First build - offset Tele

[Simon Barden]

You’re certainly getting stuck in to the build.

Several people here would advise against using steel wool if possible. As well as shedding all those metal fragments on the surface that you’ve picked up, you’ll find that some of the fragments can embed themselves in the finish. Hard to see now, but they will oxidise over time and become visible small dots. So I’d recommend investing in some 3M Scotch Brite pads. I use the dark red/maroon ones, the dark grey ones and the white ones. These are equivalent to 0, 00 and 0000 steel wool. These may leave a very fine powder behind, but it doesn't poke itself into the finish. The pads also last for a very long time and can be washed out and used wet or dry.

One issue with black hardware is that if the finish is painted on or an epoxy one, then it’s normally insulating, so getting electrical continuity from the bridge ground wire to the strings involves scraping off the finish in relevant areas until you get continuity between ground and each string. It can be done, but it’s a bit more work.

Definitely enlarge the neck mounting holes in the body so a screw can just pass through without catching the wood. It allows the screw to pull the neck flat to the wood. Having to screw into both the body and neck means that you can end up with the screw tight against the body without having fully pulled the neck down to the pocket floor. This can mess with the neck angle and it’s obviously not the best neck joint.

If you’ve got two makes of pickup available, be aware that if you mix them up and fit a bridge pup from make A and a neck pup from make B, there is no guarantee that by using the manufacturers recommended wiring colours as to ground and hot outputs, that the outputs will have the same signal polarity. So in the middle position, you may find the sound thin and nasal-sounding. This can be cured by swapping the ‘hot’ and ‘ground’ wires round on one of the pickups. However, with Tele pickups, the neck pickup cover needs to be grounded and if the bridge pickup has a metal base plate, then this also needs to be grounded. So on whichever pickup you decide to swap the connections over, either the cover or plate needs to be connected to the other output wire otherwise you’ll have a very noisy pickup.

Some manufacturers (including Tonerider) either provide as standard or have an option for a separate ground wire for the bridge base plate or neck cover. A separate ground wire for one or other (or both) of the pickups is also necessary if you go for a four position selector switch with a both pickups in series position (a useful extra sound).

If you ever need to mod a pickup like this, then I think the bridge is the easier one to modify as the link from the base plate to the ground wire output is directly accessible and you can just cut the existing one and either solder a new link to the other output solder pad, or solder on a separate ground wire and run that back to the control cavity.

[phrozin]

You’re certainly getting stuck in to the build.

Several people here would advise against using steel wool if possible. As well as shedding all those metal fragments on the surface that you’ve picked up, you’ll find that some of the fragments can embed themselves in the finish. Hard to see now, but they will oxidise over time and become visible small dots. So I’d recommend investing in some 3M Scotch Brite pads. I use the dark red/maroon ones, the dark grey ones and the white ones. These are equivalent to 0, 00 and 0000 steel wool. These may leave a very fine powder behind, but it doesn't poke itself into the finish. The pads also last for a very long time and can be washed out and used wet or dry.

One issue with black hardware is that if the finish is painted on or an epoxy one, then it’s normally insulating, so getting electrical continuity from the bridge ground wire to the strings involves scraping off the finish in relevant areas until you get continuity between ground and each string. It can be done, but it’s a bit more work.

Definitely enlarge the neck mounting holes in the body so a screw can just pass through without catching the wood. It allows the screw to pull the neck flat to the wood. Having to screw into both the body and neck means that you can end up with the screw tight against the body without having fully pulled the neck down to the pocket floor. This can mess with the neck angle and it’s obviously not the best neck joint.

If you’ve got two makes of pickup available, be aware that if you mix them up and fit a bridge pup from make A and a neck pup from make B, there is no guarantee that by using the manufacturers recommended wiring colours as to ground and hot outputs, that the outputs will have the same signal polarity. So in the middle position, you may find the sound thin and nasal-sounding. This can be cured by swapping the ‘hot’ and ‘ground’ wires round on one of the pickups. However, with Tele pickups, the neck pickup cover needs to be grounded and if the bridge pickup has a metal base plate, then this also needs to be grounded. So on whichever pickup you decide to swap the connections over, either the cover or plate needs to be connected to the other output wire otherwise you’ll have a very noisy pickup.

Some manufacturers (including Tonerider) either provide as standard or have an option for a separate ground wire for the bridge base plate or neck cover. A separate ground wire for one or other (or both) of the pickups is also necessary if you go for a four position selector switch with a both pickups in series position (a useful extra sound).

If you ever need to mod a pickup like this, then I think the bridge is the easier one to modify as the link from the base plate to the ground wire output is directly accessible and you can just cut the existing one and either solder a new link to the other output solder pad, or solder on a separate ground wire and run that back to the control cavity.

Don't know about that Simon every piece of stained furniture is refinished by manufacturers use steel wool you get a softer look, it is how i was tort in my apprenticeship can't say ive ever seen a stained table that was rusting i guess those finishes lock in any issue with oxidizing i use it just about every time i do a stained finish's use a tack rag and no problem at all, scotch bright i like aswell thats an old wives tale mate, there is so much miss information with refinishing no wonder folks get into trouble. im about to get back into it as all my medical issues are fixed now just waiting for my new compressor to show up