:lol: funny how this thread's gone...
badger, you rapist :lol:
... I thought of you when I first answered. I also thought of me... I put a humbucker in the neck of a squier tele years ago... with a chisel... it worked, but it wasn't pretty underneath the scratchplate :lol:
I've also watched the vid gepetto's linked - a bit scary how the bloke did his routing, especially the scratchplate, but a lot more organised than I did it. Seems to have come out alright, sounds fantastic as well (I think we have several folks on here with a Piledriver/MQ combo in a tele actually). And actually, by the way, height adjustment for a standard tele neck pickup means taking the guard off - the bloke would've known that, he owns the thing, so I suspect he wanted to retain the clean lines and kept the screws under the plate.
After trying the humbucker in the neck myself, must be at least 15 years ago, it's really not something I want to do personally, I like my teles to do the "trad" thing.
BUT...
ManInTheBox:
What you want to do is NOT a bad idea :D - you've got a good player that you want to make even better, to make the sounds you want. Make sure it IS what you want, because taking the wood out will change its tone slightly and is not easily reversed. I wouldn't have thought the change in tone would be huge though - especially when compared to the change you'll get by putting humbuckers in.
But, can you do it yourself? Watch that vid - it's not actually that difficult, it's not rocket science. But it sounds to me like you might be better getting a luthier to do it at the moment (or maybe you've got woodworking skills but not a lot of knowledge about what's under the bonnet of a guitar - if so, you
can do it, there's enough knowledge/experience on this and other forums to help you through the ordering parts and wiring...)
Anyway, loads of luthiers would be happy to do the work - I have to disagree with gepetto there, he must be experiencing guys that I wouldn't want to deal with so much... (if their heart's not in the job you specify, then they will do poor work).
Not sure where you're based ManInTheBox, but I know at least two luthiers in the UK, one of whom has done work for me, who I am
surewould be happy to do the job for you if that's what you wanted. They'd put the same care and attention into it as they would the rest of their work, and they'd be
very happy for you to tell people that they did the job.
So, possible? YES.
Good idea? Quite possibly, yes.
Would I do it? No, not me, but that's cos I don't want humbuckers in my teles - not because I think guitars are sacred (I've just happily stripped the finish off a 2 year old Gibson because it was pants - one could have argued that I should have sold it and got a Faded if I could find one. But I liked this particular Gibson, it's just the finish that was pants. As it happens, it turned out quite well, but it was quite a risk!)
