The Frankencaster

[Eponymous]

Yep. I think expanding the cavity is the way to go. The gap in the neck won’t make up that difference, although, I’m tempted to just rasp out the corners just a little. So long as I am careful, it shouldn’t do anything to the alignment.

So, I think probably a chisel to expand that cavity and I can think about drilling the holes for the bridge.....after I measure again.


Thanks for the advice!

[McCreed]

FW is right. Unfortunately a common issue with the TL kits. Expanding the pickup cavity is generally the primary fix.
I am a bit dubious about enlarging the cavity with a chisel though, but that just me.

The gap in the neck won’t make up that difference, although, I’m tempted to just rasp out the corners just a little.

Just to be clear, we're talking about removing material from the corners of the heel of the neck not the pocket here. When you say "rasp out", I interpret that as from the pocket.
Whilst it may not make make up all the difference, it will make a difference overall. The better the fit, the better the end result.

Back to the bridge...

I presume the long line perpendicular to the neck is your 648mm mark. If that's the case, with your Gotoh bridge placement, routing the pickup cavity enough so the treble E saddle falls on that line and you'll be right.
However, it's best to first adjust that saddle so there's about 2mm of intonation screw thread entering the string slot of the saddle. This will allow adequate forward adjustment if needed. I have had some six saddle bridges intonate as short as 647mm. Better safe than sorry.

As for the gap between the bridge plate and pickguard, this is also very common, even on genuine Fender Tele's. A lot of little things like that go unnoticed until we start building our own guitars and putting every little detail under our personal microscopes.

[Eponymous]

Great tip about reducing the neck, not the pocket. That is what I was going to do...not now. Will just work on the neck heel.


That long perpendicular line is the 648mm mark and I wanted that to be easily seen, when I placed the bridge.

When it is in that rear position, the treble e saddle is almost at its maximum forward position...there is only about 1 mm in it. When I have it in the forward position it has around 4-5 mm travel each way but there is no reason I can’t have a slight gap and possibly less to remove from the cavity and still get a better range of intonation.

I will remeasure to confirm again tomorrow and look to where I best position the bridge so that it fits with what you have described.

No chisel? Well, there goes my trip to bunnings...no sausage in a roll for me!

Will use a rasp and sandpaper to expand that cavity.

Thank you for the advice!

[jonwhitear]

As for the gap between the bridge plate and pickguard, this is also very common, even on genuine Fender Tele's. A lot of little things like that go unnoticed until we start building our own guitars and putting every little detail under our personal microscopes.

They're supposed to have that gap, aren't they? All the pictures of a tele on Fender's website show a gap around the bridge plate. Out are we talking about different things?

[Eponymous]

Busy day today. I remeasured most everything, just to make sure. Still haven’t drilled holes but will probably do that tomorrow.

The first bit of work was to recheck that my centreline is correct. Having watched many YouTube’s on the issue, it seems finding the correct centreline is really important..also, not easy. So the YouTube community seems to think placing a straightedge against the neck and drawing down your guitar body will help. Not sure why this is. Don’t the necks have a taper? Mine is 46.5mm at the nut and 50 odd at the 12th fret. Still. It should give at least a stable base for a centre finding ruler do mark actual centre.

Also used centre finding rule on the neck pocket. That has to be the bit that centre is most crucial.

Between those 2 sets of figures, I came up with my centreline. It seems very slightly (maybe 0.5 mm) from the joint but I have checked is against the centre of the neck pocket and I’m happy that I have got the right centre line now.

Measuring against the diverging straightedge against the neck lines, also confirms that I have the centreline accurate.

I adjusted my saddles so they were about mid travel. I then remeasured the scale length. Again, from the crown of the 12th fret to the nut 324mm and then from the crown of the 12th fret back, another 324 mm, giving me the scale length of 648mm or 25.5”, if you prefer the old money.

Rechecked that scale length against the information on the webpage for a 21 fret telecaster neck. All good.

🤞

My remeasured and reconfirmed body now looks ok.

Placing the pick guard and bridge in place, with neck attached (I made a jig to prevent fret wire damage)



That’s craftsmanship!

Making sure bridge was centred and now, halfway saddles aligned with scale length (found it to be ever so slightly not square when I remeasured centreline and ruled the line using a set square...so confirmed it was straight against centre line and against now required scale length).

I found I could set the bridge quite firmly against the pick guard and still have plenty of travel both ways with my saddles. It lined up perfectly with my first set of holes, so no need to remark but I then marked out how much bigger the cavity would need to go. Marked out the offending bits.



And this is what it looked like without the bridge in place




I started to try and use a rat tail rasp to take it out...then I remembered that old carpenter’s saying....”when in doubt, borrow your brother’s router...make sure you give it back”.

Have run out of photo opportunities...only 5 per post, apparently.

To be continued...



And like this with the bridge in place

[Eponymous]

I see both photos made it last time.

All good.

So, it now looks a bit demented under the bridge but it will fit the pickups and be well hidden when I put it all together.

I should have mentioned this before but I sanded back the corners of the neck (leaving neck pocket well alone) and reduced that gap from this:



To this




That was when I remeasured scale length. I didn’t make that clear in the post above but I didn’t remeasured until I was happy with that gap.

Once I finished that process, I decided it was time to restain the neck, with my now preferred Goolangatta Gold stain from Dingobass.

And it now looks like this:



I think that is much closer to the colour I had in my mind, when I started.

This is the stained headstock, front




So, that is now curing and I think that will be it for the day.

[FrankenWashie]

Nice work mate, that neck in the picket is now nice and tight there, all looks sweet!

[Eponymous]

There is a gap between the sides of the bridge and the cutout on the pickguard but I have it so the end of the bridge butts up against the pickguard, so no gap there. The photos show where I have it positioned

This a reply to the comment that all tele’s have a gap around the pickguard. I may have deleted that post instead of my reply. Apologies, if I did.

[Eponymous]

Nice work mate, that neck in the picket is now nice and tight there, all looks sweet!

Thanks!

I’m happy with how it is turning out. I need to check again, when I have the neck dried and clamped again, that the strings will run parallel to the fretboard...which requires me to put in a tuner on both e strings and run it down over the bridge to the saddles.

That is when I think my sanding job will show if I got that right. The neck pocket fit was never super tight but didn’t move much side to side and still doesn’t so, I’m happy that it is still looking good.

I appreciate the advice and encouragement!

[Eponymous]

They're supposed to have that gap, aren't they? All the pictures of a tele on Fender's website show a gap around the bridge plate. Out are we talking about different things?

See my picture. There is a gap around the edges of the bridge but the bridge position I have at the moment actually butts up at the rear of the pickguard.