Been playing my self build Tele for a while now, and there were a few little niggles that were getting to me.
The action was SLIGHTLY too high for me, it choked out a little bending strings past the 14th fret, and the fret tangs were slightly proud of the fingerboard at the sides.
So, I decided to embark on a little maintenance!
Fret work is NOT something that I generally do... however, the whole point of this guitar was to learn a little more about the process of building and setting up.
Did the fret tang first - relatively easy with a needle file. Then checked the neck relief (pain in the arse, because the truss rod adjustment was at the heal and I needed to take the bloody neck off...), checked with a make-shift fret rocker, and there were some definite anomalies at the dusty end. Worked them down with the files again, rounded them off and polished with wire wool (no idea if this is the right way of doing it, but it seemed right to me...)
The result is a much better playing guitar - had a fright when I reassembled it, because it was FAR worse - then I realised that I'd got the truss rod adjustment wrong. Reset it and it's fine now.
Altogether, a really enjoyable little project.
Just thought I'd share, in case anyone else was thinking of doing similar. As I've said before, if I can do it, anyone can!!!
Mark.
