First Build: Red and Black Wilko Johnson Telecaster

[Brendan]

Here to help Mark.
B

[Mark Gill]

Set the bridge saddles forwards with about 5mm of thread showing at the front. Fit the top and bottom E tuners (don't fit the small anti-turn screws yet) then run string from these to the E saddles on the bridge. The strings should run so that they are parallel with the edge of the neck. That sets the centre position. Measure the scale length (25.5"/648mm) from the neck side of the nut (top E position) to the middle of the top E saddle (where the string will sit). That sets the fore/aft position. Double check both measurements before marking and drilling the fixing screw holes.

you don't want your strings wandering off to one side of the neck, so that positioning is really important.

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So Simon, I’ve extended lines from the sides of the neck AND run a line down the middle of the fretboard. Both methods agree to within a millimeter where center is.

I’m showing 5mm of thread, bridge is at 25.5” scale length, I’ve got both E strings strung, but my question is:

How do you hold the bridge in position while you go about the very fine business (a mil left or right seems to throw the parallelism of the strings off considerably) of fixing its final place?

(Btw how do you upload pics to this site? Alert box keeps telling me upload "failed")

Gormless Mac User

[Sonic Mountain]

Greetings fellow Mac user

There are a couple of ways to get pics into your post. To use the forum uploader they need to be less than 1mb and 1500px wide.

You can get around that and the 5 picture limit by hosting on Imgur:

http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ead.php?t=8108

[Mark Gill]

Or am I just being too anal......?

[Sonic Mountain]

Do you mean regarding the bridge placement? When I did my TL I got it all lined up then marked with pencil the required holes. Then you can move the bridge out of the way and drill your pilot holes. Being careful is good. You want to get it as centred as possible.

[Mark Gill]

When I did my TL I got it all lined up then marked with pencil the required holes.

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So sorry, I'm really not communicating very well. How do you get it all lined up when you have both E strings installed, and you're trying to get those strings equidistant from the edge of the neck, but the bridge isn't actually screwed on to the body? Do you clamp the bridge on then do some fine measuring on the E strings..?

(It wouldn't be so crucial if the bridge had an adjustment to go a few mil laterally left and right once it was screwed on)

[Sonic Mountain]

Ah I see, are you using the actual guitar strings? I just used some normal household string and knotted it through the tuner holes. Process was:

I first attached the neck. Pushing the edge of it hard up against the bridge pocket- particularly towards the upper 'horn'. I clamped it in place and drilled the pilot holes into the neck (be carful of the depth! check against the screws - I often tape the drill bit at the depth I want to drill to). Then screw the neck on with the back plate. You'll probably find the predrilled holes are a bit misaligned. You can widen the diameter of these a bit if it helps, then when screwing the screws in, do it progressively going from corner to corner. With the neck secured you can take the clamp off and line everything up to is fixed point. I placed the pick guard on with the bridge to get that gap nice (this was also where I noticed the bridge pick up cavity being a tad small and slightly too far away from the neck for my liking).

Then draw your two e 'strings' over the bridge and move everything around until you get good spacings to the edge all along the fret board. I did this purely by eyeballing it. With the neck fixed and the strings taut you should be able to see pretty clearly if they are off. Then mark everything off with a pencil. You can pre drill the mounting holes, but care will need to be taken during finishing that no water from any wet and dry sanding gets in them or the wood will swell and the finish will crack. Does that help?

[Mark Gill]

[QUOTE=Sonic Mountain;160473]Ah I see, are you using the actual guitar strings? I ...
Does that help?
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Oops, so when you guys say "strings" you don't actually mean "strings" but "strings"

Yes, thank you so much, that really does help.

Ok, so now I think I've got the bridge lined up, but the (after sales) pickguard is now miles away from the bridge (I measure it at 7 millimeters).

Should I leave that gap, or move the bridge forward and just let the six individual bridge adjuster screws stick out more (If I move the front of the bridge to 2/3mm from the pickguard, then the adjuster screws will stick out from the bridge 9 mm (about a fourth of the screw shaft) even before I begin the intonation process)..?

Or should I just try to find shorter bridge adjuster screws..?

Mark

[Mark Gill]

I don't know how I upoladed two pictures..

[Sonic Mountain]

All good. I had a similar gap to the Pitbull pick guard.



This is how mine ended up. I had to enlarge the bridge pick up cavity about an extra 5mm towards the neck to get it here. I had no problems with intonation adjustment. In this pic the top adjustment for the B & E strings is way back so I could see when the spring started to bind. There was no issue with the bridge adjuster screws sitting out too far.



Once it was together this is where they ended up after adjustment - perfectly normal.



The scale length is 648mm - so long as that falls roughly halfway up the adjuster screws you are fine.

If you look here 648mm falls just on the neck side of the adjuster screw halfway point. This leaves loads of adjustment each way for intonation.