Maybe some threaded inserts would be the trick here. They require a bigger hole anyway and might just be big enough to cover the original holes. I'd dowel, then drill for the inserts if the new hole didn't remove most of the original one.
I wonder how well a wood screw would work when half it's diameter is in dowel instead of virgin wood??........Bill
wow, ouch!
Inspired by your work, spooked out at the same time. I manage large scale art installations, so I know all too well - - things never work out no matter how hard you plan. But there is always some kind of solution.
thanks
KYC
Heh, well... I talked to Ron, and he said to super glue a dowel in there, wait a minute, then redrill.
Ron knows of whence he speaks.
He built the body for my Mary Kay and did the basic assembly......
http://www.ronkirn.com/gallery2/inde...lbum=Rogs+Mary
(and we share "progressive" political ideology)
"When injustice becomes law then rebellion becomes duty."
Awesome Mary Kay!
I don't know a thing about the guy's political ideology... but is it the opposite of what I think of as a progressive political ideology? :)
You can ask him yourself, Bob.
My views are well-known though.
"When injustice becomes law then rebellion becomes duty."
The less I discuss politics with people, the happier we generally all are. :)
I'll stay in the dark, thanks!
Down the home stretch...
I got some poplar dowel, 1/8". I touched each hole with a 1/8" bit so I knew where I was starting, then took a small piece of dowel, stuck it in my drill, and used my fingers to pinch it with sandpaper, which quickly got it down to a very tight fit in the existing hole.
So then I put it in the hole, and marked it w/ an xacto...
...cut it off...
...and glued it into the hole with krazy glue.
Rinse and repeat, then use the xacto to clean up the high parts (because I don't want to sand this down and finish the heel again), and it's ready to redrill.
My buddy Tony (from Looker) came over to lend an extra set of hands for the final parts... it's hard to see here, but we ran a piece of string from the low E saddle of the bridge, up to the low E tuner, over to the high E tuner, then back down to the high E saddle on the bridge... then we moved the neck (it does have some horizontal play) until the string was lined up nicely on both sides (so we know we have the neck centered and it'll play nice), and then clamped it. Here I put a piece of corian, left over from making my fret leveling file, on the fret side to spread out the load. On the back of the guitar side we just used the neck mounting plate, but turned upside down so any marks would be invisible when it went on for real.
Then I drilled the new holes.
You can see how far off they were here.
Last edited by LookerBob; 07-21-2011 at 08:09 AM.
So I strung the guitar up and gave it a go... and discovered that I had an electrical short. I did a quick setup on the guitar, and also realized that I wanted a touch more relief in the neck. Unfortunately, these two issues meant I was going to be taking the whole friggin' guitar apart to fix them. Remember the ground wire for the bridge? Well, that meant that the bridge had to come off if I was going to pull the controls off, and that meant that I had to undo all of the setup I had just done. Lame.
Anyway... the wiring looked like this, and I suspected that the metal braiding around the wires for the pickups, which is the ground wire and shield for the pickup wires, was contacting the switch in the cramped confines of the control cavity. You can see those two wires running off to the right and into the body in this picture. I doubly suspected this because when I unscrewed the control plate and pulled it up about 1/8" from the body (all I could get with the guitar assembled), it would suddenly start working.
My solution was to do what I had done w/ the input jack wire (also externally grounded/shielded), and put a piece of heat shrink tubing over each pickup wire. So I've done that here...
...then I resolder and stuff it back in the hole.
I plug it and check... thumbs up! We're in business!
Next I do one of the more boneheaded things I've done on this build... not paying enough attention, I screw the bridge back on, but find that the center screw is spinning once I have it all the way in... which is really not good, and also really surprising to me since I just drilled the holes for the bridge screws yesterday and made sure I used the right bit and everything was tight... but I was in a little bit of a hurry, so I split a piece of left over dowel, and shoved the half dowel and some crazy glue down the hole, then followed it up with a screw (something I've done w/ matchsticks on gibsons where the back strap button has become loose because of a stripped hole (they hang them from the holes at the factory, and they get screwed up). Nice and tight, I think I'm ready to go... until I try to string it and the string won't pass through the body... at which point I realize that I've screwed the bridge into the string through holes of the body. Brilliant. So I remove the screws, remove the bridge, drill out that dowel I just put in there, and screw the bridge onto the correct holes, which of course are nice and tight. Way to go, dumbass!
Once that is done, I string it up, and set the radius to 12". This picture sucks, but anyway... the neck is a compound radius 10" - 12", so I set it to 12". I also adjust the saddle height so that the strings aren't buzzing (too much) and are at a height that I like.
Then I intonate each string...
...until everything is nice and tuned.
And this bad boy is DONE. And it ROCKS. The guitar plays like a dream, is very warm acoustically, has a great feel to the finish, and looks balls out badass. It looks pretty good in that fancy orange/tweed case, too!
Lessons learned:
1. Don't get into this unless you are patient.
2. Take your time.
3. Keep your work area clear of stuff that will mess up the finish.
4. Take your time.
5. Every problem has a solution.
6. If you want a fender, build your own! This is a MUCH better guitar than any non custom shop fender I've played, it's actually custom to what I wanted, and I didn't have to pay $3000 for it.
7. If at all possible, buy both neck and body from the same vendor so that things will line up, and if they DON'T, you won't have used up your warranty on a 'bad' part and you can get it resolved.
Total cost, I think I've probably got, with trips to Ace Hardware to buy tools I ended up needing included, <$1600 in this, with the case.
Last edited by LookerBob; 07-21-2011 at 08:09 AM.
Looks outstanding, Bob. That total cost is close to my usual ballpark figure for a custom build.Originally Posted by LookerBob
BTW, many precepts in your "creed" can apply to other forms of human endeavor as well.
"When injustice becomes law then rebellion becomes duty."
Yeah... like raising a kid, picking a wife...
Next project... clean up the total pigsty I made of my work area!
Great job on the Tele and thanks for posting! Excellent instructions/photos ... appreciate much and thanks!
Jess
Old Rockers never die; we just fade away! 会長
Great thread, great build. Thanks Bob
'Alton Towers - Where the magic never ends', or so the commercial says. Imagine my disappointment when it closed at 7.30
Awesome! I love rosewood teles and humbuckers too!
Fuzz is proof God love us and wants us to be happy. - Franklin
http://www.frankdenigris.com
Thanks for sharing your build Bob.
Congrats and well done.
I have decided to be happy because it's good for my health.
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