H's TL-1Q, first build.

[peterh]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but you said you measured to the MIDDLE of the 12th fret, and I thought (and measured) to the top of the (12th) fret wire on my build and the bridge did not have to be moved all the way forward. Maybe that's what you meant but I thought it worth bringing up just in case.

[wokkaboy]

Hi Peter, yes that's correct centre of the 12th fret wire to the front of bridge saddle groove. Most of the tele kits the bridge cavity is a smidge too far south so usually you will need to butt the bridge plate up so the pickup touches the front of the pup cavity

[UpperCaseH]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but you said you measured to the MIDDLE of the 12th fret, and I thought (and measured) to the top of the (12th) fret wire on my build and the bridge did not have to be moved all the way forward. Maybe that's what you meant but I thought it worth bringing up just in case.

Sorry I was unclear - I measured to the crown of the 12th fret, in my mind that's the "middle of the (fret) wire".

Tonight I got the neck and bridge measured, aligned, drilled, and test-installed. Nerve-wracking, but not too hard. Measurements were all OK and I fit the low and high E tuners and strings (just held in place) to make sure everything was aligned and it went smoothly apart from breaking the (cheap plastic) handle off a (cheap plastic) clamp. Guess I need some new tools Did the bridge with the pickup in place as I'd read some people have trouble with the fit, but with the bridge plate moved just a bit less than as far forward as the pickup would allow, everything worked fine.

I marked the holes to drill for the pick guard, electronics plate, jack, etc, but then realised that I don't have the right sized drill bit , so I'll have to wait until the weekend to sort that out unless I end up with some spare time tomorrow.

Once the bridge and neck were in place, and I realised I couldn't do any more drilling, I thought I'd throw the strings on and see what happened. Turns out everything's lined up where it should be, so that's nice.

The action seems a bit weird and it makes me wonder if I've mucked something up. The first few frets are fine, but after that the action is quite high. I'll try to attach some pics so you can see what I mean. I tried tightening the truss rod (loosened it about an eighth turn, then tightened a quarter), but it feels like it's at the end of its adjustment without much improvement.

I'm probably just worrying too much and too early, but if there's something I can do at this stage that I haven't thought of (or if it's actually fine and I'm worrying unnecessarily), I'd love to hear about it.

1st fret:


12th fret:

[stan]

Hey H, before you play truss rod games, check the neck itself, here is a quick way:

Capo or similar on the first fret. Fret the neck also at the position where the neck meets the body (around the 16th fret depending on type).
Now at the half way point between these , tap the string onto the fret with your finger, there should be just a little movement before the string hits the fret, like just under half a mm.
Just under half a mm is about right, depending on the feel you want.
Too big a gap means the neck has too much relief and you need to tighten the truss rod (for a headstock adjustable one like you have then clockwise looking from the headstock top the bridge)
If there is no gap, not enough, etc, adjust the opposite way.
If these are all good and the action is still too high you may need to adjust bridge height (lower)

[UpperCaseH]

I was lucky enough to be free this arvo, and since the wife's out I got to pick up some tools and get a bit more stuff done.

Hey H, before you play truss rod games, check the neck itself, here is a quick way:

Capo or similar on the first fret. Fret the neck also at the position where the neck meets the body (around the 16th fret depending on type).
Now at the half way point between these , tap the string onto the fret with your finger, there should be just a little movement before the string hits the fret, like just under half a mm.
Just under half a mm is about right, depending on the feel you want.
Too big a gap means the neck has too much relief and you need to tighten the truss rod (for a headstock adjustable one like you have then clockwise looking from the headstock top the bridge)
If there is no gap, not enough, etc, adjust the opposite way.
If these are all good and the action is still too high you may need to adjust bridge height (lower)

Did this. There seemed to be slightly too much of a gap, tightened the rod an eighth turn and it now works how you said - about half a mm of play between the string and fret crown halfway between 1st and 17th fret.

I've adjusted the bridge saddles all the way down now. Without capoing or fretting anything, here's what it looks like at 1st and 12th fret. It still feels a little high, but I can probably live with it. I'm not sure a shim would help, because I reckon if it were any lower below ~5th it'd buzz like mad. Here's some pics, do you guys reckon it looks ok? (Got a decent ruler today too!)

1st fret:


12th fret:


Saddles right down:


After that, I got all the drilling done too. If the neck looks OK, next step is disassemble everything and get to sanding (and sanding, and sanding, and sanding, right?) Also picked up a coping saw for the headstock, but since I've never used one before I reckon I'm gonna practice on scrap wood a lot before touching the guitar with it.

EDIT: I should be measuring from the fret crown to the string, right? Not the fretboard to the string like I've been doing!

[stan]

great pics there H, you've done well.

Yes measure from the crown of the fret to the string, but the pics are good and allow us to see the distances involved.

Others may correct me but it looks a bit tall at the first fret, you could possibly take some meat off the bottom of the nut and drop it a bit more, but if you can live with it then fine. Also I assume the neck is just press fitted in the body, so things may change a little after clamping and gluing....

Your plan is good, sanding and headstock shaping, good idea to practice first if you are new to coping saws, but if you are careful and stay a bit outside the line of the cut, and finish with files/sanding for the final profile, you should be fine.

Good work, enjoy

[UpperCaseH]

Thanks Stan!

It's a bolt-on neck, so it's currently bolted on because I wanted to catch any problems early on. I reckon I'll disassemble at this point and start sanding the body, and make any fine adjustments once it's complete-ish. If I do decide the nut needs to be lowered, what's the best way to remove it? I've actually been thinking I might order a bone nut anyway, but I'd still need to know how to take this one off.

Plan is to go carefully/lightly sand at 320 on the veneer and 180-320 on the back and sides. Unless I wind up with more unexpected spare time (not impossible right now), it'll probably take me at least a week to get that done.

Not quite sure about the neck, I figure I need to go at least up to 600, but where do I start? 180? I can't decide what to do with the neck finish in general. I think it'd look pretty great natural or maybe tinted slightly towards the body colour. I'm finishing the body with a dingotone Karijini Red kit. Could I use any of the stuff in that to make a lighter color for the neck? If not, what's a good (preferably easy-ish) way to fnish it natural?

[UpperCaseH]

...and a final thing for today, sketched up a headstock shape. I'm more of a fan of fatter heads rather than thin telecaster style ones - probably comes from my favorite instrument being a p-bass. It's actual size on the paper. The pencil lines are traced from a generic tele-ish template I found online, the tuner Xs line up with the ones on the actual guitar. (The top line is perfectly straight but looks slightly curved because the paper's slightly curled up in the pic).

[stan]

those maple necks are pretty smooth, you could probably start at 200-240 ish and go from there.
the veneers are super thin so take care
you'll have to wait for DB or wokka on the dingo tone, headstock looks good

[UpperCaseH]

Yeah, the neck feels smooth compared to everything else. I'll see about starting on 240.

I've disassembled everything for sanding. Traced the headstock outline onto the headstock:


Should I follow the existing bottom curve, or is it fine to cut it like that? I'm not bothered if I need to re-draw it, but I'd hate to take too much off through ignorance.

I gave the body a light rub down with a damp cloth to look for glue spots. I think I've found two.





Not too sure what to do about them. I've read "sanding probably won't work, use a wire brush". I'm 100% sure that doesn't mean "scrub it with the brush you last used to get rust off an old trailer", but apart from that I've got no idea and I can't seem to find an explanation anywhere - probably I'm not using the right search terms.