Charlie H 72

Just learned that american standard bridges are significantly longer than the vintage bridge on my current "tele" (by 5/8" or so), and I think that will get the pickup where it needs to be as long as it can be a top loader. These ones from rutters and glendale look like they would work quite well-not cheap though! The glendale is drilled as a string thru but I'm maybe an email or two could change that? https://ruttersguitars.com/rutters-modern-bridge https://glendaleguitars.com/bridge-plates/

Oh interesting! I had not thought of that. Functionally it’s spot on, but design wise it will be quite a challenge.. hmm. The best answer here is a custom bridge but that’s probably not in the cards. Maybe I should just go for the stealth neck pickup after all. Actually- I could put it on a blend pot and use it as a tone control. Something to think about.

Good call on the measuring drak-who would have thought that measuring would get me anywhere! The shortie bridges are cool but I think this build needs the classic ashtray. Based on that method and my experiments with the bridge pickup last night I should have all I need to get the right sound. Any recommendations for the most versatile bridge pickup? Don’t need a lot of output. The q filter seems like a bit of a legend -I have seen multiple accounts-some say it makes a bridge pickup sound more like a neck, others say it makes a humbucker sound more like a single coil, and lots of people say it “effectively removes windings from the pickup.” The only thing to do in this scenario is try one out! I’ll report back.

Just got done playing for a while-tweaked the amp just for the bridge pickup and it’s surprising how versatile it is on its own-even without a tone knob.

Well the toasted tele has been treating me so nicely I thought I would make another just like it! A blonde cousin, you might say. Going to try to let this one take a different route to completion-slow, a little at a time, deliberate, you know. I want something with a finer finish and built with high quality parts. I tweaked the shape a little bit to make it less aggressive. I love the look and simple concept of an esquire but I may miss the neck pickup. Going to try to play bridge only for a few days and see if I really want to go that route. If not-maybe I will install a stealth neck pickup. 2 piece maple neck, single dot inlays at the 5 and 12 frets vintage tuners possible forearm contour 3 saddle compensated bridge pine or ash body-still mulling that one over. Probably ash, but a nice slab of pine could be fun. Translucent blond finish Considering the bill lawrence Q filter in place of a tone knob. And a coil tap? a varitone? I'll prototype some circuits in V1 and find out what I like. Does anybody have a recommendation for a tele bridge that will allow the pickup to be as far as possible from the saddles? Probably a top-loader, because it will allow the saddles to get close to the back of the bridge without creating a crazy break angle. I like the bridge pickup sound, but I find I prefer it when the pickup is further from the bridge to introduce just a bit more warmth.

This seems plausible. Try leveling a problem guitar but not crowning and see if it still buzzes. if that’s the case then it’s a crowning problem and you can go from there. Maybe take the fretwork backwards step by step-level to see if it’s a crowning issue, then pull frets to see if it’s a neck issue, etc. and see how far back you have to go. Or the reverse-string an instrument at every step of the process and find out where the buzzing starts

Whenever I see these my mind tricks me and tells me that the treble side actually has a shallower cut.

Oooh that looks great. Perfect.

Biz is right about the necks-you can make em work for you. And that will be part of the fun. It will also give you the skills to seriously upgrade your other guitars if you want. Set yourself a budget and see what you can do in that range with hardware-try to match the quality. No point in a fancy bridge if the tuners can’t stay in tune. And if there are parts that you want to go above and beyond with (pickups come to mind) then adjust accordingly. Don’t go for bottom of the line on anything that the strings touch. Gfs has great budget pickups, Seymour Duncan is the standard for quality pickups, and Lollar and many others make gorgeous boutique pickups. Just depends what you are looking for and what you want to spend. I have all three and I currently play the guitar with gfs the most. Stewart Macdonald is a great resource for all sorts of hardware etc. and they have great customer service & return policies. There are a few other small places but as far as a one stop shop stewmac should be your go-to.

no need for carbon fiber unless you want to go for a very thin neck or heavy strings. Especially since you are laminating. Almost all guitars are built without carbon reinforcement. As far as profiles go-find a neck you like and use a contour gauge to copy it. just read that this is a seven string-so I’m not sure about carbon fiber-I’m not experienced with seven strings. Find out if the neck you plan to copy has carbon fiber. My guess is you are still good to go with just truss rod and lams.

Ok this is from test 2-I am now the proud owner of a tiny gummy flimsy brown rectangle-but it may be a start. I mixed in a little corn starch as filler, and I poured a thinner layer. It still took 2 days to get to this level of dryness at 1/16” thick or less. I think the issue is that shellac is an aerobic cure and pouring it so thick means that there is a great deal of shellac not receiving any oxygen. So next I will try many micro layers and see where I get. I think there is still drying to do. It’s about as flexible as a sheet of rubber and feels gummy but it did cut with an exact and it did come out of the mold just fine. I also tried pulling out some of test one but it’s still a gummy mess. It may never dry

These are the posts you probably need

In addition to what biz said above, you’ll want to slightly enlarge the neck bolt holes on the body so the neck can comfortably shift to its new spot. This will require a drill. If you dont have one-find somebody that does. See this thread for some more details about how/why to widen the holes.

Probably a good idea as this is not even close to dry! Although the stuff around the outside edges where I spilled a little and in the mixing container is super brittle-this is not likely to work well once it does finally dry. I read that old shellac records had all kinds of mineral filler to compensate for this. I saw a tdpri thread linked to an old PG thread where somebody did their own guards & other components out of epoxy. Worth a look! https://www.tdpri.com/threads/epic-knobs-for-andy-brainy.655962/page-32

Could you seal the grain with a clear base coat of whatever rattle finish you use and then follow with a few coats of an amber color? I think that top will really shine if you tame the green hue just a little

ok this is a test-I read that Bakelite was invented as an alternative to shellac-so it gave me an idea to try to make a pickguard by casting shellac. Also the marble/tortoise pickguard sheets available are expensive and not quite to my liking. So I poured some cheapo Zinnser shellac into a yogurt lid to a ~1/8” depth, marbled 2 colors together a little bit, and now we’re waiting for it to dry. Who knows what’s gonna happen.. has anybody done this? Would love to hear. oh yes and I made a mess.. just pretend it’s not there. anyway a little more finish on my workbench can’t hurt

Thanks Prostheta and Biz! I think some of the best design is low budget-Frank Gehry’s first own house in Santa Monica vs his huge museums, for instance. It allows a playfulness that bigger budgets don’t seem to leave room for. Biz-yup I was definitely going for the organic look-woodsy, dark, a little mysterious. Happy you agree! here are the new pics-did the best I could with my phone. Anyway I’ve been playing it a bunch and it really is a player! I lucked out, I think.

Alright everyone better pics later but this is where it stands-it’s becoming a bit of a frankentele but I’m still having a good time with it! I aged the nickel hardware-went with vinegar instead of muriatic acid -it went ok, might dunk em in again down the road depending on how the natural aging process goes. I also removed the cream fretboard dots and replaced with durhams water putty tinted with acrylic paint to match the wood grain. I like how that turned out. put a GFS low wind pickup in bridge-I like the sound! Pleasantly surprised for the price. I installed the bridge a little further forward than normal to get the pickup closer to the neck. This resulted in a big string break angle over the saddles, so the tone is a little sweeter than your standard tele bridge and nice n plucky. Pulled out the old bridge pup, taped over that hole for now-new PG down the line? maybe! A piece of tape works for now.. I am also eyeing the upper left bout and thinking of rounding it over a little more. But..some things should just be left as they are. Next build maybe anyway I’ll try post some better pics tomorrow!

Beautiful guitars! Thanks for sharing. So-you have verified that nut to 12th fret to nut is the correct distance, how about 12th fret to bridge (11.5”) and nut to bridge (23” to start-then small adjustments to compensate for the factors Bizman noted)? Based on a quick visual check of your images it looks like the bridges are too far back.

Thanks Komodo. I just ordered a bunch of nickel hardware from allparts. And a GFS bridge pup. I’m looking forward to this. I drilled out the inlays yesterday and replaced with wood filler. The inlays were actually shell which caused some difficulty in removing, mainly with the bit wandering and nicking the fretboard in a couple places but I got em out with no major issues. Just drill a small hole, heat the dot with a soldering iron for 30 sec, then use a screw to pull out. I think the wood filler suits the guitar much better than the shell that was in there, but I unknowingly got putty (the non-hardening kind) instead of filler. so we’ll see in a few days how hard it gets and if I have to remove. I also put a piece of dark brown paper under the translucent pickguard to help it pop just a little more.

Wrapping the guitar with tweed seems like a make or break kind of thing depending on how it’s all detailed, and this is really coming together. The joint between top and middle with the tweed tucked in makes it all work!

Thanks @komodo that’s a gorgeous build! Love the shape, love the simplicity, and the relic looks great. That’s about what I’m going for-seems like most people do either light relic to match a vintage instrument or they totally trash the hardware. I like your approach. I will get some nickel hardware and give it a go.

Tried some gas stove heat treating-and it went terribly! I had fun though. Seems like there must have been some pretty soft metal in there-if not lead, zinc? Anyway looks like I’m on the hook for a new bridge-or at least some new saddles but I might as well get the whole bridge while I’m at it.

That’s a good call! I hadn’t thought of that-I will give them a ring before I do anything

(Here’s a quick shot of the knob-you can see on the top where the patina has worn off)