First build ATL - Tommygun

[TZK321]

I'm still waiting for my kit to arrive. In the meantime I've been researching to see who else has switched Telecaster bridges and what were the results. It seems that switching from the Squier to the ashtray bridge is popular with Squier Affinity owners. I've attached a couple of photos and I'm a bit disappointed with the results.

Do you guys still think I'll be ok or should I start preparing a plan 'B'?

I really dislike the look of the Telecaster bridge without the cover but I'd probably dislike the look of screw hole even more.

[dave.king1]

The Wilkinson bridge should be fine mine was.

[dave.king1]

Grab a drawing of the bridge off the Wilkinson site and drop it on the body with the barrels in roughly the right place and see what the outcome is before ordering the bridge.

[king casey]

There have been some issues that I've encountered with my TL build.
Fortunately for me, the 3 offending holes were not drilled.
As I've already mentioned, the bridge seems to be modelled on a Squier rather than Fender.

On at least one of those shots the standard Fender pick-guard is exposing the misplaced bridge position also.

cheers, Mark.

[TZK321]

Do you guys have any opinion on bridges that attach with 3 screws or 5?

[TZK321]

Well, my kit finally arrived!

Fit and finish is great, for the most part. There were no rough edges and the frets were nicely polished. The one fault I found was a small smudge on the body. Any suggestions on how to remove this? If not, I'll just leave it be.

The pick guard that I purchased isn't going to work without some major modifications. That surprised me since it's made for this style guitar.

I'm going back to the USA for 2 months so won't be doing a thing until then.

To be continued..........

[I’ll give it a go]

That looks nice, shame your having to go away for a while.


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[TZK321]

That looks nice, shame your having to go away for a while.

Yeah, well, gotta take the good with the bad. And on the good side I'll be with my wife for the first time in 4 months.

The pick guard came as a big surprise. I've contacted a couple of places that make custom guards but they need to start with an accurate template. So, rather than try to make one myself I'm now thinking of going completely without a pick guard. I found a photo of someone that did this and it doesn't look half bad.What do you guys think?

Maybe later when I have the confidence, skills and tools I'll install one but for now my goal is to keep it simple.

[FrankenWashie]

Yeah, I'd be leaving the plastic off as well.

That's a great look!

[dave.king1]

I'd be leaving the pickguard off that rather nice looking cap unless you have a certain look in mind as I did with the Tuff Dog.

As for how I made mine.

I ordered the white pearloid pickguard with the kit so had confidence it would at the very least be close to fitting and yes it did take a bit of fettling.

I found pics on the net of the pickguard shape, printed it off at full size, cut it out and using a sharpie traced the shape onto the PG I had ordered.

Once I was happy with the shape I cut it out by hand using a fretsaw and hand sanded the cut edges to smooth out the saw cut, then using a dremel clone from Bunnings ( don't tell Dingobass that I went there ) with the little drum sander attachment I chamfered the edge where required.

It was actually very easy to do, just took a small cup of courage to make the first cut and then it was plain sailing.