Non PBG build burl question

[Tgraham]

I’ve acquired another kit that has a burl top, with of course the normal holes in the veneer, so I’m wondering what others have done with the holes so it fits in with the finished top. I’m currently thinking either a very light brownish or purplish stain for the veneer, and possible using a coloured resin for the holes in the veneer.
Thoughts team?
Thank u
graham

[Trevor Davies]

Burl holes are normally filled with dark(ish) coloured material. Coloured grainfiller like Timbermate could be used. At least it is easy to sand when dry so less chance of over-sanding the veneer.

Coloured resin should be great!

Just checking - is there a bridge ground wire hole on the body?

Also, check out this old thread:
https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...l=1#post217639

[Tgraham]

No hole for ground wire Trevor, no holes, no holes at all, that’s today’s job, holes for wires and jack. I wiped the burl with a damp cloth and liked the colour so just going natural for the top, and I’m pretty sure a purplish red resin in the holes.
Checked out that old thread - good info and very interesting- thank you

[fender3x]

No hole for ground wire...

That sounds like a cool color combo ;-)

Trevor is the Tele master...so I may be missing something, but if you are using a standard Tele bridge+pickup plate, you probably don't need a separate bridge grounding hole because the ground can use the same hole as the pup wires. Unless you are using a stand alone bridge like on a hard tail strat?

Sent from my CPH2655 using Tapatalk

[Trevor Davies]

That sounds like a cool color combo ;-)

Trevor is the Tele master...so I may be missing something, but if you are using a standard Tele bridge+pickup plate, you probably don't need a separate bridge grounding hole because the ground can use the same hole as the pup wires. Unless you are using a stand alone bridge like on a hard tail strat?

Sent from my CPH2655 using Tapatalk

You should be able to run a bridge ground wire through the bridge pup wire hole and along the bottom edge of the bridge pup cavity to base of the standard Tele bridge + pickup plate. Most of the PBG teles have a hole drilled from about 1 cm south of the bridge pup route into the bridge pup route. I assumed this gets the bare wire closer to the bridge screws so as to get a better connection.

[Tgraham]

I’ve been working on my burl top Tele build and am wondering how to fit/ use the little saddles and spacers that hold the strings on the headstock, looking at pictures on the net I can only seen one saddle being used - any ideas

Thank you

[fender3x]

The one with the taller post goes a little closer to the nut on the D-G strings, the other goes a bit further away from the not on the B-E strings. I think the earliest Fenders only had one. Most of the later ones have two. They can come in different shapes as well, the most common being a kind of roller.

I think the reason Fender started adding a second tree is that G strings sometimes buzzed. I don't think it was a problem for the D string, but the trees come in twos, so you usually only see two or four strings with the trees. You could try it with just one string tree, and only add the 2nd one if you need it.

Although I haven't tried it yet, I opted for a "3-string tree" for my tele build.

https://musiccitybridge.com/collecti...8qi7XQHQ1aXylU

They are made by a guy in Nashville, who mostly seems to do compensated bridges. There's an endorsement on the website from Kenny Vaughn. If it helps me to play like him it's underpriced ;-)

[Tgraham]

Thanks fender, always lots of good info

[Tgraham]

Finished my Tele build, again happy with the end result, feels nice in the hands mush lighter than other builds I've done. I painted all the cavities with liquid wire, put copper shielding on the pickguard but still quite a lots of noise happening, do I need to put copper shielding in the cavities or maybe start with some more layers of the paint. Thoughts?

[fender3x]

Finished my Tele build, again happy with the end result, feels nice in the hands mush lighter than other builds I've done. I painted all the cavities with liquid wire, put copper shielding on the pickguard but still quite a lots of noise happening, do I need to put copper shielding in the cavities or maybe start with some more layers of the paint. Thoughts?

Wow! It's a real beauty! Your back will thank you for the lightness the longer you own it ;-)

Some people think the tape is better than the paint but I think they should work pretty much the same. Still, it's pretty easy to put a little tape under the pickups... You may want to check to see that all of the shielding is grounded. It's pretty easy to do with a multimeter. Some multimeters have a setting with a tone tells you when you have continuity. Mine are too cheap to have have that setting, so I set it to the 200 ohm setting and use that. Numbers approaching 1 means "discontinuity"--in this case a "not grounded." 0 or some other low number means grounded.

I doubt if the copper tape is the problem, but... While the shiny side of the copper tape is always conductive, on some tape (happens to me more often with the aluminum tape) the sticky side is not conductive. Not usually a problem with the copper tape designed for guitars but something easy to check.

To test, put one lead of the multimeter on the "ring" of the output jack. Tap the other lead on everything that should be grounded. In particular, tap various places on the control cavity paint to make sure it is grounded. Tap the control plate, and the strings. to make sure they are grounded. Check the cavity under both pickups and the base-plate of the bridge pickup.

The pickguard is probably not the problem, since it is not really shielding much of anything on your tele. The pickup is shielded by the metal cover and by the paint under it. That said, the way I test the pickguard for continuity is by making sure that some of the tape overlaps at least a couple of screws on the north side of the pickguard and the southside. I make sure the tape (or in your case, the conductive paint) is all around the screw holes so that when the pickguard is screwed down the screw, paint and tape are all in contact. If the north and south screws that overlap have continuity your shield is good ;-)

If you are getting continuity everywhere, and all the grounds look good, the problem may be somewhere else in your signal chain. You can check that by plugging a quiet guitar in and seeing if it is quieter.