I bought the new Squier Contemporary Telecaster RH in Pearl White

Bought some 12-60 D'Addarios to restring this tonight; I'll pull off the bridge and have a look under there, clean everything nicely, and fit those Gotoh locking tuners that I have had laying about waiting for an inline-headstock guitar with black hardware ...

I'll post some photos of the various cavities and wires later and the guitar with the new tuners and fatter strings on it. I'll tune it to C standard and take it over to Josh's place for a jam on the new Sloven song this Friday after work
 
I've fitted the Gotoh SG381-MGTB tuners and a DiMarzio ClipLock strap. A bit of drilling involved to do both. Then I fitted the EXL148 string set and tuned it to C standard. I'll spare you guys the blow by blow but i'll post some before and after type stuff.

I didn't get good photos of the factory tuners but they are non-locking and have higher split type posts. You can see them on reviews etc.

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I'm not very good at keeping you people up to date on this one. Since last time I have fitted Gotoh VK-18 knobs and a Graph Tech Black TUSQ XL string tree to this one, as well as a new output jack because the Squier one was total :poo: and the cable kept falling out of the jack. The knobs and jack will be transferred over to a completely new harness once my Bare Knuckle order arrives though.

The string tree was fairly simple but like with the tuners you have to be very careful with drilling and screwing when working with roasted maple. I drilled the hole gently to just smaller than the diameter of the screw so that the threads would bite but there was little or no chance of cracking the wood, and all went well. Like with the Schecter PT Apocalypse the string tree didn't need sanding etc but I did use the smallest of the three screws because the depth of that matched the depth of the screw that came with the guitar. I used permanent marker to make the screw black.

The knobs were an easy remove and replace. The jack replacement too was very simple, I just removed the old one and soldered in the new one, using a black washer and nut that I had purchased with the jack.

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Still waiting for my Bare Knuckle order to ship. When that arrives you will witness some soldering skills on here ... see the diagram above
 
The bridges on these Squiers are quite frankly rubbish, and won't intonate properly in C standard with a 60 gauge string without binding the string completely between the ferrule and the saddle. Basically your string is forced into a dog leg shape and you can barely get it through when the saddle is close to intonated. So I have bit the bullet and ordered a Babicz TCH FL bridge, which I will have installed using four screws mounting (the Squier uses an odd three screw setup which doesn't correspond completely to the Fender three-screw) which will give the option of string-through later if I don't like the top-loader option. The finish on the factory hardware was awful too and got totally scratched simply by intonating it. As you screw the saddles back the dragging of the height screws simply scratches the black right off. I also have a Gotoh control plate coming; the factory one had to be drilled to take the CTS pots and it looks a bit rough, again scratching badly ... even the knobs scratched it up.

www.pitbullguitars.com

Babicz FCH Black TL Bridge

Babicz FCH Black TL Bridge
www.pitbullguitars.com www.pitbullguitars.com

Quite pricey but reviews are good. I'm not overly interested in 'twang' - obviously given the tuning, pickups, and everything else - so loss of that doesn't concern me.
 
Just completed the second coat of conductive (nickel) shielding paint in the guitar's cavities, including the channels between them but not the area around the jack (to avoid shorts). Used the nice blue painter's masking tape and some cheap artist brushes. The shield was a bit patchy after the first coat so hence the second coat. Both times the masking tape protected the finish and peeled off without leaving residue.

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Added some copper 'slug tape' from the hardware store for where the bridge ground wire goes and the screws for the control plate.

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Yeah the neck plate looks like plastic. Actually the hardware on the guitar is pretty cheap in general, as you'd expect from Squier ... I've replaced most of it for better quality stuff from Gotoh and Babicz. Knobs, tuners, and now bridge. The electronics are all being replaced; although the pickups themselves are not bad the rest of the electronics is your standard Squier junk, especially the output jack. You can either look at this guitar as a nice Squier that just needs a decent output jack installed for $20 or you can consider it a great modding platform with its SH format and roasted maple neck with a 12" radius. I went into it knowing that I would probably change everything besides the wood, finish, and frets. The plastic neck plate doesn't bother me too much. If it cracks one day I will get someone to machine a new steel one for me and have it powder-coated black.
 
Just waiting for this bad boy to arrive. I think I will set it up as a top-loading bridge, that should fix all the intonation issues from down-tuning.

I predict that this guitar will look crazy good with this bridge on it. On most Teles this would look obnoxious but on a Pearl White Contemporary Telecaster RH with white BKPs it should look epic.

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Yargnad said:
@eSGEe says:
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Ha ha I've been out there soldering again today, this time working on the construction of the new wiring harness with five-way switch, coil-splitting, treble bleed and greasebucket circuit as per the diagram shown above somewhere, at least until it got so cold in the garage (it's winter here) that I had to stop soldering (nose running is always my sign to go in). I also soldered a new bridge ground wire to a piece of copper slug tape that is attached to the body under the bridge now.

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Neat enough for ya? I found my flux pen ...
 
Getting closer. Timmy Bartle the BKP wiring guru has been advising me on wiring the 5-way selector switch; it's just gotten too cold at nights here to work in the garage in the evenings so I fitted strings and brought it inside. Tomorrow I will follow his instructions and hopefully get it all sorted. The control cavity is going to be tight. I rewired the Schecter PT Apocalypse today with full size CTS pots (including a full-size push-pull), CRL jack and a Dueland PIO capacitor and that was EXTREMELY tight!

I'm going to take this guitar to Steve on Wednesday to discuss fitting the Babicz bridge, a TUSQ XL nut, and a few other little things.

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Zzzzz said:
No!!! He needs this one!

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Well-Hung No Prisoners "The Fornicator" 3" wide padded black guitar strap Black quilt, gunmetal | Reverb Canada

The Well-Hung No Prisoners "The Fornicator"- Driven, ambitious, relentless, a real performer.... You are brimming with testosterone with a single purpose and mission in life. Possibly a legend in the making and highly in demand, this is the strap for you. One of my more interesting No Pris...
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Click to expand...
Actually, I think I might need an all black guitar with that strap! :unsure:
 
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