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.