TL-1 (Factory second)

[Andy40]

I think you'll be right with your measurements. There doesn't look like anything worrying there. I made some minor errors when building my first ST-1. Some I wouldn't have picked until I played the guitar for a while, especially bridge placement. It doesn't make it a bad guitar (for me), I still play it everyday. but I jot these little things down, in a year I'll revisit it and tweak/fix them.

Yeah I used Gotoh's which are very very wide. I needed to widen the rout considerably (I sanded it by hand with 80 grit and it took a few beers to get there). I also needed to widen the control plate holes as the shaft is also wider than the PBG pots. I imagine you'll have to do the same with the Bourns.

One issue i've had with replacing pots with gotoh's and bourns, is that you only get one nut that fits the shaft. as the shaft is quite long, it protrudes too far out of the control plate. The shafts on bourns are imperial and thats not easy to match in OZ (don't know about Canada) So I used a circlip on the shaft to stop the pot from pushing too far out and the nut and washer to hold the control plate onto the pot. If you get a better fix than that, let me know!

Shorting issues usually happen with CLR switches as they are soo big. I had to rout a channel in the bottom of the control cavity so it didn't touch the shielding.

No issues with the orange caps.

Great upgrades!

[gavinturner]

I you are worried about bridge placement, then a good resource is the Stewmac fret position calculator. It will tell you exactly where to place the bridge by bridge type based on your scale lebgth measurements.

https://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator.html

Loving the colour btw. This is going to be one beautiful Tele.

cheers,
Gav.

[peterh]

Gavin,
I gave that calculator a try and maybe I'm a little thick, but I found the wording a bit confusing. In the diagram near the top is says the scale length is from the nut to the contact point on the saddle but further down it has a different measurement of 652.333mm with a description of "Distance indicated is from the fretboard edge of the nut to center of forward-most mounting screw or pivot post." What exactly do they mean by mounting screw and pivot post? All the mounting screws on the kit bridge are at the back if I have the saddles set for 646mm scale, the mounting screws are 696mm from the nut.
Thanks for your kind words on the colour. I'm pretty happy with it. Will put a few more coats of TO on it after I have the hardware locations marked. It still doesn't have the real thicker, glossier coat I thought it would have. Maybe that's typical for TO finishes though?

[Dedman]

I measured to the top of the bridge where the string makes contact

[peterh]

Made a bit more progress today. I'm stressing though.... all the holes are drilled and pieces attached.
I double and triple measured the scale length and it matches what it's supposed to be - keeping my fingers crossed.
Drilled the neck as well and screwed it into place. High/low E strings still look evenly spaced so I think that part's okay.
All the cavities are lined with copper tape. Haven't done the underside of the control panel yet though. Still have to change the electronics. I used a reamer to enlarge one of the pot holes to accomodate the Bourns pot. Need to source a few thin washers to put behind the pot though - it stick out about 1/8" more than factory pot did.
Still some major nut issues to work out though I think. The factory plastic nut seems to be < 90 degrees between nut and fretboard. I think this is making the high e string buzz like a sitar. Dr_Nomis had the same issue - changing the nut fixed it.
Anyways, here are a couple pics to show the progress.
Question - there is a hole drilled from the bridge pup cavity to the bridge which I think is for grounding the bridge - do I solder a wire to the bridge or just leave a bare wire touching the bridge. I have a black painted bridge - I assume I'll have to scrape off some paint to make a good contact?

[gavinturner]

The mounting screws are those at the back of the telecaster bridge. For the scale length, provide 2 x the distance from the leading edge of the nut to the middle of the 12th fret. On the "what is scale length" link it has this to say:

"WHAT IS SCALE LENGTH?
A guitar's scale length is calculated by measuring the distance from the front edge of the nut, where it butts against the end of the fingerboard, to the center of the 12th (octave) fret, then doubling that measurement."

This is what they want you to provide.

cheers,
Gav.

[peterh]

Well the bone nuts I ordered came in today and it only took a bit of sanding to get the depth down so it would fit the nut slot BUT it looks like it's about 1/16" shy of being the right height. I think the factory nut is about the right height based on the gap under the 1st fret when pressing down on 3rd fret. When I do the same with the bone nut in place, there's only a gap big enough for 1, maybe 2, sheets of paper between the string and the 1st fret.
Is there any way to easily/securely shim the nut so it's at the correct height?

[Nickosaurus]

Pete that colour is so nice. Awesome depth.

[DrNomis_44]

Well the bone nuts I ordered came in today and it only took a bit of sanding to get the depth down so it would fit the nut slot BUT it looks like it's about 1/16" shy of being the right height. I think the factory nut is about the right height based on the gap under the 1st fret when pressing down on 3rd fret. When I do the same with the bone nut in place, there's only a gap big enough for 1, maybe 2, sheets of paper between the string and the 1st fret.
Is there any way to easily/securely shim the nut so it's at the correct height?

You could try gluing a thin sliver of plastic on the bottom of the nut, using super glue, to shim it to about the right height, to get the 1st fret action height in the ballpark, get yourself a set of Automotive feeler gauges from a shop like Repco, then find the feeler gauge marked .020 inch, use that to check the gap between all six strings at the 1st fret, if the gap between the underside of the string and the top of the 1st fret is small enough so that the .020 feeler gauge just fits between it then the 1st fret action is correct, hope that helps.

[peterh]

Hey Doc, I'll pick up a new set of feeler gauges tomorrow. I have a set of my dad's old ones marked 6 to 32 but I don't know if thats hundreds of an inch or something else. That measurement of .020" - is that on the open strings or when pressing down on the 3rd fret?

On another note, I put all the wiring together tonight and ..... it makes a hell of a buzz. I've had some conversations going on another thread about pickup wiring and I thought I understood what I should be doing but obviously not. The volume is working fine - roll it back and the buzz decreases, roll it forward and it gets louder up to a point and then it gets pretty quiet right near the top end. I tried tapping the pickups with a screwdriver to see if anything was working and I might have been getting something from the bridge pickup but don't think I heard anything from the neck pup.
I'm wondering if I still misunderstood the grounding of the copper shielding. I used the outer braid from a piece of wire as the ground from the bridge, soldered it to the copper in the cavity and then soldered it to the pot case. Should I have used coated wire instead of bare mesh?
Here's a couple shots of the control panel wiring. Yeah... it's a bit messy but I haven't soldered much lately. All the connections are solid as far as I can tell. Anything look totally amiss?