YeahRoon Posted July 7, 2004 Report Share Posted July 7, 2004 Hi all, great place to hange out! I have some (should be) simple to answer questions and yes you canflame me if I get really obnoxiously stupid I actually play bass mostly and already have some awesome (albeit very much store bought) pieces of wood that I am extremely satisfied with. However I also play quite a bit of guitar and can never find what I really want. So I decided (silly me) to try and build my own. Here is what I like: I have a telecaster that I absolutely love for the playability, the scale the size, shape of the neck, etc. I used to have a cheapo guitar with a hard tail whatchamacallit bridge. Crud now I can't think of the name, the kind you find on Gibson Les Pauls, the stoptail... AH yeah... tunomatic! That's it. The nice round chrome ones with the stop tail... They just make more sense to me, rest my hands easier (used to BIG because of the bass guitars). I have some crappy hondo that I bought at a yard sale for 50 bucks because someone was senseless enough to outfit it with mini goto tuners, which cost more than the guitar ever did or will be worth and I keep that guitar around so I don't lose the tuners. They are smooth, small and generally much nicer then what's on my tele. What I miss on the tele is a bucker! I basically want to build another guitar that makes up for the sounds I am lacking on my factory tele. I love the biting sharp highs from the tele but would like some nice litt;e warmer buck sound every once in a while. Don't want to go with a Gibson, although I love the sound I can justify the cost. So here is what I had in mind. I buy the 99 dollar (this is an experiment and if it works out I can go with more expansive kits) tele kit from Saga (I think) and fit it with the tuners I already have. I just want one humbucker by the bridge, so I fill the existing cavities in the body and re-rout for the one humbucker. I want nothing but a volume knob (don't ever use tone anyway) so I fill the existing hole and rerout for a simple 1 knob config. A little bit of woodworking skills is all I should need (and some of my friends actually posess these skills). So far so good... But what I would really like to know is: Can I fit a tunomatic bridge on a tele kit? Do the measurements work? Or are these babies just too dang big? Is the E to E measurement of a Tunomatic that much wider and do I now seriously have to shim the neck to body joint because tunomatics are much higher?? Please let me know what you think, I am itching to start building! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
litchfield Posted July 7, 2004 Report Share Posted July 7, 2004 Here is what I like: I have a telecaster that I absolutely love for the playability, the scale the size, shape of the neck, etc. I used to have a cheapo guitar with a hard tail whatchamacallit bridge. Crud now I can't think of the name, the kind you find on Gibson Les Pauls, the stoptail... AH yeah... tunomatic! That's it. The nice round chrome ones with the stop tail... They just make more sense to me, rest my hands easier (used to BIG because of the bass guitars). I have some crappy hondo that I bought at a yard sale for 50 bucks because someone was senseless enough to outfit it with mini goto tuners, which cost more than the guitar ever did or will be worth and I keep that guitar around so I don't lose the tuners. They are smooth, small and generally much nicer then what's on my tele. What I miss on the tele is a bucker! I basically want to build another guitar that makes up for the sounds I am lacking on my factory tele. I love the biting sharp highs from the tele but would like some nice litt;e warmer buck sound every once in a while. Don't want to go with a Gibson, although I love the sound I can justify the cost. Ok, so use the tele neck and build a body So here is what I had in mind. I buy the 99 dollar (this is an experiment and if it works out I can go with more expansive kits) tele kit from Saga (I think) and fit it with the tuners I already have. I just want one humbucker by the bridge, so I fill the existing cavities in the body and re-rout for the one humbucker. I want nothing but a volume knob (don't ever use tone anyway) so I fill the existing hole and rerout for a simple 1 knob config. A little bit of woodworking skills is all I should need (and some of my friends actually posess these skills). So far so good... But what I would really like to know is: Can I fit a tunomatic bridge on a tele kit? Do the measurements work? Or are these babies just too dang big? Is the E to E measurement of a Tunomatic that much wider and do I now seriously have to shim the neck to body joint because tunomatics are much higher?? Please let me know what you think, I am itching to start building! Yes yo can, but it will take quite a bit of shimming. Which is why I say build a body. Warmoth can build a body with a neck pocket angle, and those ade not hard to do. Is there anything you would do to a tele to make it yours? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeahRoon Posted July 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2004 But... Can a factory tele neck (width wise) actually be used with a tuneomatic or does the string spacing go way out of whack? Sorry for all the dumb questions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted July 8, 2004 Report Share Posted July 8, 2004 Welcome to the forum YeahRoon Thats far from being a dumb question and I admire your forsite into thinking it out! Anyway to answer your question the average Tele Bridge has a string spead of 2-1/8" and the average Tunematic is 2-1/16" so yes it can be done very easily Be sure to ask though before purchasing the bridge since they do have models that have a 2' string spacing as well as a 2-3/32" spacing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KTLguitars Posted July 8, 2004 Report Share Posted July 8, 2004 If you (or your wood-working friends) have a router and the skill to use it you can route for extra angle in the neck pocket or put in some kind of adjustment as Fender actually are doing on some of their more expensive Guitars -think they call it micro-tilt or something - they finally figuerd it out after 50 yaers.... If you want another option for your sound you could also put in a coil tap switch - then you can use it as single coil form time to time... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeahRoon Posted July 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2004 Do I understand correctly that it's the tilt of the neck that accomodates for the difference in string spacing or is that just to adjust for the difference in height between the 2 different types of bridge? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulNeeds Posted July 12, 2004 Report Share Posted July 12, 2004 Bridge height. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeahRoon Posted July 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2004 Brian (and all the others) thanks for the answers. Brian, I see you sell that saga kit on your site. Do you suggest (in the case of tune-o-matic) with string through body or with a stop tail?? Yeahroon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeahRoon Posted July 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2004 Never mind! I think I answered my own question... Duh! That would cause some serious problems with angle of the strings If I look at it correctly it would cause the string to "rub" against the back of the bridge. I looked at stewmac and am now in love with the Baby Grand But I understand from earlier posts that that won't quite work because of the string spacing. Or does it? Say yes, say yes! That thing just looks too way cool! I want it! I want it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePlague Posted July 12, 2004 Report Share Posted July 12, 2004 the baby grand should work fine for the tele kit. the spacing on the tele is 2 1/8 as brian said, and the spacing on the baby grand is 2 3/32 (just under 2 1/8). so you'll just have a little more space between the string and the edge of the fretboard if you put the baby grand in. someone correct me if i'm wrong here. i'm a little out of it from just getting home from work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeahRoon Posted July 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2004 I am so not good at metric to imperial conversions.... From Europe originally, living in the US now... Pfftttt going from 3/32" to ... what is that .09 or whatever. Is there a quick lookup somewhere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePlague Posted July 12, 2004 Report Share Posted July 12, 2004 why do you need the metric? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeahRoon Posted July 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2004 Metric: 1) I am one of those crazy Europeans who do everything in metric. 2) With the invention of pocket calculators it's actually easier to calculate things in metric. my calculator has keys for 0.25 but none for 1/4 3) A lot of specs I see are in metric. Quizzz: Which one of the above statements is a smart a** remark? a) 1 2 c) 3 d) None of the above Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted July 13, 2004 Report Share Posted July 13, 2004 Click here, then bookmark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeahRoon Posted July 13, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2004 Brian, Once again... you da man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeahRoon Posted July 14, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2004 I have one more question, how do you measure neck-angle. Don't answer: In degrees (I know that). But if a neck on a guitar is sitting at an angle, and I want to find out what that angle is, how do I go about measuring the difference in degrees.... Am I making sense at all?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KTLguitars Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 You have tools for measuring angels... - or you can use a long ruler put it parallel to the body, in contact with the last fret, that will normally be 21, 22 or 24 fret. Then measure the gap between the 1st fret and the ruler ( =A ) -measure the distance from the first to the last fret ( =B ) - then remember the trigonometry from school . Tan(NeckAngle) = A/B, -or as you do on the calculator: Atan (A/B) = Neck angle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeahRoon Posted July 17, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 Ok, I am convinced... I need a good book on guitar building! Anyone care to recomend one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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