60s telecaster build

mcsdan

Having recently acquired a 50s style nocaster I was looking at getting a 60s style tele to go with it and being mostly a LP or strat player I didn't know much about teles. I'd owned a couple over the years and sold each on with the intent to get a better spec but not really done much with them although liked the style (probably due to being a fan of LPs). 

Anyway, one night after a few beers *ahem* Scott from SC relics posted up an olympic white tele body in nitro with some light relicing. Looked great. PM's sent.

The relicing looked fine to me. Used and a few dings but not "dragged behind a car" style relicing. Scott showed this with a gotoh bridge, minty scratch plate and control plate. His price was good for the parts (which I'd have to source anyway) so decided to go with this as shown. A mock up as below.

Style will work out with my idea of a 60s style tele and going for a rosewood neck.

Technically should have steel screw style saddles but will see how these work out.!!

mcsdan

Next comes the realisation that you have to source all the other parts. This is my first build although I've done pots/caps/pickups swaps in the past along with my own setups.

Cue list of parts to order keeping with the slight relic look.

I've had some success in the past with slightly aging humbucker covers so applied this to the bridge and control plate + pickguard screws. The control plate went a bit too far and completely messed up! Doh.

Need to order another control plate.

Bridge looked reasonable and know that these age a bit more in use. Will judge that further down the line.

mcsdan

I set some basic goals for this project.

Firstly to learn more about the telecaster which I've really enjoyed.

In terms of budget I wanted to keep to around the Vintera price mark.  Aim was to build a nitro based guitar with relicing and decent controls/pickups. I tend to replace mexican controls/pickups anyway so figured I'm looking to get in under £1k. So potentially a better spec guitar for Vintera money.

Some nice Monty's FMT tele pickups came up on the forum for a good price. They seemed to sound nice from clips I'd heard so decided to take a chance on these.

mcsdan

Next came the search for the neck. The neck is the connection to the guitar so didn't want to skimp on this part.

After looking around I contacted Scott at SC relics again and a deal was done to provide a rosewood neck in 9.5 radius. Neck shape will be a medium C style which fits into the 60s style I was after. A dsicussion came onto tuners and nut. I went with the tuners supplied by Scott and asked for a bone nut to be fitted. It would have been ideal to have sourced these both at the same time from Scott but beer was involved and that's my excuse!! Would be 6-8 weeks lead time on this and neck would be nitro too.

mcsdan

Time to crack on with the bits I could do in the meantime.

Firstly basics like fitting string ferrules (soldering iron method)and strap locks. Easy enough but first strap lock I tightened too much and snapped off!! Doh!. Had to redrill and move slightly. Doesn't notice so all good.

Next came the wiring. I ordered CTS TVT pots at 250k and a CRL 3 way switch. I already had some PIO caps from strat mods I'd done so went with one of the russian PIOs.

BTW the yellow/green things are roller boot stoppers. Perfect for holding the assembly. (note: need to put them on my roller boots!)

mcsdan

The wiring and pickups were installed and tested. I had tested basic connectivity after soldering up and all looked good.

However testing the pickups connected I had problems. The neck pickup was fine. The bridge had really loud hum. Touching the bridge made this worse. I realised the bridge wasn't grounded so did some diagnostics.

About an hour later I figured out the bridge wasn't grounded despite it being connected to the bridge pickup via the metal plate. It seemed that there wasn't any connectivity. I installed a ground wiring from the bridge to control ground but no difference. After some more testing with a multimeter I realised the top of the bridge wasn't grounding with the bottom of the pickup. I desoldered the ground wiring to the base plate and soldered the bridge to the control pots directly. Worked perfectly.

Next was to install the jack socket plate. I'd ordered a conventional plate which looked a real pain to install. I ordered a different one - the electrosocket. Much easier to install and went in perfectly.

I went to install the tone/volume knobs and became apparent they were for split shaft not the solid shaft pots I'd used. I went with solid since this was technically correct on the tele. Ordered new ones with correct size. Starting to look like a tele now.

mcsdan

Neck was supposed to be delivered before Xmas and Scott has been great keeping to that. It arrived on 21st Dec. Woohoo.

I was concerned about neck lining up but all looked good. Time to install the neck!

The subtle reclicing shows. I'm undecided on the back of the neck but it does seem to be wearing in great and feels fantastic. I'm bowing to Scott's knowledge of how these look on old guitars.  Frets look/feel great and nut looks good too.

mcsdan

Lined up neck with E strings to get most even alignment.

Happy with alignment so finish setup. Installed string tree.

Had to align neck pickup which I did with help of blu-tak to hold into place with pickguard then drilled/screwed.Pickguard aligned and drilled/screwed.  Then control plate put into place.

mcsdan

Finally onto a basic setup. The nut is cut brilliantly. Frets seem to be level.

I adjusted saddle heights then intonation. The neck feels like it has settled over the past couple of days and a couple of minor tweaks with saddles has been needed.

Weighed guitar at 7lb13oz. Happy with that. Not as light as my nocaster but not heavy either.

mcsdan

Finally some shots of the finished guitar.

mcsdan

Closing thoughts:-

I've enjoyed the process of putting together the guitar and learned lots both about building and teles.

I've left the headstock blank. Would like something on there but not decided what yet. Not fender btw. Seems alright blank which I didn't think would be.

Guitar plays lovely and sounds fantastic. Very well balanced too. I got lucky!

I've kept to budget, just. Didn't want to go cheap. However thinking about resale value etc if I was to sell in the future. Not that being the aim of course but I'm very aware of changing circumstances so tend to have an eye on resale value.

Pleased I managed to solve the bridge pickup/grounding issue.

Scott at SC Relics has been great. The stuff he turns out is a work of art.

Already thinking of the next one!!

LastMantra

I really like the look of that. Same kind of spec I would go for too.

mcsdan

Thanks @LastMantra. Was exactly the spec I wanted.

GoldenEraGuitars

Thank you so much @mcsdan   

I appreciate your patience on the neck, I’m still catching up with the backlog after the personal issues but I was adamant that you’d have your new toy for Xmas. Unbelievable how nice that rosewood is, isn’t it? 

It’s such a fantastic looking guitar and I’m really happy that you like it. It’ll sound immense with those Montys as well. 

If you need assistance with your next one you know where to find me

bbill335

looks really great

Jez6345789

The value of a good self build is you got custom shop quality for Vintera money on a colour and level of finish you wanted

nice job

hoops

That looks fantastic. I'm in the process of building a light relic tele at the moment. Hope it turns out as great looking as yours has done. Nice work, you and Scott. 

mcsdan

GoldenEraGuitars said:

Thank you so much @mcsdan   

I appreciate your patience on the neck, I’m still catching up with the backlog after the personal issues but I was adamant that you’d have your new toy for Xmas. Unbelievable how nice that rosewood is, isn’t it? 

It’s such a fantastic looking guitar and I’m really happy that you like it. It’ll sound immense with those Montys as well. 

If you need assistance with your next one you know where to find me

Thank @GoldenEraGuitars, yes exactly was I was hoping for. Will be in touch for some other ideas in the New Year Have a good break over Xmas

mcsdan

Jez6345789 said:

The value of a good self build is you got custom shop quality for Vintera money on a colour and level of finish you wanted

nice job

Thanks. That's what I was hoping for. Obviously a bit of luck involved with everything fitting together and sounding good.

mcsdan

hoops said:

That looks fantastic. I'm in the process of building a light relic tele at the moment. Hope it turns out as great looking as yours has done. Nice work, you and Scott. 

Excellent. More Scott than me tbh. I just put the good bits together!

What are you thinking of re light relic?

hoops

Sonic blue alder body. Maple neck that I am going to attempt to colour with rosewood board. Glendale hardware and nocaster pickups. Gotoh aged tuners and a mint green aged pickguard. 
Sounds nice but we'll see when I've nailed it together. As I said previously if it looks anything like yours does I'll be well pleased and if it sounds as good as it looks even better.