Colin's Tele Adventure

Hi all
I asked Adam to custom order a tele for me. Being a lefty there is never much choice about so I thought this would be an opportunity to build something a little different from the run of the mill offerings.

The back of the body has some nice grain. I quite like the way basswood comes up with a bit of stain.
Attachment 31434

I am probably going to hit the back with some nice charcoal stain as that worked well on the bass I did previously.

But it was the front that really grabbed my attention.
Attachment 31435

A stunning spalted maple cap.
Not sure what I want to do to that at the moment but I am fairly sure that I don't want to cover it with the black pick guard that came with the kit. I am thinking of a light yellow/gold stain for the cap.

Only issue there is what to do with the neck routing. My thoughts were to put a P90 in the neck as it looks to be big enough.

So that leads me to some questions for the brains trust out there:
1. Would a P90 in the neck and a single coil in the bridge cause any conflicts?
2. What pots would best suit - 250k or 500k? (I will probably replace the stock ones)
3. What would be the best capacitor to use for the tone pot?
4. I was thinking of contouring the back of the body similar to a strat. What would be the likely impact on the sound?
5. If I do contour the back what is the best way to approach this? (I have not attempted this before so would probably need to buy suitable tools)

At this point I am also not going to grain fill - just sand the body smooth (and very carefully and lightly smooth the cap - it is very thin), stain and oil.

I will probably have many more questions. My aim this time around is to make something unique.

Thanks in advance for any assistance provided to the questions.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by colin2121

Hi all

2. What pots would best suit - 250k or 500k? (I will probably replace the stock ones)

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Be prepared to widen the control cavity a small amount to accommodate a wider pot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by colin2121

5. If I do contour the back what is the best way to approach this? (I have not attempted this before so would probably need to buy suitable tools)

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The sky is the limit (or your budget) I contoured my tele with a course rasp and sandpaper.
Cheap but the investment was some serious elbow grease.

cheers, Mark.

Quote:

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1. Would a P90 in the neck and a single coil in the bridge cause any conflicts?
2. What pots would best suit - 250k or 500k? (I will probably replace the stock ones)
3. What would be the best capacitor to use for the tone pot?
4. I was thinking of contouring the back of the body similar to a strat. What would be the likely impact on the sound?
5. If I do contour the back what is the best way to approach this? (I have not attempted this before so would probably need to buy suitable tools)

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1 - You want to make sure the P-90 is the reverse polarity and reverse wound to your bridge pickup if you want the middle switch position to be in phase and hum-cancelling.

2 - A lot of people use both for P-90 fitted teles. A 500k for volume and a 250k for tone. It's ultimately what sounds good to *you*.
As Mark said, control cavity will require widening if you use 24mm pots. This may open a can of worms but, there's nothing wrong with mini pots if they're good ones. It's more about the quality of the pot, not the size IMO. So if you're not prepared to widen the cavity, maybe look at buying good quality minis.

3 - Again, tone is subjective, so it's what you hear & like, but the most common cap with teles is .047uf. I have typically used .047 or .033 with good results (for my ears). FWIW don't get caught up the BS about "orange drop" or "vintage" caps. Cheap, modern ceramic or poly caps ARE JUST FINE.

4 - I contour ALL my guitars. It just makes sense to me and feels so much better IMO. I would argue that there is NO impact on tone. Whilst I agree with *some* of the debate about tonewood mass/density affect on tone and sustain, I don't think the amount of material removed for a contours is that relevant.

5 - I use either a drum sander (80 grit, in my drill press or corded hand drill) or a flap disc on my 4" angle grinder. Just beware that basswood is quite soft so you want a light touch as material disappears quickly.

Hope this helps. Look forward to seeing the progress. Keep posting pics!

Cheers,
Mick

Quote:

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Originally Posted by king casey

Be prepared to widen the control cavity a small amount to accommodate a wider pot.



The sky is the limit (or your budget) I contoured my tele with a course rasp and sandpaper.
Cheap but the investment was some serious elbow grease.

cheers, Mark.

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Thanks for the info Mark.
I appreciate the feedback. I will take pot size into account - that was something I had not thought of.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by McCreed

1 - You want to make sure the P-90 is the reverse polarity and reverse wound to your bridge pickup if you want the middle switch position to be in phase and hum-cancelling.

2 - A lot of people use both for P-90 fitted teles. A 500k for volume and a 250k for tone. It's ultimately what sounds good to *you*.
As Mark said, control cavity will require widening if you use 24mm pots. This may open a can of worms but, there's nothing wrong with mini pots if they're good ones. It's more about the quality of the pot, not the size IMO. So if you're not prepared to widen the cavity, maybe look at buying good quality minis.

3 - Again, tone is subjective, so it's what you hear & like, but the most common cap with teles is .047uf. I have typically used .047 or .033 with good results (for my ears). FWIW don't get caught up the BS about "orange drop" or "vintage" caps. Cheap, modern ceramic or poly caps ARE JUST FINE.

4 - I contour ALL my guitars. It just makes sense to me and feels so much better IMO. I would argue that there is NO impact on tone. Whilst I agree with *some* of the debate about tonewood mass/density affect on tone and sustain, I don't think the amount of material removed for a contours is that relevant.

5 - I use either a drum sander (80 grit, in my drill press or corded hand drill) or a flap disc on my 4" angle grinder. Just beware that basswood is quite soft so you want a light touch as material disappears quickly.

Hope this helps. Look forward to seeing the progress. Keep posting pics!

Cheers,
Mick

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Thanks for all that feedback Mick. Much appreciated! A lot of guidance there and very useful.
I used a .033uf in my strat build and it sound good to me. I might look at another of that size.
And thanks for the detail on contouring - also very helpful as I have not done that before.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by McCreed

1 - You want to make sure the P-90 is the reverse polarity and reverse wound to your bridge pickup if you want the middle switch position to be in phase and hum-cancelling.

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Hi Mick

I have not really done much in the way of different wiring.
How can I check the polarity of a pickup?
(Probably sounds like a dumb question!)

Thanks

Colin

Quote:

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Originally Posted by colin2121

Hi Mick

I have not really done much in the way of different wiring.
How can I check the polarity of a pickup?
(Probably sounds like a dumb question!)

Thanks

Colin

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Not a dumb question at all. At some point, all us needed to ask about this stuff!

One easy way to check the polar relationship between two pickups is by holding hold them together pole to pole. If the magnets attract each other they are the opposite polarity to each other. If they repel each other (won't stick together) they are the same polarity as each other.

You can also use a analog compass (magnetic, not one on your phone ;)) the polarity of the pickup will be the opposite of what the needle on the compass is pointing to.

Identifying phase is a different issue, but can be dealt with by swapping the positive and negative leads when installing.

Here's a link to Lindy Fralin Pickups that explains all this more clearly. (and it has pictures!)

If you're buying a pickup online, just ask the seller if they can tell you the polarity and wind of the pickup you're interested in. Most decent manufacturers will publish this information or at least make it available, just for these reasons.

Progressing slowly on this one.
Still thinking about the electrics but I have started on the body.
Sanded the body smooth but only lightly rubed the maple cap. Too thin to sand very much. But the surface coating will smooth it out.
Had some nice yellow ash stain left over from the strat build so applied a couple of coats to the maple cap.
I am quite happy with the colour and the grain of the maple cap still shows through nicely.
Attachment 32429

Still progressing slowly.
This is the last build I will be doing so thought I might go for something different.
Some charcoal coloured stain for the back to contrast the yellow ash stain on the cap.
I do like the way it brings up the grain in the basswood.
Attachment 32461

Looking good! That spalted cap is really nice

As far as contouring and whether it affects the sound just remember the audience hear what comes out the amp which is the signal that comes from the pickups. Pickups "read" the magnetic field fluctuation of the vibrating string. They're not microphones so they don't hear any of the audible stuff. The person playing hears that audible stuff because they're close enough to the source.

Finally getting back to this after some interruptions.
Colour has come up nicely on both the front and the back.
Have piled on the coats of tru-oil. Not up to the glossy standard of the swampcaster but I am happy with it.

Attachment 34208
Attachment 34209

And also have managed to copper tape the pickup holes.

Attachment 34210

Headstock also needed some refining.
Rounded the edges to get a nice curve consistent with the body shape.

Attachment 34211
Attachment 34212

Body is looking good, but at what point did this become a 12-string???

I don't recall that in the earlier posts...

Hi Colin,

I'll have the same issue as you. If you don't want to modify the cavity and the backplate you'll have to buy mini-pots (pots with the same size as the ones that come with the kit). Or else, you'll have to remove at least 1 milimeter from each side, except the in the curves. Also enlarge the holes on the backplate.

Attachment 34222 Attachment 34223

I went down the path of using mini pots. One change I am planning is to use a.033 capacitor on the tone pot. Did that on a strat build and found the sound less muddy.

The capacitor value only changes the basic sound when the tone pot isn't turned up fully. There's too much resistance from the pot set at 10 for the reduced treble roll-off with a smaller capacitor value to be heard I've just put a 0.01uF on a Tele and to me that works pretty well, with a gentle loss of treble over most of the pot's travel (audio taper), going down to a duller but still useable sound at the 0 position. I'm not a great user of tone pots but sometimes a Tele's bridge pup bite does need to be restrained.

So you may want to consider using a 0.022uF (or less). Or, use a 500k pot for the tone control to reduce the effect of having a tone capacitor. The passive Fender TBX control adds brightness above a dial setting of 5.5 by then dialling in a 2 meg pot in series with the normal tone pot, which effectively takes the capacitor's effect out of the equation, and is like having a zero-load tone pot, but without the step-jump in sound between the tone pot being in and out of circuit that gives.

Just some options to think about.

I'd go with a linear taper 500k mini pot and a .022 orange drop. That will give you a usable tone control. If you do what many people do and use a 250k pot and .047 cap the tone will go to mud as soon as you creep it off 10, which is why many people don't use the tone pot.
If you are one of those people you can do away with the tone pot altogether as all it is doing is creating resistance.

Always worth experimenting if you don't like the "standard" tone of the tele.
On the strat I did I stayed with the 250K tone pots but went with a log scale rather than linear scale and put the .033 capacitor on it.
I also linked the bridge pickup so the back tone pot functions on both the middle and the bridge pickup. I quite like the sound and the usability of the tone pots.
It does tend to be a personal thing so always worth trying something a little different to see if it suits.
I will try the log scale 250k tone pot with a .033 cap on the tele and see if I like it and make changes from there if needed to get the tone/sound I am after.

Mmmmm ..... the nut on the neck is a right hand one put in backwards (I am a leftie!).
Adam very kindly included a bone nut so the plastic nut will come out and the bone one will go in.

Attached the neck. Nice and straight and satin finish looks good against the body.
Attachment 34265
Attachment 34266
Did not realise how much extra weight would be in the head with the 12 tuners. The neck could easily dive without a decent strap.

Had to clean under the plastic nut. Taped the bone nut in place and used string on the two outside tuners align the bridge.
Scale length looks good and Nice clearance on the sides of the neck. Had to remove the saddles to get at the screws at the back of the bridge.
Attachment 34272
Attachment 34273
Attachment 34274

Working on not using a pickguard. Don't want to cover the spalted veneer.
Cut a pickup mount out of 3 ply pine to cover the large rout at the neck.
Attachment 35445

Well ... finally finished it!
Attachment 36343
The pickup plate has worked and covered the large rout.
I managed to leave the spalted cap mainly uncovered.
The high G was a bugger to tune up but its intonation is good. (Need PPE when tuning the high G though!)
And, more importantly, it sounds like a 12 string. All jangly.
Very happy overall with it.

Glad you finished it and it's all working.

I can't help but think that the ply surround rather detracts from the looks than exposing more of the top adds. I'd suggest either making another one but with a more appropriate spalted veneer on the top, or thinking about cutting down a standard pickguard to expose more of the top, along the lines of the Tuff Dog Tele (though you can always be more extreme if you want).

Attachment 36347

Thanks for the feedback Simon.
Bit difficult to try to match the spalting. I was contemplating doing another in black to see if it sat against the spalting better.

Took a while but I finally got around to finishing this build off properly.
Took the standard pickguard and gave it a trim.
Attachment 41657
I am happy to finally call this build finished.
Not only does it look the goods now - it has a low action and that 12 string sound.

Great! You've also got the benefit of the kit 12-string bridge only being suitable for left-handed use. it's missing the tapped threads in some holes that allow it to be set up for right handed intonation with the thick/thin string fore/aft saddle positions swapped over.

That looks really good! I have never played a 12 string. What are they usually used for, and what does it sound like?
The different scratch plate is an improvement

Good work!
I also prefer the new scratch plate.