Harley Benton Telecaster Kit Build

DiscoStu

I could do you a Tele body blank, @andyp . It is exactly that, a blank. 2 piece ash and cut to shape, it needs everything else done to it so you can decide on every option.

andyp

@DiscoStu ;Oof. That's very tempting! I'm not ready to do this yet, but when I am this sounds ideal. I'll give you a shout when I get to this step though.

My old man is making noises about building something too. He's done builds before, but I think he's wanting to take it to the next level now. What shapes do you do? Have you got a website or something I could look at and send on to him?

DiscoStu

I don't make to order but I have made a few guitars in my time and this is a La Cabronita project I started and didn't finish.
I built the body and bought the hardware/pickups and that's as far as it got then I changed my mind, so this can be anything you want. Any pickup combination, bridge, switching, contouring, belly cut, binding, anything!

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/12507599_10153596696194597_9199986003864807561_n.jpg?oh=3cf694bcfa90a4b1377ca292562051ce&oe=5860F65C

andyp

That looks lovely @DiscoStu ;

I have to say (and I knew this would be the case before I started) that the appearance of the grain etc. on the HB kit is the only fundamental thing that I would really want to change. Someday I will replace the body I'm sure, and just port over all the fittings from the HB body, but that's a wee while away yet.

andyp

Pickups and pots ordered yesterday...

I've gone for the Seymour Duncan Hot Tele set. They were £115, which as a percentage of the total build is a huge cost. But, having played the Tele every night for the last two weeks, it's really feeling like my guitar already so it's definitely going to get plenty of use and I wanted to do it right in terms of pickups. It was quite tough to find anywhere stocking these actually, which was surprising for me, I thought they'd be available in every shop going.

I didn't want to skimp on the pickups as the originals are fine enough, so my thinking was that if I'm changing them I want to make it worthwhile. I'm planning to sell off the original pickups and tuners to maybe raise £20-30 plus my mini wah so I reckon I can pay for about half of the cost of the new pickups from that... hopefully. Otherwise it seems pretty extravagant I guess.

I'm stupidly excited about this next stage.

andyp

Bloody Hell, the pickups arrived less than 24hrs after ordering them. Hotrox are brilliant! Pots are en route from somewhere else, so fitting will be sometime next week.

andyp

At risk of sounding like a parcel tracking service, the new pots arrived today.

Tonight's job is to replace the nut then fit the new pickups and pots. That will be it finished... 100% complete to the original brief. Anything that happens now wasn't part of the plan.

I'll then take some time to get the set-up just right as I am still finding the action a touch too high, but I can't really lower it without causing some buzzing. I'm sure a few tweaks and adjustments will sort it out though. If not, it's going to be fine just as it is.

I'm not quite sure how much of a difference to expect from the pickups or how it much will change the sound, but I'm really excited to find out!

andyp

Well... tonight went smoothly and the result is superb!

Here's what was being fitted...

http://i.imgur.com/bpwUgZo.jpg?1

Some open heart surgery...

http://i.imgur.com/RGW9QCW.jpg

Old pot on the left, new pot on the right... there's a big difference in size and the quality of the thread and nut etc. is noticeably higher on the CTS pots.

http://i.imgur.com/ei0Extv.jpg?1

My old man did the soldering (mainly as he loves that stuff and I was worried about making an arse of it).  There's a new smaller cap. on there too.

http://i.imgur.com/qolkokO.jpg?1

This is it complete! I totally love it.

http://i.imgur.com/tZcfI1l.jpg?1

The new pickups sound so much clearer than the kit ones, the originals were totally fine and I could've easily just left them on there for long enough, but these just lift it all to another level. It sounds so snappy and sharp now. The neck pickup particularly is beautiful... and I'm "Captain Bridge Pickup" as my mate calls me.

As a wee sidenote, my old man swapped the nut over this afternoon while I was at work and that itself made a huge difference to the tone. I'm not quite sure why, but the new one is much harder than the kit one was, so I guess it's just down to that.

Sarge

Loving that mate,  all the black furniture really looks good and so different from the bog standard "classic tele"  look,  hats off to you sir! 

andyp

Thanks very much. Really nice to hear comments like that.

usedtobe

Looks fantastic, that!

Andyjr1515

Yes - that looks really, really classy . Bet it sounds great too

andyp

Thanks guys.

Two very minor jobs to do... swap the two chrome screws on the switch for some black ones (once I figure out what size and thread I need) and swap the mounting screws on the neck pickup for the SD ones, I accidentally used the kit ones when mounting the new pickup. In fact, I'll source black ones for there too while I'm at it.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with either of these things just now, it's just the way my brain works...

Graham99

impmann said:

As a suggestion I'd say that if you want it to sound like a Tele but have a bit more 'girth', then a Broadcaster type pickup from either Seymour Duncan, Mojo or Oil City will fit the bill perfectly. The early 50s pickups are FAT - and I mean PHAT - sounding, plus have a big output, plus they clean up nicely and have clarity. They are very different to later Tele pickups... which I (whispers....) don't like much.

Neck pickup - unless you fancy chopping around the pickguard, I'd fit one of the neck pickup units that are closer to a Strat unit if you want something with a bit more... oomph. Personally speaking I love the Tele neck unit - but only a good one. The Seymour in my black Tele is a joy and the Oil City one I had in my butterscotch partcaster was fab too - again, Marc at Mojo could also help out there too, I'm sure.

Teles can be massively improved with quality pickups, IMHO - I seriously wouldn't skimp on them with Far Eastern stuff like the IronGears etc. Good as they are, the difference in sound from a hand wound unit is chalk and cheese IMHO.

Oh and don't forget to fit quality pots and switch to suit!

Hi, What are the Wilkinson Vintage pick ups like? they seem very cheap at about £24 a set  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-Wilkinson-Tele-Vintage-Pickup-Set-Bridge-and-Neck-Chrome-or-Gold-MWVT/152157458548?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&var=451353070523&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649