A Tele with EMGs

[Eric'45]

There is some story behind it. Some years ago, I wanted to build a partscaster with the maple neck of my Mexican Tele. I bought an assortment of parts, from Rockinger and started messing around. I have to admit I didn't really know what I was doing, and something was not right about the guitar. To make a long story short, I ended up bolting the maple Neck back to the mexican body where it came from, and all was well. Some time later I moved and so I kinda forgot I had a spare Telecaster Body somewhere. I had dyed it a dark Red and finished it in Satin Nitro.
Yesterday I stumbled upon an ad for a set of active Telecaster PUs.
What I have now is a dark Red Swamp Ash Body from Rockinger and a set of Active Tele PUs from EMG. I have ordered a Blck single- ply Pickguard and a complete set of gold Hardware from Thomann which is due sometime this week.

And now comes the fun part: I also have a slab of Wenge wood and I will try to build a Neck for this Body from scratch. I have tried this before, but i messed up the fretboard radius and I had ordered the wrong fretwire .
Now I have cut two Wenge Fingerboard blanks and a third from Palisander. Let's see how that will turn out this time.

 

[Seamus OReally]

I am told that EMG Tele set totally kills.

 

[Eric'45]

I am told that EMG Tele set totally kills.

I see you got a Strat with EMGs. Are they A5 or Ceramic Magnets?

I like metal and harder styles, but I was always drawn more to the "classic" and more traditional forms of it.
I have obviously not tried this yet. But I recently had the chance to test a guitar with one of the more vintage- oriented Humbucker sets, and that has changed my perception of Active PUs.

I had hoped the 9V battery would fit into the elctronics cavity, as the Pots are not that big, but no. So I ordered a Gotoh Battery Box.

 

[Seamus OReally]

A5 magnets in the X-Series, I believe. I’ve used EMGs in my primary guitar for 30 years. They do everything well.

 

[Eric'45]

The Pickup routing in the Rockinger Body is too shallow for the EMG Quick Connectors. No problem, got the Big Router and made them deeper. It will be used again, when that Battery Box arrives tomorrow.


I did a quick Mockup to see how the Harley Benton Pickguard looks. Not bad, even though I had to modify it's shape a bit. I also scraped the edges, because they were rough and very sharp. But hey, it was cheap.

 

[Don O]

Is that router from WWII ?

 

[Eric'45]

Is that router from WWII ?

Almost. It is a german "Scheer", from the 60s, probably. It has outlived it's previous owner, the man I bought my house and workshop from. It's got plenty of power and takes all modern tools (which is a necessity).

 

[Mike_LA]

Loookin good, I've always loved a B/R/B 3 ply pickguard on a dark tele . . .

 

[Eric'45]

Well, most of the time, if something is looking too good at the start, there might be a nasty surprise thereafter.

So, I added the Battery Box, did all the Cable-pulling and soldering. I kept the EMG Quick- connectors where possible, and I only had to improvise the black Wire from the Output Jack to The Battery. That one was too short, so I took a new length of wire and soldered it on both ends- done!

Then I went on to plan for the neck. Width of the Pocket, width at the nut bridge placement... and in that moment, I realized that something was off.

The Body is from Rockinger, and it was pre- drilled. And the four Holes for the Bridge are crooked. The damn bridge sits at an angle to the neck pocket if I use the premade screw holes. I know for shure, this is the last time I bought from Rockinger.

It is my fault, partly: Why did I trust them and finished the whole thing, without ever checking alignment before?

Ok, I don't want to do the toothpick trick, or whaterver comes to mind. I will remove the part of the body and insert another piece of Ash. That will be invisible, as it sits under the Bridge.

 

[fitz]

I don't want to do the toothpick trick, or whaterver comes to mind. I will remove the part of the body and insert another piece of Ash. That will be invisible, as it sits under the Bridge.

The toothpick trick is ok for a pickguard screw, but I'd think enlarging the bad holes and putting in some hardwood dowels would suffice for realigning the bridge mount screws.
Hogging out enough wood to insert a new block seems like a bit of overkill.

 

[Don O]

The toothpick trick is ok for a pickguard screw, but I'd think enlarging the bad holes and putting in some hardwood dowels would suffice for realigning the bridge mount screws.
Hogging out enough wood to insert a new block seems like a bit of overkill.

Hardwood dowels. That’s what I used to help a friend fix his scratch build SG. He drilled the tail piece holes slightly off. I glued in some dowels, sanded flush, used some saw dust as filler and drilled the holes in the correct location.