Thinline tele build

[tonebender]

Coming along nicely! I actually got my old Tonebender Tele out and took it to rehearsal the other day. It was like a reunion with an old friend. Just the once though and it's back to the Les Paul.

[idiotsdelight]

Start with top loader first. You can always drill for string thru later

I wish more of my tears were top load. I converted one to Bigsby equipped.

[honyock]

I decided to go string through, but the lazy way. I had a nice aluminum string through plate, needed since my drill decided to wander drilling the through holes. Since the holes were all within the 3/8" OD of my forstner bit I just aligned the string through plate to my back cover and made sure all the holes would be close enough to hit the 1/8" diameter of the holes for the strings.

Then I sunk the holes with the forstner to the depth of the head.

It is so much easier and looks better than if I were to miss place the hole spacing with the individual inserts.

Maybe if I connected my drill press table to a drill press vise that would let me move stuff in a controlled x/y I might have just installed the ferrules, but this looks uniform and it is easier to just align the 2 holes after the 6 are close enough instead of trying to be perfect. I don't have that kind of patience...

The bridge is an old First Act. They had surprisingly nice hardware on such inexpensive guitars. Chose this because I could file it to fit the cutout in the pickguard and it just so happened to be the closest to the 25.5 scale when the saddles were in the neutral state, the saddles also have a ton of travel due to the design.

I think it looks better than the true top loader or the GE Smith Wilkinson that had the option of both top loading and string through.
 

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Accidentally poked the body with the tip of the forstner bit on accident taking the body off the drill press table, but this thin finish guitar wasn't ever intended to be perfect.

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[BrianSkeezer]

I like those plates, also. The only way I've gotten individual ferrules to line up is by using calipers to get their precise location in relation to the body edge, drilling the holes for them first, then drilling the string through holes from the top to run into the ferrule holes. If the drill wanders a bit at that point, no one will see it because the ferrule hides it.

[idiotsdelight]

Derp.

[honyock]

I made an error, could not get it to intonate properly partially due to excessively high action (neck pocket too deep and/or heel too shallow), so I am pivoting to the top loader and I'll just have the string through plate on back for show, unless I decide to get sporty and plug the original holes and drill the string through on like a 15° angle to hit the correct location (still considering). I was able to get the high E to intonate with the string through, but nothing else, so I maked that position and moved everything back by about 3/8". Now can intonate at 5th, and the harmonics at the 10th and 12th. Just thinking about shimming the neck to add some tilt back angle to create better action.

StewMac got me to sign up for their membership this week as luck would have it, so I decided to just buy some from them instead of making something else work. Free Stewmax membership if you spend $100, so I bought some more tools I had been eyeing for fret dressing and neck leveling.

Next project is going to be a set neck, really want to build a Flying V with the Explorer headstock ala Dave Mustaine Flying V. Sold my Gibson last summer and my ML doesn't fully scratch the itch. I still haven't touched my BWG P.O.S. Flying V that is probably better suited for being turned into a clock or wall art due to the manifold issues.

[idiotsdelight]

That thing looks the business.

I've got a couple of those back plates for pauwlonia bodies.

What's your BWG POS Flying V?

[honyock]

That thing looks the business.

I've got a couple of those back plates for pauwlonia bodies.

What's your BWG POS Flying V?

I bought a custom from China via a member from the old AGF, it had quite a lot of issues and ended up basically being scrap because of an improperly installed truss rod. I should have cut my losses and returned it, but I didn't. It was basically AL3200 money at the time (2017). Thought that the guy had a bit better idea about what his contact in China was pumping out, but it was not what I would have expected based on some of the other stuff I had seen coming from the same place.

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[tobijohn]

I bought a custom from China via a member from the old AGF, it had quite a lot of issues and ended up basically being scrap because of an improperly installed truss rod. I should have cut my losses and returned it, but I didn't. It was basically AL3200 money at the time (2017). Thought that the guy had a bit better idea about what his contact in China was pumping out, but it was not what I would have expected based on some of the other stuff I had seen coming from the same place.

I've bought a few pieces of wall art from China too. They're theoretically repairable but the time and materials that would be required makes them hardly worth the effort.

I thought yours was different though, a trust was betrayed.

[tonebender]

I have purchased 4 Chinese guitars with an American manufacturer name on them. I sold one after upgrading, play two and one I gave to a friend for wall art in his restaurant.

[honyock]

I figured out the issue with the action, neck pocket is a little too deep so the neck sat with the dots almost cut in half by the pickguard. I used a 1 degree wedge and it brought the neck up to the correct height, fixed a little too much relief on the neck and now the bent steel saddles are pretty close to max height. This makes it much nicer for palm muting. Action is bang on where I like it and now I can do double stop bends with ease without it feeling like my ring finger tendon was going to pop.

Still learning in/outs of the pickups, but they are definitely their own animal with the 1M pots there is a lot of range to play in before it becomes unlikeable.