Telecaster Custom Build

Painting? Routing? Set-up tips? Or just straight-up making a guitar from scratch? Post here, and post pics!

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brandon.
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Telecaster Custom Build

Post by brandon. »

I bought a natural telecaster body from portugalwillie. It was awesome. I had some plans for it.
I wated around for a neck to pop up locally, either by itself or on a $75 squier strat, but no dice. I ordered a neck from GFS as explained in my other post and it's awesome. I ordered a Warmoth pickguard a while ago and it's been sitting around. I wanted a tele neck pickup but warmoth couldnt handle that kind of customization so I went with the standard gibson humbucker so I could throw anything in there.

I love putting guitars together and tweaking them, like most of us here, so putting this thing together was a very relaxing friday night for me.

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Special thanks to portugalwillie for the body and neck pickup deals, really made this easier!
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laterallateral
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Post by laterallateral »

Looking good, man!

My recommendations:

- screw the tone/volume pots, just add a killswitch
- relocate output jack to the pickguard
- slant that neck pickup in the route
- hot pink refin

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Last edited by laterallateral on Fri Sep 19, 2014 3:05 pm; edited 115,726 times in total
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Post by brandon. »

laterallateral wrote:Looking good, man!

My recommendations:

- screw the tone/volume pots, just keep that one switch.
- relocate output jack to the pickguard
- slant that neck pickup in the route
- hot pink refin

- tone/volume = no problem
- output jack = no problem
- slant pup = I'll think about it, is it just for aesthetics?
- no dice on the refin.
(britt says hi!)
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laterallateral
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Post by laterallateral »

Oh hi, Britt!

Well the idea is that by changing where the magnets are in relation to the strings, you'll change what actually gets picked up. you're not going to get much of change out of your low strings, seeing as the pickup is already seated as far up in the route as it can go but you might get a bit more spank out of your lower strings. For the record though, yeah I think it would look great. :)

Edit: At least, that's my understanding of it.
Last edited by laterallateral on Fri Sep 19, 2014 3:05 pm; edited 115,726 times in total
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Post by paul_ »

Nice one. I did one of those with a GFS neck too, it was called the Bananacaster because of the awful yellow tint on the earlier GFS necks (so the headstock ended up being gradually covered with Chiquita stickers).

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SKC Willie
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Post by SKC Willie »

Very nice!


I personally am not the biggest fan of two piece maple necks. I don't really have a reason for it, in fact, some vintage teles have a two piece maple neck!


also, don't move the back to the pickugard.
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Mages
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Post by Mages »

looks cool. love kerazy tele projects. the tele is well suited for it I think. I would recommend a slanted pickup for the neck position as well by way of one of these:
Image

since you already got the routing for it, I think it would be cool to give it a tele blade switch. and I would probably route it for all 4 knobs.


also not really a fan of two piece maple necks but yes fender did make them that way for a period in the mid- to late-60s.
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Post by brandon. »

portugalwillie wrote:also, don't move the back to the pickugard.
what this mean?
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laterallateral
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Post by laterallateral »

I think he means output jack
Last edited by laterallateral on Fri Sep 19, 2014 3:05 pm; edited 115,726 times in total
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Post by SKC Willie »

brandon. wrote:
portugalwillie wrote:also, don't move the back to the pickugard.
what this mean?

don't move the input jack to the pick guard.

sometimes, my typing skills amaze me.
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