First Build: Red and Black Wilko Johnson Telecaster

[Sonic Mountain]

Ah I see, are you using the actual guitar strings? I just used some normal household string and knotted it through the tuner holes. Process was:

I first attached the neck. Pushing the edge of it hard up against the bridge pocket- particularly towards the upper 'horn'. I clamped it in place and drilled the pilot holes into the neck (be carful of the depth! check against the screws - I often tape the drill bit at the depth I want to drill to). Then screw the neck on with the back plate. You'll probably find the predrilled holes are a bit misaligned. You can widen the diameter of these a bit if it helps, then when screwing the screws in, do it progressively going from corner to corner. With the neck secured you can take the clamp off and line everything up to is fixed point. I placed the pick guard on with the bridge to get that gap nice (this was also where I noticed the bridge pick up cavity being a tad small and slightly too far away from the neck for my liking).

Then draw your two e 'strings' over the bridge and move everything around until you get good spacings to the edge all along the fret board. I did this purely by eyeballing it. With the neck fixed and the strings taut you should be able to see pretty clearly if they are off. Then mark everything off with a pencil. You can pre drill the mounting holes, but care will need to be taken during finishing that no water from any wet and dry sanding gets in them or the wood will swell and the finish will crack. Does that help?

[Mark Gill]

[QUOTE=Sonic Mountain;160473]Ah I see, are you using the actual guitar strings? I ...
Does that help?
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Oops, so when you guys say "strings" you don't actually mean "strings" but "strings"

Yes, thank you so much, that really does help.

Ok, so now I think I've got the bridge lined up, but the (after sales) pickguard is now miles away from the bridge (I measure it at 7 millimeters).

Should I leave that gap, or move the bridge forward and just let the six individual bridge adjuster screws stick out more (If I move the front of the bridge to 2/3mm from the pickguard, then the adjuster screws will stick out from the bridge 9 mm (about a fourth of the screw shaft) even before I begin the intonation process)..?

Or should I just try to find shorter bridge adjuster screws..?

Mark

[Mark Gill]

I don't know how I upoladed two pictures..