TL-1TB Build

[Dikkybee007]

I have a non pitbull guitar without the longer bari neck with a roller bridge and imitation bigsby and it works fine. Yours can work as is with one slight adjustment but you need to make a measurement before changing anything.

Either remove the nut or put a capo on so the strings sit on the first fret. This just makes it like when it is in playing situation and makes the next part more life like. Remove the 2 adjustment screws from under the bridge and let the bridge rest on the inserts or the body. If the string height is right or the strings are resting on the neck then all is needed is to recess the inserts into the body by recessing where the head touches the body by using a Forstner bit or carving it out by hand.

Use a piece of dowel you used before to plug the hole and this will give the bit a centre to locate so it doesn't wander while drilling. You can adjust the diameter of the dowel by putting it in a drill and using sand paper or a file to reduce the diameter so it fits in the hole. The depth will be the thickness of the insert head above the body and the thickness of the screw part that the bridge sits on, maybe around the 5mm mark. If need be you could remove a little bit of material off the bottom of the bridge to allow it to go even lower. Just use a piece of sandpaper or wet and dry and rub the bottom to allow it to sit lower.

If this works then it is the simplest solution and if it needs a little bit extra you can use the shim to give you what you need.

[PaulFromSydney]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=ZUD9yafxMlo

a fairly standard practice

[fender3x]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=ZUD9yafxMlo

a fairly standard practice

On a solid body this would be the simplest and cheapest way to do it if one has a router. It's a simple shape. I would be a little Leary of doing it on a semi-hollow. Not sure how it would be with a Tele thinline, but with other kit semi-hollows that center block is not much wider than the post holes...and sometimes even the post holes break through. It would also be necessary to finish the hole...but that's probably not a big deal.

[PaulFromSydney]

On a solid body this would be the simplest and cheapest way to do it if one has a router. It's a simple shape. I would be a little Leary of doing it on a semi-hollow. Not sure how it would be with a Tele thinline, but with other kit semi-hollows that center block is not much wider than the post holes...and sometimes even the post holes break through. It would also be necessary to finish the hole...but that's probably not a big deal.

In fact if you order a Fender style body from Warmoth and select TOM bridge, the page automatically draws the routed groove for you, no matter if it's a semihollow or any other body.

[fender3x]

I can only relate my experience with VERY narrow center blocks from PB and the Fretwire...and add to that what I have read from other builders on this forum. YMMV, but I think it would be unwise to equate Warmoth kits with normal kits. I have my reservations about Warmoth, but a cheap body from them is more than the cost of most full kits.

I would not route on a semihollow from PB without taking some VERY careful measurements...which are hard to do through the F-hole. You don't have to do much of a search of the forum to encounter post holes that have broken through into the hollow space on the sides of the centerblock. I am personally 2 for 2 on this score, and that's just for the post hole, not for accommodating the full width of the TOM bridge.