TL-1 (Factory second)

Well my two kits (TL-1 and ES-3) arrived in the mail today. Amazing delivery speed - 8 days from AUS to CAN - and there weren't any import or customs fees to pay either (bonus!). Packaging was intact and after initial inspection everything looks to be in good shape. Both of these kits were factory seconds that I picked up on the Sunday night special Adam had last week. Since these will be my first guitar kits ever, I thought a kit with some existing flaws might lessen my anxiety about getting things just right.

First up will be the TL-1 which should be a much easier build. Adam put this kit up as a factory second due to a crack between two of the basswood blocks in the body (see pics below) but from what I can see, although there is a gap between the pieces, the gap is completely filled with glue and solid, so I don't think I can do much to improve it. I expected it to be an open crack that would require gluing and clamping.
Overall things look pretty decent although I do see some minor headstock drilling alignment issues - around 1mm on a couple holes in both directions.

LIkely won't get a chance to start sanding it for a couple days yet, but here are some pics from the unboxing.
Opening the box:
Attachment 8484
The body:
Attachment 8485
Body with neck fitted
Attachment 8486
Glued crack from front:
Attachment 8487
Headstock (has some minor drilling alignment issues):
Attachment 8488

More pics in next post (max of 5 per post?)

good stuff Peter, got to be happy with 8 days to Canada !

Kit looks pretty good. When the tuners are on the headstock and turned at different positions doubt anyone will pick up the tuner holes are slightly out.
Look forward to the build diary

Good move starting on the tele before the ES-3

The fit of the neck into the body is nicely snug but there is a bit of a fit issue where the bottom of the neck (heel?) meets the bottom of the body routing. There is about 1mm gap on the low E string side (top) of the neck.
Attachment 8489

The neck fit on the top and bottom sides is quite good though. I did notice that there is a bit of rounding on the bottom of the neck where it fits into the pocket in the body which results in a not perfectly flush meeting of those two parts (see pic below). Is this normal for these kits? Should I try and square it off or just leave it?
Attachment 8490

Neck fit from top side:
Attachment 8491

Here are a couple shots of the sealed hardware parts. I've labelled them and I'll try to identify as many as I can but please let me know on the ones I'm not sure of, or if I get the others wrong ;)
A- ?
B - top bit is a string retainer (goes on headstock?). looks like a bit of solder in there also.
C - Screws to mount neck to body
D - sleeves / washers for tuners
Attachment 8492
E - Screws to hold down pickup (which one - neck)?
F - Screws to attach 1/4" jack?
G - ?
H - screws for mounting tuners
Attachment 8493

Hi Peter,
'A' jack plate screws - should be 4 screws
'B' correct string retainers on headstock and solder
'C' correct
'D' correct with 6 small screws
'E' 2 screws for neck pickup and should be 5 springs for neck/bridge pup. Bridge pup probably has 3 screws in the pup mount ?
'F' strap pins, rubber/foam spacer and screws
'G' bridge mount screws think there are 4 screws
'H' screws for pickguard and 2 to hold control plate down

with the small gap in the neck heel/pocket you can try and sand the corners of the pocket a little but don't be too worried. Do a mock build as the pickguard should hide this gap.

@ peterh, That 1mm mis-alignment of the tuner hole should be fairly easy to correct if you use an 8mm rat-tail file, or, I would just leave it since a 1mm mis-alignment isn't really going to be a major issue when you have the strings installed.

@ Doc really the only fix for mis-aligned tuners is to plug and re-drill.
I doubt whether it will be visible to the naked eye, only you will know Peter

Finally it's the weekend and I've had a chance to poke around the kit a bit more.
My notched straight edge and fret rocker arrived yesterday so I was eager to check out the neck for straightness.
I've looked through a bunch of forum posts but didn't see any specifics about how much bow is average or really far off, but when I put the straight edge on my neck and held it tight at the heel, there was about a 0.9mm gap at the nut end. Is this normal? The bow seems to be most noticeable starting at the 5th fret - higher than that seems pretty level.

Attachment 8646

I did give the truss rod a 1/4 turn counter-clockwise (when looking at the top of the truss rod nut) and will let the neck sit for a bit to see if that makes a difference. I assume that the neck should be as close as possible to perfectly flat before doing any fret work?
May be a silly question, but once the fret work is done, do you put a bit of back bow back into the neck on the assumption that the string tension will pull it forwards again? Or do you leave it flat and the string tension provides a bit of forward bow to aid in string/fret clearance further up the neck?

The frets look to be reasonably level (with the bit of neck bow) - there are a few that will definitely need some work. If I use an 8" sanding block, does it matter which end of the neck you start levelling at? Using DB's idea of taping some sandpaper to a spirit level and levelling the frets, I'm guessing that it might be easier to get the frets for the whole neck in line with each other.

Peter.

I'm ordering a bunch of incidental stuff for the build (glue, reamer, dr. ducks,etc) from Amazon and came across these bone nuts. Wondering if I should pick them up to replace the plastic one - it does look a bit cheap/rough. Anyone have thoughts on whether these would fit okay and/or be better than the stock plastic one?

Peter

Hi Peter,

Misaligned hole - I had one with my ST-1. The slight difference is not easily seen with the naked eye, it doesn't affect the play ability (that I have found) of the guitar. It only was slightly noticeable for me from the back of the headstock as I put vintage Kluson style tuning heads on, but not enough for me to plug and re-drill (the Kulsons are square at the back so when they are not aligned it looks bad. I know some of the perfectionists on the forum would disagree with me and I've added it to the list of things I will re-visit on that guitar one day but for now, the guitar rocks!

Neck bow - I've had some kits come with bows in the neck and some that are dead straight. You've got a notched straight edge so go with that. keep it straight before fret work and, personally, I wouldn't over compensate with any bow to allow for string tension. When its time to do the fret work, I would use a fret rocker (or a stanley knife blade) to check and mark any high points and low points first. again I have had a kit that did not need any fret work right out of the box! I don't have any special tools but you can have a look at my build diary for the ST-1 as to what I did with my fret work there. http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...?t=4399&page=5

Bone nut - I am not sure if the amazon bone nut is any good. Just a suggestion, Why don't you order a blank for Stewmac and slot it yourself? It would be a good skill to learn/try.

Fret markersAlso give some consideration to taking the plastic fretmarkers out and replacing them with MOP, if you like that sort of thing. I did it on my TLA-1R and it looks cool, relatively easy to do and cheap. Just have a look at Brendan's thread on it here http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ead.php?t=2584

Regarding the notched edge.....hold it down at the 9th fret, then see what sort of gap you have at either end of the fretboard.
0.9mm seems to me that the truss rod still needs to be loosened a bit....if it was down at the pickup end of the neck I wouldn't be that concerned, but you have the correct tools to do a great job, so don't rush it, and try and get the neck as flat as you can before doing any actual levelling.....It took me ages to get one of my kit necks level, much of that was due to the vast, quick changes in the weather at the time [un sealed wood will swing a lot].

Allowing a small deviation of around 0.5mm dip in the fretboard down at around the 17 -18th fret onwards to the end of the fretboard is considered desirable [commonly know as fret drop off ]

Regarding how much back bow you should have once you have levelled the frets....well that's what they call the 'Action'...you adjust this by putting a capo on the first fret of your guitar and holding down the High E string at the last fret.

What you want to do is to then look at how much of a gap there is between the top of the fret and the guitar string at the 10th fret.

Ideally you want to be able to slide a piece of paper the thickness of your printer paper under the string without it moving the string at the 11th fret, you do this by adjusting the truss rod.

Here's a video explaining all about this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_qZ_QGXI4w

As for levelling the frets, well use your fret rocker to find the worse offenders, and write down which ones they are.
If they all tend to be in the same general area, then you won't have much to level, but if they are spread out all over the neck, well you you'll going to have to do the whole thing....not much of a difference really, levelling that is....reshaping all of them is though.

Just mark the top of all your frets with a felt tip pen, then start levelling, the high ones will lose the felt tip mark first, then gradually you will be able to see when they are all starting to be correct, check with the fret rock every now and then to check progress.

By the way, you don't need to tape up your neck to level the frets, as there is little possibility of damaging your fretboard.
After going through this process several times, I can tell you you don't need to tape it up when dressing your fret either...if you buy some of those little metal fret covers made for the purpose.
Attachment 8664

They are not very good if used as is....but, add a piece of tape either side of the metal cover and it makes life SOooo much easier than having to tape up a neck.... [sorry, just grabbed the nearest guitar to photo for a example ..obviously do this without strings :rolleyes: ]
Attachment 8665

@tweaky,
Thanks for the great info. Much appreciated.
I gave the truss rod another 1/8th turn and it's just about dead level all the way down the neck now. Holding the straight edge at the 9th fret, the nut end is perfectly flush with the straight edge; at the heel end the gap is less than the thickness of a sheet of paper. The straightness is perfect up until the last 4 or 5 frets, then that small gap starts to show up.
I watched the video - will have to come back to that once I get to the point of putting the strings on.
Those fret protectors look pretty handy - I added them to my shopping cart on Amazon with the other bits and pieces. I ran the fret rocker over the neck again and I think there are only a few that are in need of a shave, so hopefully I can get away with just doing those but I may do the whole thing anyways just to be sure.

Had a couple hours on my own today so I got a first sanding done on the body with some 3M Pro 220 grit sandpaper. Took a while to get some of the machine marks off the edges but I think it's looking good so far. After the first round of sanding, I dampened the basswood and had another go at it. The wood seemed to pill up (like on a sweater) when I was sanding it - not sure if that means I had it too damp or not. It still has some roughness to it so I'll throw on a fresh sheet of sandpaper and have another go at it later.

I also did a bit of a mock build on the body and found the pickguard isn't too well shaped to match the routing in the body (see pics below). If I put the pickguard so it matches the neck cutout, there is around a 3/8" gap where the bridge goes. If I try to match the bridge location, one hole in the pickguard is almost in the neck pup cutout. If I wanted to have the pickguard in the proper location and move the bridge up to the cutout in the pickguard, I'd have to do a major routing of the bridge pup cavity.
Is this how the pickguards normally fit? When I ordered the kit it was supposed to come with a white pickguard but I asked Adam for a black one instead. I'm wondering if they might have been slightly different shapes?

pickguard matching neck cutout:
Attachment 8704

pickguard matching bridge cutout:
Attachment 8705

bridge moved to fit pickguard cutout (pickguard in correct location):
Attachment 8706

I also noticed that there is a hole drilled between the neck pocket and the neck pup cavity - not sure what, if anything, this is used for - there's no wiring going to the neck - is it for some kind of grounding? Or is it not used at all?

Seems your problem is just a scratch plate that has been cut too small around the neck area, going by your photos the middle one seems about correct , the space between the bridge plate and the scratch guard is supposed to be like that, and is the same on my USA Fender Tele, the short fall around the neck area seems a bit large though.

As for the neck pocket and the neck being 1mm out and showing a gap, it could be that the neck is a slightly different shape at the very end and as such, the neck isn't fitting snugly into the body.
What you want to do is to make a paper template of the neck pocket so it fits exactly into the neck pocket, and I mean exactly.

Attachment 8726
You should have at least 3 know straight edges [Red arrows ], I'd get a right angle and check just how square they are to each other to make sure [cheap plastic one for school maths from the newsagent will do], if they are are square to each other that's fine...make your template and then trace around it onto some graph paper, keeping those 3 edges as close to the graph papers grid as possible.

Then all you need do is place your neck on another piece of paper and trace around the portion of it that will fit into the neck pocket.
Cut that piece of paper out, then line the 3 know straight edges up on the graph paper [especially the bottom of the neck with the bottom of the neck pocket], then using a different colour pen trace that over the neck pocket tracing you did earlier....any differences will be immediately obvious, and depending what size graph paper you used [what size the squares are] you should know straight away in mm just how far either the neck pocket, or neck is out.

Having a good look at the photo you posted, I think the problem area is where I marked with a black arrow, it doesn't look quite square to me, it seems to have been rounded off a fraction too soon, result is that small bit of wood is stopping the neck going all the way into the neck pocket....using the graph paper trick will prove if this is correct or not [ the tracing of the neck will overlap the tracing of the body's neck pocket a fraction in the suspect corner], if it is this, it's a easy fix and you can get it sorted so the neck fits perfectly.

Hole in the neck pocket to the neck pickup cavity, that's a new one.... grounding should be to the bridge plate, so that hole has me stumped

The hole in the neck pocket is simply there from drilling the hole for the wires between the pickup cavities. It's a means to an end. Nothing to worry about.

As tweaky mentioned there should be a gap all the way around between the bridge and the pickguard.
http://cdn.seymourduncan.com/blog/wp...leBridge11.gif

Your bridge should be positioned by measurement of the scale length not where it sits with the pickguard and as some of us have found, this sometimes means moving the bridge pickup cavity forward by up to 5mm.

Well after a week in Cuba, I'm back at the build and making decent progress and having some fun.
I sanded, then sanded again, sanded a 3rd time with 220 grit. Then sanded and sanded again with 320 grit. It really took a while to get the machine marks out of the edges of the body but I think I've got them all now.
Debated about sanding again - just because - but it felt pretty good so I pulled out the analine dyes and started mixing. Never having used them before I wasn't sure how much to use and in the end I think I should have used much more. The mix is about equal parts Van Dyke brown, Raw Sienna and Burnt Sienna + 2 drops of black. It gave the body a nice caramel sort of colour but I want something darker so after a bit of cleaning up and light rub (steel wool or more 320 grit?) I will go at it again with a more intense version of the same colour (double the # of drops of each dye) and see what comes out. Worst case, I can always sand it back and try again, right?
I did find one glue spot on the front face near where the crack between wood pieces was glued but it's relatively small - could have been much worse given the size of the crack ;)
Here's a couple pictures of the progress to date anyways. The close up (middle) picture is probably the closest to the real colour - the bottom one came our rather red looking.

Attachment 9307
Attachment 9308
Attachment 9309

I'm thinking of staining the back of the neck the same colour. Anyone see issues with staining the back and leaving the natural maple of the fretboard?

Peter.

If the glue spot doesn't come out with sanding, be ruthless, get some really coarse grade sandpaper and really give that area a work over, then use some appropriate coloured wood filler to get the area flat with everywhere else....any staining should impregnate the filler, leaving you with a even looking finish to the rest of your guitar....try getting rid of the glue first though.

With the dyes, are you using powdered ones or premixed ones in a bottle?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tweaky

If the glue spot doesn't come out with sanding, be ruthless, get some really coarse grade sandpaper and really give that area a work over, then use some appropriate coloured wood filler to get the area flat with everywhere else....any staining should impregnate the filler, leaving you with a even looking finish to the rest of your guitar....try getting rid of the glue first though.

With the dyes, are you using powdered ones or premixed ones in a bottle?

---

I think I've got the glue mostly taken care of. I didn't have any Goof Off / Goo Gone handy, so I tried the suggested technique of using a small brass bristle brush to work the area with the glue and it worked surprisingly well. Just roughed it up a small amount - didn't have to press very hard - and the second round of stain went on quite evenly. I used the darker mix of dye (doubled all the dye) this time and the colour is much darker this time. I think I may leave the face this colour and then go for an even darker side/back. I'm using liquid aniline dyes from www.woodessence.com. I'll try to get some pics posted of the face after the 2nd staining.
Any suggestions on what to use to remove any fluff from the basswood that gets raised through the staining process? Don't want to remove the stain - just smooth out any fibres that got raised.

Peter

That will happen with any wetting of the wood surface.....depends if you intend to put more dye onto it, or find it dark enough.

Wait till you get that correct, then swab off parts you deem too dark as best you can before it dries.

You want to wet / dry swab out, dye as best you can to get the colour you want...... If you have a veneer top, you only have .5mm of veneer to work with, so sanding is NOT what you want to be doing to adjust colour.

You also have the problem of possibly over saturating the veneer, making it lift...so be careful..... it's a fine line between whatever you choose to do.

A solid top like yours..... well you have a lot of latitude , and very little can actually mess up to such a stage that you need to think of a total refinish.

Dont worry too much about any fibers that may stand up.
No need to sand as this will give you extra tooth for stain and finish coats to hang onto.

Nice progress Peter , keep going mate

Progress has been slow, but progress none the less.
I was a bit afraid of going overboard when dying the body just because I'd never used liquid dyes before and didn't know how much to use or what the combinations of colours would result in.
After the first round of staining had dried, I really wanted something a bit deeper - especially since I wanted to do the sides/back a really rich dark colour. In the end, I did one more round with the same batch of dye I used the first time and it got a bit darker but I wanted something a bit richer looking so I mixed in an equal part of Amber to give it a bit more of a yellow tint rather than the brown I had been using. This has worked out pretty well I think - I'm pretty happy with it although overall it's just a tad darker than I wanted the face to be.
The back/sides were a bit more of a challenge - it just wasn't getting dark enough, so in a fit of impatience I said to heck with it and put in 6 drops of black. I saw someone else had posted a black stained tele recently I think and liked how it looked. It can always be sanded off, right? As it turns out it's pretty much bang on what I wanted - blackish but with a chestnut hue to it as well.
I thought I might as well try a slight sunburst look so I rolled the darker colour onto the face just for an inch or so. It was tougher than I thought to get a smooth transition. In the end I did one more coat of the lighter face dye and blended it back into the darker colour - that seemed to work better than trying to go from dark to light.

Final stain
Attachment 9620Attachment 9622Attachment 9623

I also went ahead and cut the headstock to shape. I used a template I found online but it didn't quite match up with the kit so I just lined up the holes (that part was okay) and used what curves I could and freehanded the part close to the nut. I used a coping saw to cut it to shape - it did leave a few kerf marks that took a bit more sanding than I hoped might be called for - that maple is a lot harder than basswood :D. The rough sanding is done but still need to do lots of finer sanding before I stain it. I'll leave the fretboard natural but will stain the back of the neck the same colour as the face of the body I think.
Attachment 9624Attachment 9625

Long weekend next week so I hope to get a bit further with the neck.
Does it make any difference if you finish the neck before / after doing a fret job (other than the chance of dinging the finish if you do it afterwards)?

Making decent progress with the finishing so far.
I've gotten 3 coats of Tru Oil on the body and it's starting to level out and get an overall sheen to it (after first couple coats there were still patches where it looked like it was still soaking in more than others).
I also stained the neck with the same dye as the face of the body. I masked off the fretboard since pretty much everyone recommends not staining the fretboard - just use Dr Duck condition. I'm just wondering now, what's the best way to put the TO on. Should I keep the masking on and leave the side edge of the fretboard unfinished (just with dr duck) or should I remove the masking on the side (leave the top of the fretboard masked) and put TO all the way up the side to the top face of the fretboard? I'm also wondering whether I should put any finish on the heel of the neck where it fits into the body - will it make the fit too tight?
Attachment 9872Attachment 9873Attachment 9874

Attachment 9875

The dark sunburst effect on the edge seems to have faded on me and now looks like more of a distressed/worn effect that isn't what I intended but I still think it looks okay.
Hope to get another coat or two of TO on the body this weekend. It's very dry and warm in the basement - each thin layer seems to dry within 24hrs.

While putting a second layer of TO on the neck today, I noticed a dark line on the side of the fretboard. At first I thought it was a wayward hair from our black lab, but on closer inspection it looks like the fretboard may be cracked. There is a matching line on the other side of the fretboard as well, starting at the 6th fret and running towards the 5th fret. It starts at the base of the fret marking etched on the side of the fretboard and running deeper towards the wood making up the main part of the neck. Here's a picture showing what I mean.
Attachment 9915Attachment 9916

Anyone know if I should be worried about this? Do you think the fretboard will start to crack up through the fret?

Starting to look at getting the hardware in place on this build and while reviewing the bag of parts I realized I had no idea what to do with the 5 springs. I know 2 are for the neck PUP and 3 for the bridge, but how/where do you install them? Do you take the bolts out of the PUPS and then put the bolts through the bridge/pickguard, through the spring, then back into the PUP? Does anyone have a picture of what they should look like?

Hey Peter, great progress. I haven't got a picture but the pickup springs but you are correct with your assumption. The springs will go between the pickup and pickguard for the neck pup and between the bridge pup and bridge plate. Just allows the pickup heights to be adjusted up and down during the setup phase.
Other questions you have asked staining the neck heel will not affect a bolt on neck. If it was a set (glued) neck then you want that section to be bare maple. Think the crack on the side of the fingerboard should be ok, looks like a very thin crack. Keep an eye on it when the axe is stringed up and playing.
With tru oil of the side of the neck I usually remove the masking tape and oil up to the top edge of the fingerboard so all the levels are the same.
Axe is looking great, love the colour !

Woah! Peter, that colour is looking fantastic. I would apply TO without the masking tape. It gets tacky quickly and you add it in thin coats so to prevent runs. Like Wokks said you probably want it to be even. Nevertheless, you can always sand it back from the edge of the fret board if you don't like it.

@Wokka,
Thanks for your confirming what to do with the springs. Got them installed now and I think I've done it correctly (for the bridge at least). Regarding the crack, Adam has graciously said he will replace it, as it looks like a factory defect (can't beat the customer service!). So I'm going to order kit #3 (FS-1 or ES-2V) and get him to send the replacement neck along with it.
@Andy, Yeah I really like the way the colours came out, especially for my first attempt at mixing dyes. I wish the sunburst and come out a bit stronger with the dark around the edge, but I'm happy.
Not getting a really thick even finish with the Tru Oil but it really does protect - I know 'cause I knocked the body onto the floor the other day (water softener overflowed and when I went to clear space around it, I knocked the case that the body was sitting on - just about cried - but the most noticeable ding is on the backside so you don'y notice it as much.
Dumb question of the day..... the neck plate that goes on the back came with a little plastic 'tray' that it was sitting in. It has holes where the screw holes in the plate are..... do you install the plate with that plastic thingy under it or just throw it away and use just the metal plate directly on the back of the body?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by peterh

@Wokka,
I know 'cause I knocked the body onto the floor the other day (water softener overflowed and when I went to clear space around it, I knocked the case that the body was sitting on - just about cried - but the most noticeable ding is on the backside so you don'y notice it as much.

---

(slow mo) - NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooo

I feel your pain mate. dropped and dinged my tele build the other day.

I use the plastic on my neck plates, but I guess it personal taste. For me its one less thing that can vibrate.

Started to tackle the squaring up of the neck and body this morning.
Got the neck clamped in place, squared up the front edge of the bridge with the back side of the bridge pup route (68mm back from the bridge pup cavity) and proceeded to string the two E strings to check for alignment.
It looks pretty even all the way along - both strings have about 4mm between the string and the edge of the fretboard at the nut and at the body. The neck does seem to get a bit wider around the 15th fret by a mm or so. At the widest point I measured 5.5mm between the string and the edge of the fretboard (roughly).
The bridge was set with saddles moved as far forward as the low E string saddle could go (the E/A saddle adjusting screw is shorter than the other two - the other screws have about 3mm of travel left to the end of the screw) which gave me 323mm to the middle of the 12th fret. This is the same measurement I got from the nut to the middle of the 12th fret. I think that I've got it right but before I drill any holes can you guys have a look at the pictures below and let me know if everything looks okay?
Attachment 10615
Attachment 10616

Next up is to put the copper shielding tape on. I assume in addition to all cavities, I should shield the back of the control plate as well? After that - time to tackle the electronics upgrades (pots/cap).

Hi Peter,

On the home stretch now!

On my TLA-1R, Wokks told me to measure to the centre of the 12th fret wire, not the dot marker. Typically nut to 12th fret on an F type (scale 25.5") should be 323/324mm.

The control plate on a tele normally wouldn't normally be shielded as its metal, but yours is painted black. I know someone on the forum had a bit of difficulty in grounding their bridge because of the black paint and had to scratch a bit away. If you've got enough copper tape, sure, why not do it.

By the way, if you are using PBG switches and pots, you wont have a problem, but If you have upgraded swtiches etc they may short by touching the shielding. The control cavity rout usually needs to be widened and deepened to accommodate for this. But as I said if PBG stuff is used...no problemo.

Enjoy!

Thanks Andy,
I did measure to the 12th fret wire, not the dot but thanks for clarifying. I guess I'm good as long as I've got 323mm on both measurements for top and bottom E string? I've got to re-read that sticky post about intonation compensation (need more on the low strings?).
Everything is prewired to the control panel at the factory but I bought some Bourns mini 250K pots and orange drop cap to upgrade the ones that are built in. I'll have to do some measuring on that I guess. The way they soldered the cap on, it knocks against the side of the cavity anyways, so it's good that I'm replacing it - will have to make sure on where is goes though, so I don't end up with the same problem.

I think you'll be right with your measurements. There doesn't look like anything worrying there. I made some minor errors when building my first ST-1. Some I wouldn't have picked until I played the guitar for a while, especially bridge placement. It doesn't make it a bad guitar (for me), I still play it everyday. but I jot these little things down, in a year I'll revisit it and tweak/fix them.

Yeah I used Gotoh's which are very very wide. I needed to widen the rout considerably (I sanded it by hand with 80 grit and it took a few beers to get there). I also needed to widen the control plate holes as the shaft is also wider than the PBG pots. I imagine you'll have to do the same with the Bourns.

One issue i've had with replacing pots with gotoh's and bourns, is that you only get one nut that fits the shaft. as the shaft is quite long, it protrudes too far out of the control plate. The shafts on bourns are imperial and thats not easy to match in OZ (don't know about Canada) So I used a circlip on the shaft to stop the pot from pushing too far out and the nut and washer to hold the control plate onto the pot. If you get a better fix than that, let me know!

Shorting issues usually happen with CLR switches as they are soo big. I had to rout a channel in the bottom of the control cavity so it didn't touch the shielding.

No issues with the orange caps.

Great upgrades!

I you are worried about bridge placement, then a good resource is the Stewmac fret position calculator. It will tell you exactly where to place the bridge by bridge type based on your scale lebgth measurements.

https://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator.html

Loving the colour btw. This is going to be one beautiful Tele.

cheers,
Gav.

Gavin,
I gave that calculator a try and maybe I'm a little thick, but I found the wording a bit confusing. In the diagram near the top is says the scale length is from the nut to the contact point on the saddle but further down it has a different measurement of 652.333mm with a description of "Distance indicated is from the fretboard edge of the nut to center of forward-most mounting screw or pivot post." What exactly do they mean by mounting screw and pivot post? All the mounting screws on the kit bridge are at the back if I have the saddles set for 646mm scale, the mounting screws are 696mm from the nut.
Thanks for your kind words on the colour. I'm pretty happy with it. Will put a few more coats of TO on it after I have the hardware locations marked. It still doesn't have the real thicker, glossier coat I thought it would have. Maybe that's typical for TO finishes though?

I measured to the top of the bridge where the string makes contactAttachment 10620

Made a bit more progress today. I'm stressing though.... all the holes are drilled and pieces attached.
I double and triple measured the scale length and it matches what it's supposed to be - keeping my fingers crossed.
Drilled the neck as well and screwed it into place. High/low E strings still look evenly spaced so I think that part's okay.
All the cavities are lined with copper tape. Haven't done the underside of the control panel yet though. Still have to change the electronics. I used a reamer to enlarge one of the pot holes to accomodate the Bourns pot. Need to source a few thin washers to put behind the pot though - it stick out about 1/8" more than factory pot did.
Still some major nut issues to work out though I think. The factory plastic nut seems to be < 90 degrees between nut and fretboard. I think this is making the high e string buzz like a sitar. Dr_Nomis had the same issue - changing the nut fixed it.
Anyways, here are a couple pics to show the progress.
Question - there is a hole drilled from the bridge pup cavity to the bridge which I think is for grounding the bridge - do I solder a wire to the bridge or just leave a bare wire touching the bridge. I have a black painted bridge - I assume I'll have to scrape off some paint to make a good contact?
Attachment 10627
Attachment 10628

The mounting screws are those at the back of the telecaster bridge. For the scale length, provide 2 x the distance from the leading edge of the nut to the middle of the 12th fret. On the "what is scale length" link it has this to say:

"WHAT IS SCALE LENGTH?
A guitar's scale length is calculated by measuring the distance from the front edge of the nut, where it butts against the end of the fingerboard, to the center of the 12th (octave) fret, then doubling that measurement."

This is what they want you to provide.

cheers,
Gav.

Well the bone nuts I ordered came in today and it only took a bit of sanding to get the depth down so it would fit the nut slot BUT it looks like it's about 1/16" shy of being the right height. I think the factory nut is about the right height based on the gap under the 1st fret when pressing down on 3rd fret. When I do the same with the bone nut in place, there's only a gap big enough for 1, maybe 2, sheets of paper between the string and the 1st fret.
Is there any way to easily/securely shim the nut so it's at the correct height?

Pete that colour is so nice. Awesome depth.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by peterh

Well the bone nuts I ordered came in today and it only took a bit of sanding to get the depth down so it would fit the nut slot BUT it looks like it's about 1/16" shy of being the right height. I think the factory nut is about the right height based on the gap under the 1st fret when pressing down on 3rd fret. When I do the same with the bone nut in place, there's only a gap big enough for 1, maybe 2, sheets of paper between the string and the 1st fret.
Is there any way to easily/securely shim the nut so it's at the correct height?

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You could try gluing a thin sliver of plastic on the bottom of the nut, using super glue, to shim it to about the right height, to get the 1st fret action height in the ballpark, get yourself a set of Automotive feeler gauges from a shop like Repco, then find the feeler gauge marked .020 inch, use that to check the gap between all six strings at the 1st fret, if the gap between the underside of the string and the top of the 1st fret is small enough so that the .020 feeler gauge just fits between it then the 1st fret action is correct, hope that helps.

Hey Doc, I'll pick up a new set of feeler gauges tomorrow. I have a set of my dad's old ones marked 6 to 32 but I don't know if thats hundreds of an inch or something else. That measurement of .020" - is that on the open strings or when pressing down on the 3rd fret?

On another note, I put all the wiring together tonight and ..... it makes a hell of a buzz. I've had some conversations going on another thread about pickup wiring and I thought I understood what I should be doing but obviously not. The volume is working fine - roll it back and the buzz decreases, roll it forward and it gets louder up to a point and then it gets pretty quiet right near the top end. I tried tapping the pickups with a screwdriver to see if anything was working and I might have been getting something from the bridge pickup but don't think I heard anything from the neck pup.
I'm wondering if I still misunderstood the grounding of the copper shielding. I used the outer braid from a piece of wire as the ground from the bridge, soldered it to the copper in the cavity and then soldered it to the pot case. Should I have used coated wire instead of bare mesh?
Here's a couple shots of the control panel wiring. Yeah... it's a bit messy but I haven't soldered much lately. All the connections are solid as far as I can tell. Anything look totally amiss?
Attachment 10760Attachment 10761