kpcrash

Bridge is fine, tuners are fine. Keep in mind even with a pre-slotted, curved (12 degrees probably or 9.5) that you may still need (or have someone) make sure it fits correctly and the strings lie correctly in the slots. The difference in flat and curved typically refers to the nut either being completely flat (allowing you to create the radius to match your neck) or curved to match an existing common radius measurement (Fender typically uses 9.5" and 12", but it's easy enough to get Erlewine's book which is a good idea anyway, and use the free gauge in the back to measure your radius). As for the electronics, typically a strat has 250k pots. Feel free to search on here and read to your heart's delight about the difference in 250-500, etc and what it does, doesn't do and voodoo. The pickups - if you want vintage - keep it vintage. Getting pups that are too hot when wanting a more vintage sound may produce too many highs coming through that you'll be using the tone knob to get rid of perhaps.

Ok.... I'll wait.....

In my most humble of opinions... 1. Bone or if do a crapload of bending, graph-tech works well (keep in mind you may have to trim this down a bit and make it fit correctly) 2. 6 if you're super **** about intonation, 3 otherwise (worked for NUMEROUS musicians) 3.Wilkinson and Fender make decent parts for this, the trick is getting the correct measurements, or being ok with drilling holes in the body to mount the bridge. most of them are steel or brass. I like brass saddles on a tele, but that's just personal preference. Also, make sure you get a top load bridge unless you have a string through. Sounds obvious, but happens frequently. 4. Yes - Check out Guitar Fetish if you're budget conscious, otherwise there are numerous tele replacements out there that will probably provide more of what you're looking for 5. If they're working fine, leave 'em 6. Nope 7. The stock electronics are the cheapest possible mass produced stuff they can get. It's always a good idea to make sure you have quality electronics (like from CTS) in there. You may also check out tdpri.com for more info about modding Teles in particular Hope this helps

nice work as always John!

or the sweep got reversed in manufacturing, or there is a flake of metal in there from manufacturing, etc. If it were only as simple as scratchy or nothing...

Pretty much

BTW - if you ever run out of "old" credit cards (like I did) - you can order blank plastic cards from any badge printing company online. I got like 500 for about $30.

The only thing I can think of with CA and Padouk, is that sometimes it has some rather large pores, so it just takes longer with CA. I love CA for tight grains since sometimes it's hard to get the epoxy to push down in there.

Personally, I would use zPoxy or System 3 epoxy for the pore fill. That's just me.

Ok, here's the end result on the neck repair. Already got it fretted and will finish fret job this week. Filled gaps with a little CA gel and sawdust from sanding the FB flush to the neck. That one dark spot in the middle of the pic is a burn spot (was there already). Nut shelf added - piece of maple veneer. Thanks for all the feedback in getting this thing done

Told ya - the cookies work everytime.

Thanks for that visual ....

RAD - let me know when you're ready to try out some single coils with this setup Always cool to see this kind of work between people on the forum.

As long it's not Corvus meets Cloud - should be ok

Nice work John! What did you end up spraying?

Thanks Narc, this has indeed been a challenge. Quick update - reclamped the FB using some smaller clamps so I could focus on the edges a bit more and the only spot I can still fit a razor blade in is that top/nut area. I suppose I could CA/sawdust it together - with or without a layer of veneer on the face of the neck (only hesitant there because of the prefinished FB - which, since most of what I do is finishes, seems odd to worry about trifling with). I would probably not go through all of this if not for the intimate understanding of where this guy is coming from that owns this guitar - where the guitar has been and what it means to him. To add to temptation, I have a perfectly good RG 570 neck in inventory.

The cookies have gotten me much farther than my good looks at music stores. Can't hurt to give it a go.

Probably - leave them a plate of cookies as a sacrificial offering and see what happens All kidding aside, you could do what I've done - take your guitar to a music store to "test" a new amp out. Try a couple because it's fun, that way you can at least rule out the guitar. After that, it's time for more scientific tests.FWIW, power conditioners aren't always all that. They can help, but if your whole house has a bad ground or something - it might not produce the desired effect.

The fretboard does not have the shelf with it - I would build that up with a piece of veneer no sweat. I hear you on whether or not all of this is worth it to save a 20+ year old neck that has obviously seen better days. Since the fb is already finished on the top, any reductions on that to keep things reasonable would have to be done from the bottom. Which - I have already sanded with a block, just slightly to make sure it was quite flat and ready to glue. PITA

Note the apparent lack of wood on the one side of the truss. This is where the break was, but there weren't any chunks of wood missing..... Part of what you see in these pictures is shadow from the fact that the FB is 1 mm wider than the neck.

One more thing... I got in the neck cradle and level. There are two visible anomalies in the neck. Between the break line and the nut platform on low dips about 1/16" - right in front of the nut platform, the truss rod appears to have a slight 'bump' in it. I have loosened the truss rod completely to see if slight pressure would work this bump out to no avail.... hmmmmm.......

Ok, so I got the CF rods installed, no biggie there. Grabbed the new customer supplied FB and for grins decided to dry fit it since there looked to be a low spot near the nut on the low E side. Surprisingly, from about the 12th-13th fret area up, there is about a 1/16" gap with the fb clamped down. I didn't want to put too much pressure on it right now since I'm just lining things up. Being a wizard neck that's already had some kind of surgery on it to remove the original FB (before it got here) - any suggestions on how best to level this out without sanding? I mean - I guess I could make sure it's level in the neck cradle and spread epoxy to level - but anything better?

The star grounding method relies on using two contact points as ground. For example, you would run a wire from the trem claw (assuming strat style setup) to a common screw in the body cavity. The body cavity screw is intentionally screwed through the foil into the body and typically has a standard crimp and solder ring connector on it. ALL ground wires go directly to this ground connection - since some people try to mount it centrally, with all the wires soldered to it it can take on a 'star' appearance. The principle on this (along with the shielding) is that all grounding is done to the body and eliminates all ground loops. You may want to take a look at this article, which explains everything in great detail.

The metal braid is there similar to the principle that twisted wires provide mutual shielding (hence, why most network wire is 'TWP' - twisted pair). But it's not always the greatest for sound applications. You can test this easily by using two sep. wires for your jack. Twist them together - like a twist tie - as much as possible (cheap shielding of jack wires complete), and connect as usual. You said the pickguard and cavity are fully shielded - with? Is there metallic contact between the shielding used on the pg and the cavity? Is it possible that your solder joints on your switch (or elsewhere) are touching the shielding? Sorry to bombard with questions, but more suggestions on things to check. Also, if you were to truly eliminate ground loops, none of your electronic components would be used as the ground. This is where star grounding comes in, but is a whole different topic

Interesting thread on how this guy used that stuff - http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/inlaying-crushed-turquoise-tutorial-499230/