As far as contouring and whether it affects the sound just remember the audience hear what comes out the amp which is the signal that comes from the pickups. Pickups "read" the magnetic field fluctuation of the vibrating string. They're not microphones so they don't hear any of the audible stuff. The person playing hears that audible stuff because they're close enough to the source.
Finally getting back to this after some interruptions.
Colour has come up nicely on both the front and the back.
Have piled on the coats of tru-oil. Not up to the glossy standard of the swampcaster but I am happy with it.
And also have managed to copper tape the pickup holes.
Headstock also needed some refining.
Rounded the edges to get a nice curve consistent with the body shape.
Body is looking good, but at what point did this become a 12-string???
I don't recall that in the earlier posts...
Last edited by McCreed; 24-03-2020 at 06:42 AM.
Making the world a better place; one guitar at a time...
Hi Colin,
I'll have the same issue as you. If you don't want to modify the cavity and the backplate you'll have to buy mini-pots (pots with the same size as the ones that come with the kit). Or else, you'll have to remove at least 1 milimeter from each side, except the in the curves. Also enlarge the holes on the backplate.
I went down the path of using mini pots. One change I am planning is to use a.033 capacitor on the tone pot. Did that on a strat build and found the sound less muddy.
The capacitor value only changes the basic sound when the tone pot isn't turned up fully. There's too much resistance from the pot set at 10 for the reduced treble roll-off with a smaller capacitor value to be heard I've just put a 0.01uF on a Tele and to me that works pretty well, with a gentle loss of treble over most of the pot's travel (audio taper), going down to a duller but still useable sound at the 0 position. I'm not a great user of tone pots but sometimes a Tele's bridge pup bite does need to be restrained.
So you may want to consider using a 0.022uF (or less). Or, use a 500k pot for the tone control to reduce the effect of having a tone capacitor. The passive Fender TBX control adds brightness above a dial setting of 5.5 by then dialling in a 2 meg pot in series with the normal tone pot, which effectively takes the capacitor's effect out of the equation, and is like having a zero-load tone pot, but without the step-jump in sound between the tone pot being in and out of circuit that gives.
Just some options to think about.
I'd go with a linear taper 500k mini pot and a .022 orange drop. That will give you a usable tone control. If you do what many people do and use a 250k pot and .047 cap the tone will go to mud as soon as you creep it off 10, which is why many people don't use the tone pot.
If you are one of those people you can do away with the tone pot altogether as all it is doing is creating resistance.
Always worth experimenting if you don't like the "standard" tone of the tele.
On the strat I did I stayed with the 250K tone pots but went with a log scale rather than linear scale and put the .033 capacitor on it.
I also linked the bridge pickup so the back tone pot functions on both the middle and the bridge pickup. I quite like the sound and the usability of the tone pots.
It does tend to be a personal thing so always worth trying something a little different to see if it suits.
I will try the log scale 250k tone pot with a .033 cap on the tele and see if I like it and make changes from there if needed to get the tone/sound I am after.
Mmmmm ..... the nut on the neck is a right hand one put in backwards (I am a leftie!).
Adam very kindly included a bone nut so the plastic nut will come out and the bone one will go in.
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