again, that the strings will run parallel to the fretboard...which requires me to put in a tuner on both e strings and run it down over the bridge to the saddles.

That is when I think my sanding job will show if I got that right. The neck pocket fit was never super tight but didn’t move much side to side and still doesn’t so, I’m happy that it is still looking good.

I appreciate the advice and encouragement!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jonwhitear

They're supposed to have that gap, aren't they? All the pictures of a tele on Fender's website show a gap around the bridge plate. Out are we talking about different things?

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See my picture. There is a gap around the edges of the bridge but the bridge position I have at the moment actually butts up at the rear of the pickguard.

I drilled the holes for the bridge. I remeasured the scale length and made sure the holes were at the right place before drilling.

Attachment 39222

When the bridge is in place I made sure the bass e string saddle was in full rear position and treble e string saddle in full forward position.

Like this.

Attachment 39223

With the bridge saddles in those positions, I measured with a micrometer, the distance from scale line to each saddle position. The bass e string was 4.4 mm back from scale line. The treble e string was 4.2 mm forward of scale line. Pretty centred, basically.

I also found my drill press isn’t big enough to take the body to drill string through holes. I am thinking about getting a drill guide

Like this


https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Milescra...-/383552479358

Not sure if URL’s work.

At least that can keep me drilling straight.

It also helps that I have another fender bridge, which I could use if the travel on the gotoh bridge isn’t enough. This is what that looks like

Attachment 39224

But I think over 4mm either way should be enough.

Since no more drilling able to be done today, might finish off recrowning frets after levelling.

Sounds like you're making steady progress and things are all lining up well now.

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I also found my drill press isn’t big enough to take the body to drill string through holes. I am thinking about getting a drill guide.

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At least a couple of members have used those kind of drill jigs successfully, and there a more than a few DIY options (here and on YT). Since you have a drill press, making a drill guide block would be very doable for you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by McCreed

Sounds like you're making steady progress and things are all lining up well now.



At least a couple of members have used those kind of drill jigs successfully, and there a more than a few DIY options (here and on YT). Since you have a drill press, making a drill guide block would be very doable for you.

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I’d be making my own guide block. The drill guide you’ve linked seems good, but my experience of these was rather poor. Setting angles is “close” in terms of accuracy, setting up to do a line of holes is bothersome unless you mount it to a separate base and reposition the work piece for each hole, which in itself can introduce some deviation even if you are being fastidious.
the version I bought from Carbatech also suffered from induced angle caused by the weight of the cordless drill attached to it.
The version in your link seems slightly beefier than the ones I have seen and used, but I would still harbour doubts about it.
You’ve got a drill press, grab some Aluminium plate or some solid hard wood and make a drill guide.

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Originally Posted by FrankenWashie

I’d be making my own guide block.
You’ve got a drill press, grab some Aluminium plate or some solid hard wood and make a drill guide.

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That sounds like a great idea. Looks like my trip to bunnings is back on!

Thanks, Frankenwashie and McCreed!

Great first-hand advice there from FW.
I've never used one of those kind of drill guides. I wasn't aware of their shortcomings. Good to know. Seems the DIY guide block is the way to go! Let us know how you go.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by McCreed

Seems the DIY guide block is the way to go! Let us know how you go.

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I will. Your input has been really helpful!

This is my thinking for setting up a drill jig for the string through holes.

Have bought a rectangular aluminium tube. 20mm x 40mm

Attachment 39269

Like this.

Drill my 6 string through holes in the 40mm (the longer side...so actually through the 20 mm side but 40mm deep...does that make sense?) using the drill press, so nice and vertical..and clamp it and the body together and drill the body (using the handheld drill through the jig) about half way.

Drill through the 6 string through holes using the drill press in the 20mm ( so 20 mm depth but the holes will be on the 40mm side but the shallower depth)and then drill with handheld and narrow side jig to get the holes close to the back of the body (but not all the way through).

Drill the outside holes gently, all the way through, flip the guitar body over.

Use dowel to locate the 2 outside holes to the 20 mm side holes and drill through the other 4, using the short side jig.

Next step is to drill out the 6 holes on the 20 mm side of the jig to the string ferrule width and hand drill the body again, starting from the outside (then using thicker dowels to secure the jig) and drill out all ferrules.

I will do photos so this makes more sense when I drill tomorrow.

Easy...right?

Tomorrow’s job.

The aluminium tube cost $9, instead of fancy drill guides.

Winning!

Most jigs I've seen are simply made out of a block of hardwood, and since you have a drill press, making an accurate jig should be easy. I had a hard time following your written process, but I'm tired and maybe a bit slow...

There are probably a dozen ways to accomplish the same thing. However, the part about drilling the two outside holes all the way through and using those to set the jig is the way to go.

Following this as I’m about to attempt something similar - except that I don’t have a drill press!

My plan was to use a drill guide and follow the steps like this guy:

https://youtu.be/pLCYA8FijhA

But I might take a half way house approach and make a jig with the drill guide. I can then check everything is straight and true in the guide before I let it loose on the body.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by McCreed

I had a hard time following your written process, but I'm tired and maybe a bit slow... However, the part about drilling the two outside holes all the way through and using those to set the jig is the way to go.

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Here is one of the things I haven’t said but have thought. I don’t know if this will be my first guitar build or my only. I am totally my own worst critic. I can potentially make the world’s second best guitar.., distinguished from the worlds best guitar by only 1 minor flaw...all I will ever see on that guitar, is the flaw. It is who I am.

So, I want this to be as close to perfect as I can. That being said, I have spent this whole week researching what I can do and what I can get to make this jig. I think I have worked it out but I have probably over thought it.

A picture is worth a thousand words, as the saying goes and, in my mind, I have stepped this process out, so, when you see the pictures tomorrow, i think it will all become clear. What I hav written above is the process I have in my mind but the pictures will show the detail.