Custom Tele build scheduled for this year.

[DrNomis_44]

I had a look at the pic I took of my mate's Mexican Tele and compared it's scale length to the one on my custom Tele and it looks like it ends up at about the same point on the bridge, that got me thinking about how I could fix the issue with the string holes being in the wrong position on the bridge and the best solution I can come up with is to use a round needle-file to lengthen the hole so that the pre-drilled string holes in the body are clear, fortunately the needle-file I'm using seems to be working okay with the metal that the bridge is made out of, although it will take me some time, I need to lengthen the holes by about 3mm.


I'm just in the process of marking-out the centreline of the neck so that I can position the bridge correctly so that the back and front-edge of the bridge are 90 degrees to the centreline, which is important to get right since it throws the intonation at the 12th fret out of whack and just makes the guitar look a bit wonky, on the Squier Tele body, the bridge wasn't positioned so that the back and front-edge were 90 degrees to the centreline, they were actually angled a bit.


Sorry if I seem to be a bit nit-picky accurate about this, again I blame it on my apprenticeship as a fitter and machinist, anyway, I measured the width of the neck right at the start of the scale-length and used the calculator function on my computer to divide the measurement by two, this gives the first neck centreline point, which turned out to be half the neck width, or about 20.7mm, next I need to do the same at the other end of the neck where the last fret is, that gave me 27.0mm, I marked both the points on a piece of blue 3M tape at each end of the neck, that gives the two pints for the neck centreline, all I have to do now is use my 600mm steel ruler to mark the centreline on the body, to keep the back edge of the bridge at 90 degrees to the centreline, I'm going to use my Stewmac string action gauge because I know that all four corners are at 90 degrees.


And then all I need to do is mark the positions of all the mounting screw holes and drill them to the correct depth and size.




I think I've got it right....I checked that the centreline of the bridge lined-up with the centreline of the neck and it looks to be spot-on, I used my 600mm steel ruler to check where the edges of the fret board line up and they line up to within 1mm of the two e-string pole pieces on the bridge pickup, so it's all looking good, the last issue to sort out is getting the nut height right to give the correct 1st fret action according to Fender specs, and after that's fixed I can then go ahead with wiring-up all the electronics before putting a set of new strings on the guitar, prior to doing a full set-up on it.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


Finally got the issue with the nut sorted out, it was a real pain of a job but I got there in the end, anyway, I'm just about to start wiring the custom Telecaster up prior to putting some new strings on it so I can get it set up to where it's playable, hopefully I won't have any problems with setting the individual string intonation, I've chosen to wire-up my custom Telecaster to 1966 Fender Telecaster specs, to do that I need to swap out the stock 33nF tone cap for a 47nF (closest value to .050uF, or 50nF), I've chosen to go with a 47uF/630V DC Greencap I bought from my local Jaycar Electronics store, I've got an easily readable 1966 Telecaster schematic I found in my Stewmac Guitar Repair handbook, so....let the fun begin.


Update 2:

She's all wired-up and everything works perfect first go, I just put a new regular set of DAddario 42-09 gauge strings and it's ready for a tune up, string alignment on the neck seems to be fine with no strings hanging off the edge of the fretboard, while bringing the strings up to a bit of tension, i did a quick test of the intonation at the 12th fret, seems to sound fine to my ears but I won't know for sure till I check it with a tuner, the 1st fret action is much better now.


Update 3:

Okay got the guitar all tuned up to pitch, I had to shim the neck up a bit with a piece of 80 grit sandpaper, the action is much lower now than it was before I shimmed the neck, I checked the intonation at the 12th fret and all the strings are flat by about 25 cents, as measured by a tuner app I used called ApTuner, the saddles are as far forward as the intonation adjustment screws will allow, so I'll need some longer ones for sure, I checked with my tape measure and it looks like all the saddles need to come towards the bridge pickup (to shorten the scale-length, since the intonation at the 12th fret is flat, therefore the string length needs to be shortened) by about 5mm or 8mm or so.


Looks like I'm going to have to try popping into my local Jaycar Electronics store for some 25mm M3 screws just to get enough intonation screw adjustment range, I've tried the longest screws I have that fit the saddles, but I still need more adjustment range to bring the saddle closer to the bridge pickup.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:

Went to my local Jaycar electronics store and bought a pack of 25 25mm M3 screws and a box of assorted springs, I've just installed the new screws and springs on the bridge of my custom Telecaster, and it looks like it's going to sort out the 12th fret intonation issues with each string, I've got each of the six string saddles adjusted forward enough so that they are all at exactly 25.5 Inches, which is the typical scale length Fender use for their Stratocasters and Telecasters, now to go ahead and see if I can accurately set the 12th fret intonation for each string.


I did a quick rough-in of the intonation with my Snark tuner and then gave the guitar a quick test-play through my Marshall amp, and it sounds way better now, much more in tune, going to do a more intensive intonation set-up with Aptuner shortly, but I think I've got it in the ballpark now.


Here's a pic of the bridge just after all the saddles were adjusted to the 25.5 Inch scale length, when I checked the intonation for each string using my Snark tuner they all looked spot-on:




You can see how much further the saddles needed to be moved towards the bridge pickup in order to get the intonation set correctly, well more ore less anyway, it was definitely a big improvement from a rather elegant solution to the problem, I didn't have to do any extensive surgery to the body routing at all, I think it doesn't look to bad at all.

[DrNomis_44]

Hey Doc, if you are doing string through how does that bridge line up with pre drilled holes? The base plate looks quite long and if string through holes line up (which I doubt) then longer saddle screws and springs may solve the problem otherwise a new base plate or complete bridge could be required.

Turns out we were both right about using some longer screws and springs, that definitely fixed the problem, the guitar is playing way more in tune and sounds much better too, it has some good sustain on it, it loves being put through an overdriven amp.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:

Okay after using ApTuner, a software guitar tuner, to check the intonation on all the strings, I've managed to get them all as close to spot-on as I can humanly get them, so she's all good now, time to start playing her, once I've upgraded my account with soundcloud next fortnight, I'll record a demo so you can hear what the custom Telecaster sounds like, I am really happy with it because it turned out way better than I hoped it would, it's definitely going in my collection of gigging guitars, I need to go plug it into my Fender Super Twin amp and see how it sounds through it.

[wazkelly]

Hi Doc, with the saddles so far forward how does the string through position sit amongst all of that? The pics look as though they are buried way underneath which could make string changes a bit of a challenge.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

[DrNomis_44]

Hi Doc, with the saddles so far forward how does the string through position sit amongst all of that? The pics look as though they are buried way underneath which could make string changes a bit of a challenge.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

It's actually not much of a problem because there's enough of an opening in the string-through holes to let the strings pass through, the angle of the strings going over the saddles doesn't seem to be much of a problem either cause all the strings ring-out cleanly with good sustain, I'll post a few more pics.






With the six string holes in the bridge plate, I found that there was enough of an opening to let the strings pass easily through, putting new strings on the guitar, or re-stringing it is actually not that hard at all.

[Andy40]

Nice job Doc. if you got the intonation that good it would be better than most 3 saddled teles

[DrNomis_44]

Nice job Doc. if you got the intonation that good it would be better than most 3 saddled teles

Cheers mate, yep I managed to get all the strings intonated spot-on, it definitely made a big difference to the playability of the guitar, I tried it through my Marshall amp and my Fender Super Twin amp and it sounded really good in both cases, the strings all ring-out cleanly with very little buzzing, sustain is really good too, particularly on the low e-string, I tweaked the pickup height setting a bit and got it to Fender specs, the pickups are the Tonerider Hot Classics, they are really good sounding pickups, very happy with them.


The finished Custom Telecaster:

[DrNomis_44]

Anyway, I'm calling the build project officially completed.