HB Telecaster

Roland

This has been a long time in gestation, but I'm finally getting around to entering the 2015 modding challenge. The one type of guitar I've often wanted, but never got round to owning, is a Telecaster. So this seems the ideal opportunity.

This much I know.  It will have a 22 fret rosewood fretboard, because I don't like the stickiness of varnished maple.  I find it hard enough switching between 22 and 24 frets without introducing another variable.  It will have single coils, because all my other guitars have humbuckers, and it's time I had a change.  Lastly it will have a modern six saddle bridge, rather than the three screw type.  

Having looked at the HB range I've decided to start with the Telecaster kit.  I'm hoping this isn't sailing too close to the rules.  Many of the other models seem to have maple fretboards, or 21 frets, or humbuckers, or f holes.  Also, it seems a shame to buy a more expensive model knowing that I will be replacing many of the parts.  

More than that I cannot say.  I like the look of natural wood grain, but the finish will depend on the quality of the wood that turns up, and whether I've got the courage to try veneer.  I'm toying with the idea of making the bridge plate and pickups myself, because I used to like doing things like that when I was a teenager.  I'm persuading myself not to add piezos and a synth circuit on the basis that it will cost five time as much as the basic guitar.

Oh, and I haven't actually ordered it yet.

stimpsonslostson

Welcome to the club!

I can't speak for anyone else that has one of the Telecaster models, but I can say that the Te52 has a satin finished neck and VERY little varnish on the board itself- it ain't sticky at all, it almost feels like an oiled finish.

As I've said MANY times before, I despise the thick poly coating most budget (and some expensive) guitars come with- it was actually the deal breaker when I thought about getting a 50's Classic Vibe tele. I've been VERY pleasantly surprised by the quality of the Te52, thus far all I've done is put a brass bridge in and new strings plus a little reshaping on the headstock. It is genuinely a decent guitar, and mine feels exactly like my friends Vintage V52!

Roland

The TE52 was the first one I looked at, but it's short of a fret for my liking, and that's not an easy mod.>:D<

Having thought about it overnight I'm going to tackle this as a cheap, giggable guitar.  So no fancy finishes, and budget ranges for things like straplocks and locking tuners.  I'll probably assemble and play it before deciding about pickups.  If the neck exceeds expectations then I might splash out on the electricals.  

Roland

Well, the guitar is ordered, along with a Harley Benton modern bridge, and ferrules for the back because the kit doesn't appear to be drilled for through-body stringing.  There's also a set of HB straplocks.  For everything else I'm going to wait and see what turns up, and only swap components if they don't work to my satisfaction.  @WezV 's thread from last year's kit build suggests that the original tuners may not get fitted.

Ideally the body is going to be clear varnished.  If the wood has knots or unsightly patches then I might think about veneering.  This is something I've never done it my life.  Whilst I'm encouraged by the recent thread I'm not sure that I want to do my first veneering in front of an audience like you lot.

Roland

Everyone is saying how good these guitars are straight out of the box.  That's certainly my impression.  Someone has thought this product through.  The body and neck come carefully wrapped in foam envelopes, are individually boxed, and the boxes fit nicely into an outer carton.  If I wanted I could screw it all together, and be playing by the end of the evening.

The neck is a nice piece of maple, sanded and matt finished. I don't think I'll do anything more to it.  The rosewood fretboard has an interesting grain pattern, and just needs some oil to take away it's dryness.  Not sure about the frets yet, I'll be reading @WezV 's thread on that. http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/18377/finished-wezv-tele-build/p2

Whilst waiting for delivery I've been worrying about is whether the body would be suitable for clear varnishing, or would need painting or veneering.  It is, just.  It's formed from three basswood sections.  The wood has been filled and sanded ready for painting.  The blocks are different colours, and the grains don't match particularly well, but it's close enough for this project.

The pots turn easily.  If they have the right electrical range, and don't crackle when turned, then they are staying.  The tuners feel a bit loose, so I may replace them.  I'm not a nut expert, so I'm going to work with what I've got, and then replace if I don't like it, or mess it up.

Things I'm definitely going to do:

Level the frets.

Clear varnish the body.

Line the control cavity with copper tape.

Swap the pickups, and solder up the internal wiring, rather than use the push connectors provided.

Install a modern six saddle bridge with through body stringing.

Fit straplocks.  No gigging guitar is complete without them.

Decisions, decisions: 

1. Replace tuners?

2. What head profile?

3. Shall I put a rib cage chamfer on the back of the body?

4. Shall I reverse the controls, putting volume first and pickup selector at the back?

JudasVigilante

A rib cage chamfer on the back of the body would be amazing to see. Never known how to do it well, so a tutorial on that would be excellent. I've always been afraid of ruining a body beyond use! Looking forward to see what you do.

Roland

What I have learned on Day 1.  (These aren't going to be sequential days, just the days I make time to mod the guitar)

The new modern six saddle bridge doesn't sit in the same position as the three saddle original, and it's longer, putting the neck pickup half a inch further from the saddles.  This will have an impact on the sound.  It also means that I'll have to enlarge the body routing to accommodate the new pickup position.  Alternatively I could put in longer screws so that the saddles are closer to the pickup, and drill new string holes through the back of the plate.  Or I could do a combination of both.  Opinions?

Pre-drilled holes in the body are in the wrong places.  Holes for the original bridge are 1/16 out on the bass side, and would put the bridge plate at a slight angle.  Some of the pilot holes don't match those on the scratch plate, and the plate will also need filing to fit around the neck.

Dressing the frets was a lot easier than I expected, mainly because they were pretty level up to the 15th fret. So I levelled the dusty end with a silicon carbide stone.  On @WezV 's recommendation I tried to buy a mill file to do this, but every one I saw was bent or lumpy.  In the end I found the stone in the workshop, probably bought by my grandfather, and never used.  I didn't bother with polishing.  The rosewood board looked pretty dry.  One drop of linseed oil has made a lot of difference.  The 500ml bottle I had to buy is going to last a long time.

For the headstock profile I fancy a mini Stratocaster shape, rather than the traditional Tele profile.  To test whether I can cut a square edge without splintering I'm going to experiment by cutting 1/4" off the end of the headstock with a fine toothed saw.

The controls will definitely be swapped around to give Volume/Tone/Pickup Selector.  I'm also thinking about re-drilling the plate, and moving the tone 3/8" away from the Selector so that it's easier to grab.  Alternatively I might swap the blade for a toggle switch.  That's a mod which can be retrofitted once I've got experience of playing the guitar.  I've never played a Tele, so can only imagine what the ergonomics are like.

I am really enjoying this build.  It's something I've wanted to do since I first learned to play at the age of 15, but never had the space or time to do.  As my confidence grows I'm leaning more towards putting chest and forearm chamfers into the body, and I'm now wondering about having a cut down scratch plate to show more of the wood grain.

JudasVigilante said:

A rib cage chamfer on the back of the body would be amazing to see. Never known how to do it well, so a tutorial on that would be excellent. I've always been afraid of ruining a body beyond use! Looking forward to see what you do.

No, I don't know how to do it either.  I'm wondering about using a surform and block plane for the forearm chamfer, but the rib cage might need a spoke shave.  It did lead to me spending a happy hour surfing the internet for pictures of Telecasters to see how other people have chamfered them.  Getting the edge line smooth is visually important.  Then there was another hour reading reviews of spoke shaves.

WezV

the sharpening stone is another good fret leveler - but if you are using one make sure not to use it for sharpening too

I actually use a diamond sharpening stone for my fret leveling these days - but used to use the mill file when starting out.  whatever you use its very important t make sure its flat

I use rasps the carve the  contours and finish off with a scraper and sanding

Roland

Day 2 has been busy. Controls reversed. Headstock shaped with an electric jig saw, and then sanded smooth. Scratch plate trimmed to fit around the neck. Then the big stuff: 

To get the new bridge located in an optimum position I've gone for option 2: longer bolts and enlarged pickup cavity.  The saddles were held in place and adjusted with 16mm M3 bolts.  I had some 25mm bolts, and cut these down to 20mm so that they don't impede the rear loading strings.  With the saddles in place I could finalise the position of the new bridge plate, drill new holes for the fixing screws and body holes for the strings to pass through, and ream out holes for the ferrules.  Instructions for all this are on the Internet, but I can add them here if anyone is interested.  Lastly I drilled and chiseled out the pickup cavity.

Chamfering the body is something I decided on when I realised how deep the body blank is compared with my PRS.  Since then I've reconsidered several times because I've never done is sort of thing before.  An hour or so on Google showed a variety of chamfer shapes.  I drew the edges of the chamfers I wanted in pencil on the back and front of the body using a plates as templates.  Drawing a good line of the body edge looked difficult.  Instead I used electrical insulation tape.  This is stretchy, so I could pull it into artistic curves.  

JudasVigilante said:

A rib cage chamfer on the back of the body ..... Looking forward to see what you do.

 @WezV 's advice was to use a rasp.  I used a spokeshave because I want a flat rather than a rounded surface to the chamfer.  Despite never having used one before I got away with it.  The trick is apparently to pull the blade towards you, and to cut away from the grain rather than into it.  That's relatively easy on the convex forearm chamfer, but the concave rib chamfer needs cutting from both ends.  This afternoon I've been bent around the body blank like Picasso's Blue Guitarist, shaving the blade like some medieval carpenter.  It's now done, and sanded smooth.  For lack of sanding sealer I've given the exposed wood a light dose of polyurethane varnish, and we'll see how it sands in the morning.

Right, off to rehearsal.

Roland

Pics from yesterday.  First the forearm chamfer.  You can just about see the pencil line on the face.  The electrical insulation tape marks the curve on the side of the body, and also the bridge position.

Next the rib cage chamfer.  To get the spokeshave at the right angle I had to hold the guitar body between my thighs.

Rosewood on the neck looked dry, but had a nice grain pattern.

Several drops of linseed oil later it looked like this.  You can also see the forearm chamfer and the rewired, reversed control plate.

underdog

Looking good mate

Andyjr1515

Yeah...and some neat chamfering

Roland

Thank you, I'm pleased with the chamfer. The rib cage is particularly useful. Forearm less important, but next time I'd take a bit more off the front.

It has surprised me how little varnish is needed to cause a puddle or a run. Having learned that, and sanded away the results, I've been building up the finish with very thin coats. Thanks to the good weather I've was gardening yesterday, with 20 seconds off every hour to spray the body with satin varnish.  It could probably do with a few more coats, but I became impatient, and assembled it last night.  Once it was set up it played quite well, BUT the 10th fret is a bit low. I thought that fret dressing seemed too easy. We've got visitors this weekend, which will give the a few days to settle.  Next week I'll disassemble it and level the frets. I'll also polish them this time.

Roland

I am pleased to announce the birth of my first* self-build guitar.  Weighs in at 8lb 1oz without strap.  Should be settled down and ready for use at our Easter Saturday gig.

Materials:

£46.80  Thomann Telecaster kit

£20.00  Fender pickups from an MIM, courtesy of @daveyh

£22.50  Axesrus locking tuners

£24.56  Thomann modern bridge and saddles

  £4.04  Thomann straplocks

  £4.21  Ferrules

  £5.79  Copper foil for control and pickup cavities

  £5.98  Satin finish polyurethane lacquer spray

  £4.98  Linseed oil

£00.00  Strap and gig bag I had lying around the house

Total £138.86

Tools:

Electric jig saw for the headstock profile

New blade.  £3.10

Silicon Carbide stone for the frets

Electric drill

1/8th bit for the new bridge holes

5/16th Brad tipped drill for the ferrule holes.  £2.65

Spokeshave for the chamfers, £15.98

Sandpaper, square block, and rounded block for the inside curves (cut from a broom handle)

Soldering iron, wire cutter and stripper

Various screwdrivers

Ring spanner for straplocks

Tack hammer for seating the ferrules

Total cost of new items £21.73

Modifications made to provide gig-worthy instrument:

-  Rib cage and forearm chamfers

-  Replacement pickups 

-  Locking tuners

-  Straplocks

-  Modern bridge

-  Copper lined cavities

-  Swapped controls to Volume, Tone, Pickup Selector

and for fun the Strat style headstock profile

* This has been a lot of fun.  It's something I've been wanting to do since I was 16, but never had the time, space, tools or (let's face it) ability.  I'm now thinking about the next one, but don't tell my wife just yet.

Roland

Fretboard wood grain looks good.  The body wood section don't really match, but they're close enough for rock and roll.  Strat style headstock make it look a bit different:

Body panel mismatch is more evident on the back.  Ferrules have lined up nicely:

Pilot's eye view of chamfers:

Rocker

Nice work.  I cannot understand why Fender did not make your control plate setup the standard.  With the volume pot at the front.  Enjoy the fruits of your labours.

JudasVigilante

Nice idea swapping the control plate around. Now, why didn't I think of that? Doh!

Roland

You also have to swap the pots over, and turn the switch around (or rewire it)

Andyjr1515

It looks good, @roland

Roland

Rehearsed with it tonight. The neck still needs some work on the frets up at the dusty end, and I'm not happy with the neck pickup, but the guitar will definitely get played at our April gigs.

Roland

The neck has settled down over the last two weeks.  I've taken it off once to sort out the frets, this time with a mill file.  They're not perfect yet, and would benefit from a good polish, but they are certainly better than many new guitars I've played in shops. 

You may have read in another thread how snipping the earth wire on the neck pickup's metal cover has improved it's sound.

When I started the project I expected to play a couple of token songs with this guitar. After using it at rehearsals this month I'm pleased with its clarity, and the way it cuts through the mix.  I'm now planning to use it as my main guitar for this Saturday's gig at the White Lion in Beeston. We have four or five songs which the current pickups just don't have the balls for, so I'll be taking the PRS for them.  We normally video gigs at the White Lion, so there should be video evidence next week.