Monday, 1 July 2013

Telecaster Two - 33 - Positioning the Bridge Pickup

First thing this morning I wanted to see my work in actual daylight rather than under the garage lights, I am off this week so I can spend some time getting as much done as I can and hopefully get close to finishing.


In the daylight the subtle sunburst shines and shows the redness of the stain. But back to business, I have laid out the position of the bridge pickup and start but using a forstner bit to dig out some of the material before routing the cavity.


With most of the wood removed the router made quick work of the remaining material.  I have set the pickup to be flush with the edge of the pickguard.


The proportions look fine but when I put the scratch guard in position I start questioning how the neck pickup with look... Should I fit a regular Telecaster pickup or stick with the P90 as originally planned?


Next I decided to permanently place the pickguard and drill the holes to secure it to the body.  I drilled 8 holes and set the pickguard in place.  I wanted to do this now so I can position the control plate symmetrically  between the two screws on the on the bottom of the pickguard.


With the pickguard mounted I marled out the control plate cavity and used a forstner bit in my hand drill to take away most of the material.


Once I had 7 holes and most of the material removed I used a combination of a sharp knife, a file, a straight edge, some sandpaper and lots of patience to tidy up the edges.



All the holes I pre-drilled before I glued the top on are now accessible so it shouldn't be any problem to feed the cables into the cavity and solder everything onto the pre-wired control plate.


I marked the position of the control plate on the pickguard and carefully removed the excess to ensure a perfect fit without any noticeable gap.


Now it just remains for me to decide which way to go with the neck pickup...

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