Building a Telegib (HH Tele)

Alanko · August 03, 2016, 02:49:13 AM

I will wait and see what it is like.

Dodgy fretwork I can deal with.

As for the neck heel, I've shaved some wood off the Strat neck, leaving an overhang from the fretboard that will cover the pickguard at the neck.

Nice to see the Keef guitars up there!

Dave W · August 03, 2016, 02:10:15 PM

Quote from: Alanko on August 03, 2016, 02:49:13 AM

As for the neck heel, I've shaved some wood off the Strat neck, leaving an overhang from the fretboard that will cover the pickguard at the neck.

A standard Strat neck should fit a standard Tele pocket without modification, you only need to cover up the little gaps at the corner. If you removed wood from the butt end, that could throw off intonation if your bridge is located in the usual position.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you've done.

dadagoboi · August 04, 2016, 08:51:10 AM

Quote from: Dave W on August 03, 2016, 02:10:15 PM
A standard Strat neck should fit a standard Tele pocket without modification, you only need to cover up the little gaps at the corner. If you removed wood from the butt end, that could throw off intonation if your bridge is located in the usual position.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you've done.

It also might give you a nice sloppy neck pocket due the side tapers of the pocket and neck... depending on how close the two were to start with of course. You could get lucky.

Alanko · August 07, 2016, 03:08:43 PM

Fingers crossed. I've removed maybe 2 - 3 mm from the back of the heel, just to square it off slightly. If it doesn't work then I have a couple of other necks, and the stock Harley Benton neck, to work with. I was hoping to sell it to recoup some costs though.

Rob · August 07, 2016, 04:58:25 PM

That's less than 1/10th of an inch you can still shim that if necessary.

Alanko · August 09, 2016, 02:54:46 AM

So the Harley Benton showed up! The neck pocket is wider than a Fender, but oddly a spare Yamaha Pacifica neck fits perfectly.

The bridge pickup route is also a tad oversized, so a normal humbucker ring won't cover it. Time to get creative!

Rob · August 09, 2016, 07:41:16 PM

Let's see some progress pix

Alanko · August 10, 2016, 06:14:46 AM

Nothing to show yet! I'm still working on the Aria bass, as I discovered that the Strat output jack hole allows me to use full-size CTS pots for the wiring ~~loom~~ harness.

The Tele at the moment is simply a finished ash body with a black pickguard screwed to the two holes that aligned correctly and with a zebra humbucker + cream ring in the neck position. I've not figured out a way to use a cream humbucker ring for the neck pickup yet, but I do have a couple of ideas. If I use the Pacifica neck then I will need to move the bridge... measure twice drill one!

Alanko · August 13, 2016, 03:03:31 PM

Aria bass is now up and running on the Epiphone Genesis pickups. I had to re-mount the Genesis pickups on short-legged Wilkinson humbucker baseplates, so that in turn I could get the pickups to work with two Wide-Range humbucker adaptor plates I purchased off Ebay. The bridge pickup runs through a passive bass cut pot before it reaches the pickup switch. I will try and get photos tomorrow.

I'm thinking of modifying my MIM Telecaster, as at least everything on it is standard. I'm thinking of the Dimarzio Super Distortion pickups that come in single-coil sizes, namely a 'T' and an 'S' in the neck. Would get me the Danny Gatton look and a nice Telegib tone. The SD pickups are known for the bassy quality, but this would be offset in a maple-necked Tele, right?

Dave W · August 13, 2016, 07:26:59 PM

Hard to say what the result would be. I've found that maple necks aren't always bright. But I'm not familiar with those pickups.

Alanko · August 14, 2016, 02:53:22 PM

I've never tried these exact pickups either, just other Fenderoids with Super Distortions. I'm leaning more towards a Dimarzio Pro Track in the neck, given the blurb on their site. Seemingly I need a 'Clarence White' pickguard to accommodate a bigger Strat-type pickup in a Tele?

Dave W · August 14, 2016, 10:53:26 PM

I never heard it called that, although Clarence White did have a Strat pickup in the neck position. Guitar Fetish makes one like that, and I know Warmoth can. Probably better for you to get one nearer to you.

Alanko · August 15, 2016, 02:36:52 PM

That is what they call it on Ebay.

No idea beyond that, I stop listening to the Byrds at pretty much the point Clarence White showed up.

Dave, don't kill me. I'm planning to put a vintage-style Fender bridge on the guitar. I know I pilloried these, and your TDPRI brethren, a while back but actually the look of them has grown on me. I've been looking up a lot of Telecasters to see what sort of pickups people have been using, and the Vintage bridge just looks a bit more special than the stock bridge on my MIM. I already have a set of Wilkinson compensation-saddles ready to go from the original Telegib project in my first few posts.

Today's project was distantly Tele related. I stripped down my Harley Benton electric mandolin, which is vaguely patterned like a '70s Telecaster. Mine has caught some paint over-spray at some point and the electronics are dead for some reason. When I bought it it shipped with some fairly stiff, worryingly high-tension bronze strings on it that barely elicited a chirrup from the pickups. I took to stringing it with guitar strings, though I had to buy multiple sets of cheap strings to make up the gauges. I basically went down a gauge per string pair to keep the tension down. I also lowered the action. Mandolin players will consider this all cheating, but on the recordings I have of it it sounded like the real thing. I plan to build a new three-ply pickguard for it as it came with a fairly crude single-ply white guard.

Dave W · August 15, 2016, 08:44:45 PM

Here's one of the Guitar Fetish models http://guitarfetish.com/Telecaster-Pickguard-cut-for-Strat-Pickup-White-Pearl_p_741.html

No need to justify the traditional bridge. Whatever works for you is good.

I've seen pics of a Tele-shaped Harley Benton mando, it's an electric model so I'm surprised it doesn't come with steel strings.

Alanko · September 05, 2016, 06:36:59 AM

Well I went and done it!

I bought a new pickguard for my Tele, alongside a Dimarzio Super Distortion T and a Pro Track for the neck. This vaguely follows the form of the Seymour Duncan JB + Jazz combo that goes into Seymour's Telegib creations. I suppose the tone will be different because blade 'hotrail' pickups sense a thinner slice of the string than a full-size pickup, but the effect is probably pretty minimal.

I've just received an ashtray bridge plate today, so maybe later tonight I will get that fitted. At the moment the Tele is running on the stock MIM bridge plate. Tonally the Super Distortion is way more powerful than the stock pickup, albeit quite compressed and with a very fast, hard attack. There still the classic Tele 'twang' in there, you just have to dial it out by rolling back the volume. The neck pickup is pretty much like a nice humbucker, and I've found nice jazzy tones in there. It stays clear under gain though, rather than resorting to mush. I always thought Teles make a good humbucker guitar, as you can adjust the overall power of the instrument with the volume control, and cycle from an over-bright tone to a darker Gibson tone using the tone control in conjunction with the volume control.