First Build: Red and Black Wilko Johnson Telecaster
Hey Guys,
Really, really impressed with some of the builds I’m seeing you put together!
I’m booked in to do a week-long classical guitar building course in the summer, and thought I’d warm up by putting an electric kit together (a telecaster—a red and black one like Wilko Johnson’s, for those of you who are as old as me).
Two quick questions:
1) For positioning the bridge, how do you find the centerline? Do you split the difference down the attached neck and carry on a pencil line through the body?
2) Sanding.
On the Pitbull website it says to start sanding with 120 or 180 grit, and don’t go past 220 grit so there’s still some tooth for the stain.
However, as an experiment, straight out the box I just stroked the body with 2,000 grit (yes, that fine) and already it feels like a newborn’s posterior. If Pitbull says, “sand, sand, and then sand again” what am I missing, because it already feels perfect..?
Thanks and best,
Mark
First Build: Red adn Black Wilko Johnson Telecaster
Oops—did i just start a totally new thread? Is that allowed (or advisable)?
So I'm giving my maple neck the gentlest of massages with 2000 wet and dry paper. It was already good, but I feel a real silky improvement.
However—and this might be my imagination—but I could swear that this black sandpaper is leaving dirty marks on the neck.
Is there something one could use to wash it (I don't want to use water)..?
Mark
How do you hol the bridge steady to measure whether the E strings are parallel?
Set the bridge saddles forwards with about 5mm of thread showing at the front. Fit the top and bottom E tuners (don't fit the small anti-turn screws yet) then run string from these to the E saddles on the bridge. The strings should run so that they are parallel with the edge of the neck. That sets the centre position. Measure the scale length (25.5"/648mm) from the neck side of the nut (top E position) to the middle of the top E saddle (where the string will sit). That sets the fore/aft position. Double check both measurements before marking and drilling the fixing screw holes.
you don't want your strings wandering off to one side of the neck, so that positioning is really important.
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So Simon, I’ve extended lines from the sides of the neck AND run a line down the middle of the fretboard. Both methods agree to within a millimeter where center is.
I’m showing 5mm of thread, bridge is at 25.5” scale length, I’ve got both E strings strung, but my question is:
How do you hold the bridge in position while you go about the very fine business (a mil left or right seems to throw the parallelism of the strings off considerably) of fixing its final place?
(Btw how do you upload pics to this site? Alert box keeps telling me upload "failed")
Gormless Mac User