Self Build Tele Quandary

[WezV]

its not hard to get six holes through the body, but getting them neat is very difficult without the rght equipment...and its one of those jobs that can look unsightly from the slightest variation in ferrule spacing on the back.

the job goes much easier on a large drill press

[Philly Q]

And the proper name for non-individually intonatable bridges is "Anti-musical shitee"  :shock:  :shock:

Phil, you've got dozens of Juniors, help me out here!!!  :o

If you don't have a drill press it can make a real mess. You need to have the holes at right angles to the body and all spaced correctly. Then you also need to know which type of ferrules you are going to use on the back, as the holes need to be different diameters for different ones.

Agreed, you certainly need a drill press, but there is a slight margin for error.  

If you drill the holes from the top, then if they're a tiny bit out of line on the back you can straighten them up again when you drill the holes in the back for the ferrules.  You don't want the string holes oversized or the bridge plate will create a little "lip" at the top of each hole and the strings will catch when you feed them through - not a disaster, but annoying.

You'd need to make a little drilling template for the ferrule holes (from a bit of hardboard or something) to make sure you get them straight, otherwise the drill bit will get "pulled" into the holes you've already drilled from the top.  That's what I did anyway.

G&L use a one-piece ferrule which would make the whole thing a lot easier, but I don't suppose you can buy them separately:

[WezV]

i do the one piece ferrule thing quite often - usually inlayed into the back, sometimes with individual ferrules put into that

i do it because i like the look but will admit i first tried it because i had to after drilling fome ferrule holes badly

[kevincurtis]

I'm not going for top notch here - I'm not that patient :( I just want to create something functional that looks ok (getting such a nice body was in a sense an error but it will make me pull my game up a bit!)

That said i don't want a dogs dinner on the back either - I like the look of the G&L ferrule, but as you say, whether you could get hold of one seperately?

On another aspect - if I go with P90's anyone got any ideas for interesting wiring/electronics? I'm very much a one pickup and volume person ordinarily, but this project is making me feel 'playful' so I'm thinking of how I can juice this puppy up in some ways :)

[Philly Q]

Well, it's just two single-coils so you can't do anything too fancy.  You could go for the legendary 4-way Tele switch, a pair of P-90s in series would sound huge I imagine (but maybe not too useable?).

Or maybe you could get them tapped and use a push-pull pot or two for some lower-output sounds.