Building A Partscaster (Telecaster) Part 4 - The Bridge

Introduction

If you remember back in my first post, I mentioned the bridge pickup routing had been enlarged. I was hoping that the bridge I bought would cover it (and it does), but one thing that was really bothering me was that it seemed to be in the wrong place.

Comparing dimensions (Fender on the left)

I hadn't noticed before how the shape of the body differed from the Fender shape. Not only is it wider at the bottom, but the top left is less pronounced. The control routing is slightly higher, and you can see from the blue line that the bridge positioning is wrong.

This is probably going to make tuning and intonation impossible.

A Closer View

I was a bit annoyed, so I messaged the vendor on Ebay. He sent me photos of the old bridge he'd taken off it, and it seemed to match the one I'd bought. Maybe it will work, but until the neck had arrived I didn't know for sure.

The photo from the vendor

My bridge has the same dimensions and those mounting holes match exactly.

My bridge showing the measurement from the nut.

A few days later, the neck arrived and it became clear (with a neck scale of 25½ inches) that those saddles won't go back far enough. It might have had a shorter scale neck before, or maybe it was gooched and this explains why the donor guitar had been stripped for parts.

Not a huge problem you might say, just drill new holes and mount it in the right place?

Yeah, but that will uncover that ugly botched hole!!

Filling the Hole

There was no choice if I wanted it to work properly, the bridge has to be in the right place and I needed to replace the missing wood from the body. Here's the steps I took:-

1. Make a paper template.
2. Glue template onto pine block (soft wood is easier to work with).
3. Cut out and sand into a close fitting shape.
4. Remove copper foil from the hole and glue block in with PVA.
5. Repeat with a piece of thin ply with a similar grain to the body veneer.
6. Stain a golden colour (I used a mix of coriander and tea).
7. Apply four coats of varnish.

Left the completed body repair, right with bridge and pickguard fitted.

Okay it's not great, the resulting colour isn't quite right, but once the bridge and pickguard are fitted, most of it is hidden. In fact you have to look quite closely to notice it.

Fitting the Bridge

I used the "fit the two E strings" method to position the bridge, ensuring the strings sat in the right nut slots. I pulled the strings tight, ensuring the gap to the fret board edges is the same both sides and the bridge was square. It took me a few attempts before I was happy, so if you're doing this, double check before you start drilling holes.

Once that was done, I couldn't resist throwing some strings on and trying it out.

Building A Partscaster (Telecaster) Part 3 - Fitting the Neck

Introduction

I've got to say, choosing the parts for the build has been quite a challenge. After ordering a 1951 style neck, I decided it would be good to try and get hardware to match. I'd already bought a 97mm standard bridge to cover that enlarged pickup routing, so it wasn't going to have the traditional ashtray style. I does at least have just three saddles. But now I was starting to be concerned that it wasn't going to work, but more about that at a later date. Here's a photo of most of the parts, before I started building.

I've been busy on Ebay

Mounting the Tuners

I really like the idea of split shafts on the Kluson tuners. The guitar string goes down the hole in the middle, so there's no sharp end waiting to spike you. But what I thought would be a simple job, became complicated.

The vintage Fender neck is supposed to have 9mm tuner holes. The Kluson's are a simple pressed steel design, authentic for this era, but the press-in bushes were too loose. The holes in the neck were actually 9.4mm with the bushes being 8.6mm, so I was a little confused as to whether I'd bought a 9mm neck or a modern style 10mm one. I could pay £10 for the 10mm bushes, but that felt like a lot to pay, I'd then still have to open the holes a little, and I'd have to delay the project.

In the end, I painted the inside of the holes with varnish (about 5 coats) until they fit snuggly.

Fitting The Neck

If you buy a non-fender body, the specs may not be standard, and in my case this was definitely true. In my case the over-all shape is slightly different, and the neck was loose in the neck pocket. If left like this I would always have re-alignment problems whenever I took the neck off.

The solution is simple enough, I glued a piece of veneer to the bottom side of the pocket.

A small piece of veneer makes the fit snug.

The neck was a tight fit now so I grabbed the neck plate and bolted the neck on. Having the holes pre-drilled was great (thanks Fender), finally something easy.

The neck fitted and complete.

I now had something that looked like a guitar, and the next step is fitting that bridge. It turned out to be a problem, so I'll cover that in the next blog.

Thanks for reading.

Building A Partscaster (Telecaster) Part 2 - The Neck

Introduction

Continuing on from Part 1, I'm switching focus to choosing a neck for the project. On Ebay it's a similar story to shopping for bodies. While we should focus on how good the neck does its job, we are more likely to buy what looks good, or some bargain with the right logo. But beware, while there are a lot of flame maple necks that look great, we should remember the old adage, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Here are a few important things that you should consider:-

• The quality of the build.
• The stability of the wood.
• The fender logo.

Fun On Ebay

Before I go through these points, let's just consider what's available on Ebay for a moment. You will see everything here from unbranded Chinese necks, made under licence boutique ones, and real fender necks. You will also find loads of second hand stuff that nearly always has had a fender logo added to it. So you'll have to look closely and buy with care.

I found that any legitimate Fender neck will go for a lot of money. I watched a couple of Made-in-Mexico necks (pre-fitted with Kluson tuners) complete their auction for more than the new price. Even Squier branded necks are going for close to the price of a complete guitar, so there's clearly money in breaking guitars up for their parts.

Don't Ignore Quality

Once you start looking, you'll see a huge amount of cheap stuff available, and while they're all made from maple, the one thing you need to consider is, how well? The wood needs to be properly seasoned because when freshly cut wood dries it shrinks and warps. Using it too early could result in any number of the following problems:-

• Twisting along its length - making set-up difficult or impossible.
• Fret-Sprout - where the neck shrinks causing the sharp fret ends to protrude.
• High patches along the fingerboard - causing fret buzz.
• Poor adherence to the specs - meaning the fit in the neck pocket may be loose, or there may be cosmetic issues.

The other quality issues related to the frets. What they're made of and how they're fitted will have a big impact on the playability of your guitar. Expect fret buzzing problems on cheaper necks, which is often caused by:-

• High frets - due to lack-of, or poor fret levelling work.
• Lifting frets - where the tang is loose in the slot.

But you should also be aware that you are likely to get sharp fret ends on cheap necks.

While a lot of the fret problems can be fixed with a little effort and know-how, any issues with the wood are likely to be terminal.

The Fender Logo

Whether or not you have the Fender logo on your headstock is down to taste. To many it will make a neck more desirable, and it's worth saying that water-slide fender transfers are quite easy to get a hold off, so be wary of second hand necks. While having an authentic Fender, or licensed neck is a good way of ensuring high quality, be careful about what or where you buy. There's an awful lot of fake stuff on Ebay, so if you're unsure ask yourself the question "is it too cheap?"

After much deliberation, I decided to buy a 1952 spec Mexican, Telecaster neck from DV247. The price was pretty good and although I had to wait a couple of weeks for delivery, I'm impressed by what they sent me.

A well packaged set of boxes.

The outer brown Fender box showed signs of being re-sealed, so I imagine DV247 have inspected the neck before dispatch. The contents arrived in perfect condition and it was a pleasure to open that final white box.

The neck, pre-drilled and ready to go.

The neck itself has the silver spaghetti style logo and is pre-drilled ready to go. It has a 9.5" radius fingerboard, twenty one 6105 frets, and the truss rod adjuster is at the base of the neck. The profile is a vintage 'U' shape that's quite chunky, its finished in clear gloss urethane and fitted with a pre-slotted synthetic bone nut.

On to part 3

Building A Partscaster (Telecaster) Part 1 - The Start

Introduction

For a few years now I've wanted to build a Telecaster from parts (or partscaster, as they're known), but I've never had the time or space. Although I've never been a Tele fan in the past, the simplicity and character of this early guitar has really started to appeal to me. I have my own place now, I've not bought a new guitar in years, so I feel it's time give it a go.

My ideal build would be a vintage sounding guitar with that authentic twang that you'd associate with those early Fenders. So, no hot pickups, individual bridge saddles, locking tuners or modern body-cuts for me, but a chance to learn about the history of this instrument in a very practical way.

Less Than the Sum of the Parts

Just to be clear, a guitar made up from parts is always going to be less valuable than a genuine Fender, so there's no point doing this if you want to sell it down the line for for anything like it's value. It's not going to be as desirable as a genuine Telecaster, it's just a partscaster, so your best hope for recouping value would be to break it back up and sell the parts on Ebay.

Which brings me to the focus of the project. What is my strategy and desired endpoint?

1. Build a 'T' shaped guitar from parts. (I don't have the woodworking tools to make a body and neck, and those cheap kits generally get terrible reviews)
2. Try to use second hand stuff where I can. (Ebay)
3. Use medium to high quality parts where it matters. (Use cheaper parts when it doesn't)
4. Build something that sounds and feels vintage. (The pre-CBS, 50's era, ideally)

With the overall aim being, try to do it without spending lots of money.

History

According to wikipedia, the Telecaster (Broadcaster, Nocaster or Esquire, as it has also been called) was one of the first solid body electric guitars, and it was originally made from ash and maple. Later alder was often substituted for ash, and unlike other guitars at the time, featured the now ubiquitous bolt-on neck design. This made production easier and was thought, at the time, as a way to allow the neck to be removed for servicing or replacement.

Where To Start

I started watching prices of necks and bodies on Ebay, and initial findings showed lots of necks up for sale but not that many 2nd hand bodies. The end-of-auction prices tended to be £90 or more, and don't even consider trying for a real Fender one because they just fetch silly money. It began to dawn on me that it would be far cheaper to buy a complete guitar. There are also lots of new bodies for sale around this price point, but it was starting to feel like an expensive way to buy a cheap guitar.

So, the project was dead unless I could find a cheap body. It needed to be ash or alder, not mahogany and I didn't particularly want the semi-hollow Thinline style.

Then it happened,.. I saw this, threw in a last minute bid and managed to pick it up for £30.

I didn't have an exact criteria, but I think this is either ash or alder, and it's got that lovely oak burl veneer and black binding. It's never had a pick guard fitted, the neck pickup is routed for a mini humbucker, and no string holes through the body. The pickup and control cavities are at least partially shielded with copper tape, but someone's gouged some of the routing with a chisel or something.

1. The control cavity is deeper where the selector switch was. I'm guessing they fitted a bigger switch unit. Okay, that saves me a job.
2. It was only when I started measuring the bridge cavity that I realised that the hole was too big for the vintage ashtray style bridge. They're 86mm long, and looking at the marks in varnish, the previous one had been 97mm. My heart sank a little.

A simple painted body could be repaired, but this will look horrible with the missing veneer. I will have to buy the bigger bridge that the modern Telecaster Standards are fitted with. They have the six saddles which give a better intonation, but I'd been toying with the idea of going old school and just having the original three. I was going to fit compensated brass saddles so that it would intonate better, but now it seems that my decision had been made for me.

Okay, so now I had the body, the project has started, what next?

The neck of course!

On to part 2