Members 6down1togo Posted March 23, 2019 Members Share Posted March 23, 2019 A buddy of mine asked if I would "build" a Telecaster for him. He likes figured wood and pretty much left me to my own devices. I got a really nice poplar body with a spalted maple top from GFS and ordered a flamed maple neck from a source I have used in the past. Put in Fender Vintage '52 pickups, Fender locking tuners, Alpha pots, Sprage PIO cap, Oak Grigsby switch and a Fender 3 saddle vintage style bridge. I just strung it up and played it a bit and it's a twanger for sure. I had to detail the fret ends a bit and by the time I got it intonated, the 3 intonation screws were too long and poked up between the strings. A trip to Ace Hardware for shorter screws tomorrow will set that straight. Other than that, it was a breeze other than having to radius and bevel the through-body string holes a touch to align and drilling the locating holes for the tuners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gardo Posted March 23, 2019 Members Share Posted March 23, 2019 Well Done , I LIKE ITIt seems like the saddles are really high in the first pic , maybe camera angleThere is a partscaster in my future and I really appriciate the inspiration Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chordite Posted March 23, 2019 Members Share Posted March 23, 2019 OK, How much do you want to put us out of our misery and peel the film off the scratch plate ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted March 23, 2019 Members Share Posted March 23, 2019 I approve, but agree with Gardo. It looks like you are pretty much out of adjustment on the action screws as well as the intonation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 6down1togo Posted March 23, 2019 Author Members Share Posted March 23, 2019 Yeah. That’s just the way it is. The action is right around 3/64” but the saddles are way forward yet. When pulled back to intonate, they will be lower to achieve the same string height. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gardo Posted March 23, 2019 Members Share Posted March 23, 2019 If comes down to it you could always put a wedge between the neck and body to lower the saddles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 6down1togo Posted March 24, 2019 Author Members Share Posted March 24, 2019 If comes down to it you could always put a wedge between the neck and body to lower the saddles My bad, String action is 3/64". In actuality, a shim (heel) would raise the fingerboard and correspondingly require the saddles to be higher. When intonated, the saddles move toward the bridge and raised the strings requiring the saddles to be lowered to duplicate the same action. The three saddle bridge screws are always too long so shorter ones will improve the appearance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted March 24, 2019 Members Share Posted March 24, 2019 My rule of thumb is to set the neck angle and overstand so the fret plane just hits the tops of the saddles at their very lowest setting. That might be different depending on the bridge. It might mean shimming the neck in the pocket (either a positive or negative angle shim) to get the angle that works. It is also slightly dependent on the radius of the fretboard. Most of the time that will allow a "reasonable" action (3 or 4 thou of relief, 10 to 15 at the first fret, 60 to 90 at 12), will match the f/b radius and have enough height adjustment to make small up or down changes as the guitar settles in. Intonating the guitar should not affect the other action parameters (adjusting the action will change intonation however). Often I end up with shorter 440 set screws in the outside saddles and longer ones in the center. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted March 24, 2019 Members Share Posted March 24, 2019 Looks very nice. Yet another reason to stop saying I think Teles are butt ugly. Gotta agree that I don't care for the three saddle bridge, whether it's "traditional" or not. BTW, why no string trees? Granted there's no pic from the edge of the headstock so we can see the string angle but it's usually pretty shallow without them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 6down1togo Posted March 24, 2019 Author Members Share Posted March 24, 2019 As that famous philosopher Dirty Harry said, "A man's got to know his limitations" so I left the neck pocket alone. Here's a pick with the shorter intonation screws and intonation set with my tuner. The barrels just "barrely" peak above the side of the bridge plate so all is good. .005" neck relief and .045" action on the High E 12th fret. A couple pics, one with the original long intonation screws. The tuners are staggered so no need for string trees. I am happy it plays great and I know my buddy in GA is going to enjoy it. Glamor shots tomorrow and then off to UPS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted March 25, 2019 Members Share Posted March 25, 2019 That looks good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 6down1togo Posted March 25, 2019 Author Members Share Posted March 25, 2019 That looks good. Thanks Freeman! I'm almost embarrassed to post my pre-fabs around your gorgeous scratch builds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Emory Posted March 25, 2019 Members Share Posted March 25, 2019 Lovely lovely lovely. I understand your reticence given what Freeman posts.... but that is one fine looking (and given hardware, I imagine) good sounding tele. I do love all you guys going straight to saddle height, etc. "Yeah, we know it looks great, that's a given... now lets talk saddle heights". Along lines of showing up with new GF and friend remarks "A hottie for sure, but does she like David Lynch films?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 6down1togo Posted March 25, 2019 Author Members Share Posted March 25, 2019 Yeah, it don’t mean a thang if you can’t make it twang! Thanks all for the thumbs ups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 OK, How much do you want to put us out of our misery and peel the film off the scratch plate ? I always thought that honor was reserved for the original "plank owner." That's a very cool looking guitar 6down! Outside of the action setup stuff, the only criticism I'd have is that you didn't go with compensated brass saddles - I have them on my Tele and they make it much easier to get the intonation right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted March 25, 2019 Members Share Posted March 25, 2019 Lovely lovely lovely. I understand your reticence given what Freeman posts.... but that is one fine looking (and given hardware' date=' I imagine) good sounding tele. I do love all you guys going straight to saddle height, etc. "Yeah, we know it looks great, that's a given... now lets talk saddle heights". Along lines of showing up with new GF and friend remarks "A hottie for sure, but does she like David Lynch films?"[/quote'] Well, you know, they can't hear it or feel how it plays over the Internet so they have to come up with something to criticize as a matter of one-upmanship. Saddle height is fairly low hanging fruit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted March 26, 2019 Members Share Posted March 26, 2019 Well, you know, they can't hear it or feel how it plays over the Internet so they have to come up with something to criticize as a matter of one-upmanship. Saddle height is fairly low hanging fruit. I, and others, said we liked the guitar. I particularly like the splated top and the flamed neck - they are really nice and look good together. Yourare right, I can't hear it but I would expected it to sound like a tele - that depends on 6down's choice of pups and I'm going to assume that the vintage Fender pickups are good ones. However in two of 6down's first six pictures the bridge just stands out - two of us picked up on that immediately. I do that all the time - when I look at a guitar I frequently observe things that others might not see - height of the saddles, action that looks way off, frets - things that I get to work on all the time. Its not low hanging fruit, its simply how I am. The latter pictures look right, I think its a lovely guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 6down1togo Posted March 27, 2019 Author Members Share Posted March 27, 2019 I always thought that honor was reserved for the original "plank owner." That's a very cool looking guitar 6down! Outside of the action setup stuff, the only criticism I'd have is that you didn't go with compensated brass saddles - I have them on my Tele and they make it much easier to get the intonation right. I almost bought a set of compensated saddles but wasn't sure how the string spacing worked with them. I am assuming I would have to file string grooves in them? The barrel saddles were already grooved so I stuck with what I knew would work. I have had instances in the past where I had to "split the difference" on intonation between strings (usually on the D/G pair). Intonation surprisingly came out on the money on this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Grant Harding Posted March 30, 2019 Members Share Posted March 30, 2019 That looks great! Your buddy must be stoked! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 6down1togo Posted April 3, 2019 Author Members Share Posted April 3, 2019 That looks great! Your buddy must be stoked! Thanks! Yeah, he is pretty happy with it. He noticed the logos (my initials JM) on it and said I see you put your initials on it. I laughed and said nope, I put YOUR initials on it (his are JM also). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gardo Posted April 3, 2019 Members Share Posted April 3, 2019 I, and others, said we liked the guitar. I particularly like the splated top and the flamed neck - they are really nice and look good together. Yourare right, I can't hear it but I would expected it to sound like a tele - that depends on 6down's choice of pups and I'm going to assume that the vintage Fender pickups are good ones. However in two of 6down's first six pictures the bridge just stands out - two of us picked up on that immediately. I do that all the time - when I look at a guitar I frequently observe things that others might not see - height of the saddles, action that looks way off, frets - things that I get to work on all the time. Its not low hanging fruit, its simply how I am. The latter pictures look right, I think its a lovely guitar. It is a beautiful guitar and I would be proud to own it ., but think arout it this way. Three men are talking. while a beautiful girl walks into the room and smiles, The first is a nice guy ,he looks at her eyes, the second is more common and looks at her boobs..The third is a dentist and he can't get past the broccoli stuck in her teeth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted April 3, 2019 Members Share Posted April 3, 2019 It is a beautiful guitar and I would be proud to own it ., but think arout it this way. Three men are talking. while a beautiful girl walks into the room and smiles, The first is a nice guy ,he looks at her eyes, the second is more common and looks at her boobs..The third is a dentist and he can't get past the broccoli stuck in her teeth. OTOH, we're talking about a guitar that hadn't been set up yet so naturally the saddles were probably going to be high, the intonation wonky, etc. If you're understanding you'll overlook it, if not you'll point it out. The best way to avoid such is not to post pics of works in progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 6down1togo Posted April 4, 2019 Author Members Share Posted April 4, 2019 It is a beautiful guitar and I would be proud to own it ., but think arout it this way. Three men are talking. while a beautiful girl walks into the room and smiles, The first is a nice guy ,he looks at her eyes, the second is more common and looks at her boobs..The third is a dentist and he can't get past the broccoli stuck in her teeth. ... and the dentist takes her to his office, cleans her teeth and they live happily ever after. I "cleaned the broccoli" when I finished the setup and we made beautiful music together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gardo Posted April 4, 2019 Members Share Posted April 4, 2019 ... and the dentist takes her to his office, cleans her teeth and they live happily ever after. I "cleaned the broccoli" when I finished the setup and we made beautiful music together. Yes ,That was the whole point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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