Tele modding blog

[clare_bear]

Well, it's already harder than I'd hoped!

Flippin' cheap-ass Tele means that nothing fits as standard! Thus far, I have had to fill some holes and drill some new ones for the machine heads and file the scratch plate to fit!

I have now discovered that the bridge pick-up won't quite fit in it's hole - so some more filing to be done!

On the plus side, I think I can make the electronics neater (or no worse!) than those already in there!

At least this is giving me some practice, I suppose.

[guitargeek62]

I should do one too, ive gone from getting a complete squier affinity tele 4 years ago to it having 3 new pickguards, being converted to an esquire with only 1 vol control, new maple neck, back to a tele with hotrails in, back to a correctly wired esquire and now down to a literally just a body! Itll be back in one (many?) piece soon though, getting a new organ donor tele for it

[frankus]

Originally Posted by clare_bear

Well, it's already harder than I'd hoped!

Flippin' cheap-ass Tele means that nothing fits as standard! Thus far, I have had to fill some holes and drill some new ones for the machine heads and file the scratch plate to fit!

I have now discovered that the bridge pick-up won't quite fit in it's hole - so some more filing to be done!

On the plus side, I think I can make the electronics neater (or no worse!) than those already in there!

At least this is giving me some practice, I suppose.

Welcome to the wonderful world of modding cheap-ass teles... I totally get where you're coming from having discovered this with my own mod for the clarkson challenge.

How did you fill the holes? I got told off by a technician for using splinters apparently I should use cut pegs or specially bought dowling

yeah right

[clare_bear]

Originally Posted by frankus

How did you fill the holes? I got told off by a technician for using splinters apparently I should use cut pegs or specially bought dowling

yeah right

Cocktail sticks! I cut the pointy end off and they, fortunately, fit into the holes perfectly! I then used a blade to cut them of. Easier than I thought it was going to be!

I should point out that it was not all my idea...I have an engineer handy for such advice! I scream like a girl and he finds a solution to my prolem to make me stop! I did do all the actual work myself though.

[suityou316]

Originally Posted by clare_bear

Cocktail sticks! I cut the pointy end off and they, fortunately, fit into the holes perfectly! I then used a blade to cut them of. Easier than I thought it was going to be!

I should point out that it was not all my idea...I have an engineer handy for such advice! I scream like a girl and he finds a solution to my prolem to make me stop! I did do all the actual work myself though.

"like a girl"??!?!! Is there something you want to tell us Clare?
more importantly, is there somethign you want to tell your new husband?

[clare_bear]

Originally Posted by suityou316

"like a girl"??!?!! Is there something you want to tell us Clare?
more importantly, is there somethign you want to tell your new husband?

Yes, OK, so the 'like a girl' bit may have been surplus to requirements! perhaps it should have read,' like a 2 year old having a tantrum'

[theflailingarm]

Originally Posted by clare_bear

Well, it's already harder than I'd hoped!

Flippin' cheap-ass Tele means that nothing fits as standard! Thus far, I have had to fill some holes and drill some new ones for the machine heads and file the scratch plate to fit!

I have now discovered that the bridge pick-up won't quite fit in it's hole - so some more filing to be done!

On the plus side, I think I can make the electronics neater (or no worse!) than those already in there!

At least this is giving me some practice, I suppose.

when i changed the volume on my pacifica i found the pot in there to be about half the size, and there was a little nib on the axetec one that stopped it sitting flush on the back of the scratchplate. i had to install not only the new pot, but a bit of blu-tack to get it to sit right.

good luck anyhow, i think guitars are on of the very few products that allow a turd to be polished and come out better at the end

[Sporky_McGuffin]

For the nib you can either drill a little hole or just snap it off with pliers.

[theflailingarm]

ta muchly sporks, i shall have a go at it next time i'm in there, i'm playing it now, sounds really, worryingly better for a fivers worth of changes

[jono b]

I've just re-wired my Squier Strat and found that I had to be a bit creative with the positioning of stuff like the capacitor and the pots. The original pots obviously fitted fine but the Alpha ones I got from Axes'r'us were a bit too big with wires soldered on.
I managed to pickup a cheap Strat plate from an ebay shop called Drumdiscounter in Holland. None of the screw holes lined up but I plugged them with matches and glue, seemed to do the job ok. I decided to stick with the scratchplate rather than get another because it was hard to find a similar one (3-ply H/H/volume/tone/three way switch) that would fit for a fiver!