You probably remember this thread from a while back

https://www.ar15.com/forums/General/You-know-you-ve-been-tempted-let-s-see-what-happens-Building-a-Tele-from-a-kit-/148-2523395/

You probably also remember that it sat dormant and got archived...so this is a continuation thread.

I have to say, this build kicked my butt in every single way imaginable, but I dragged it kicking and screaming across the finish line.

First, the neck from Guitar Fetish was a mess. I'd never ordered from them before and I should have continued that policy.

I could never get it right. It was like a noodle. 1/4 turn of the truss rod would make it bow WILDLY. Like, strings 1/4 inch high wildly. It was crazy.

Even when I could get the angle and bow correct on the neck, I still had buzzy frets. And I'd come back the next day and it'd have moved so much that my previous day's setup would be wrecked and I'd have to start over.

And the nut was cut poorly. The strings wouldn't sustain. I filed on one slot and cleaned it up and that helped a little, but the nut was cheap plastic, so it really would have to be replaced.

So, Guitar Fetish = nono.

One thing that was not the fault of the neck was the fact that I had to move the saddles so far forward to set the intonation. I set the bridge position based on the pickguard, meaning I'd moved it as close to the neck as possible without cutting it, but it was still pretty bad. If I had continued on that path, I was going to have to cut the pickguard and move the bridge forward, which would have meant refinishing. Ugh.

And then I got to looking...the scoop for the neck on the pickguard was rounded, but the neck pocket on the guitar was square. Duh.

That's why Tele Deluxes sometimes have a jumbo headstock. Because they use Strat necks. I didn't do my research.

So, I started scouring Facebox  to find a Strat neck, preferably with a jumbo headstock. Found a sweet playing Squier for $80, which I posted about here. I routed the neck pocket out to Strat specs and put the neck on and everything worked perfectly. Plays like a dream. It still stays Squier Strat on the headstock, but I'll be taking care of that soon.

Next was electronics. I got horrible buzzing when I would hook it up to my practice amp. When I hooked it up to my Music Man twin, it was far worse. Here's the kicker...my single coil guitars (my other Strats and my Indio Telecaster) were quiet as a mouse through those amps.

And, when I would play, as my fingers touched the pickups, they would click and pop.

First, I thought maybe I needed to ground it. The wiring harness I got is a generic Les Paul style harness, and it doesn't show a ground on it, but I ran a wire from the ground on the jack to the bridge. This helped some, but then I had a new problem. When I touched the pickups, I got a very loud hum.

Dangit, this was getting old. The pickup covers are soldered to the baseplates, so I figured I could experiment by running a wire externally from the bridge to the pickup cover and see if that eliminated the noise.

When I did this, the pickup went dead. WHAT THE HECK.

At that point, I figured I wasn't grounding it, but bypassing the circuit altogether. That could only mean that the pickups were hooked up backwards.

Took it apart again (for the 362342th time) and sure enough, had the hot hooked to the ground and the ground hooked to the hot.

This is a public service announcement by Squashpup. If you touch a wire from your pickups to the ground and they quit working, swap your pickup leads.



I guess in the end, I really can't say if building a guitar from a kit is a good thing or bad thing, since I really didn't use anything in the kit except for the body, which I highly modified. And the jack plate. And the strap locks. And the neck plate. I think that's it.  I do have the rest of the kit (neck, electronics, tuners, etc) so I might try to build a body from scrap wood and see if I can make a whole other guitar from it (excess guitar parts are like excess gun parts...they do turn into complete guitars).

But anyway, except for a couple of cosmetic things (still need to take care of that headstock and maybe fix some dings in the finish) she's 99.36321% done. Here's some pics.




I'll provide a sound sample later...those Fretwire 'Tron pickups are pretty creamy....very nice for the money.

That looks cool!  I like the body on it, I'm a fan of seeing the woodgrain on a guitar.  

I've considered a guitar kit to play with and build, and looked at some on Ebay and on StewMac.  My short attention span keeps me from buying one, as I know I'll start it and then it will sit.

What I've learned is, outside of the neck, if everything is pretty much close to the correct dimensions, you can make it work.

I mean, this was a single coil config that I converted to a humbucker. If you can do that, then any small issues are solvable.

And electronics can always be upgraded later...get it playing, and you have a base to build something first rate, just the way you want it.

I've got several good guitars, (couple of American standard Fenders, a Taylor acoustic/electric, and a Washburn semi hollow body) but have owned some inexpensive ones in the past that, while not high dollar, played well and sounded decent for low end guitar brands.  It would be fun to find a nicely grained guitar body and a decent neck and make something custom as a beater guitar to take outside for jamming with neighbors by the fire (I have a little Fender GDec amp with tons of effects and built in amp modeling).  

I've got a friend with a guitar store back in KCMO.  I should ask him what kind of parts and things he might have to sell for a good new or used neck.

I've had four Squier necks and they've all been really good except for one that had a high fret...not a terribly hard fix. Best neck I ever played was on an Indio Telecaster copy of mine...it's going on my current project...building out that laminated body that my Dad made. (I put a maple neck on the Indio).

I'd say any old Squier neck would probably be a good starting point.

I bought a body from guitarfetish.  It looked right, but it would never have intonated, as the hole where the trem block went through the body was too low (Closer to the bottom).

And they were a PITA to do the return.

Sound sample...

This is the first song I recorded with the Tele as the lead. I think the Fretwire Tron pickups are the way to go...they sound fantastic!

Specifics for this song:

Lead: Homebuilt Vinterra-ish Tele that's the subject of the thread. Kit body, Squier Strat neck, Tron pickups, and a Les Paul wiring kit I got off Amazon. They have a lot of bite to them, and they're really singy, if you understand what I'm saying...listen to the solo and you'll get it. It's really easy to break them over into a harmonic with a little thumb action on the pick, but at the same time, they're not gritty or harsh.

Rhythm: The relic Strat from this thread: https://www.ar15.com/forums/General/Alright-My-attempt-at-a-relic-/148-2569103/  Has a set of Wilkinson High Output Ceramic ST pickups. I also forgot and played the outro lead at the end with this guitar when I should have used the Tele again.

Amp: Blackstar Fly 3.  

Bass: Glarry J-Bass, run straight into the board

Keyboard: Casio CTX-800

Drums: Alesis DM6

Enjoy!

http://www.sndup.net/wvsk

Nice, got me tapping my toe and singing along with it.  I'm finding I much prefer that style arrangement of the control knobs on my guitars so I can't bang my out of control pick hand into them.

Thanks!

Yes, the setup works well. First double humbucker guitar I've had since I sold my 1979 Ibanez AR-100 back in 2020. The Ibanez didn't sound this good, though...