Telecaster Overhaul

Since I’ve got a little extra funds I’m going to fix my guitar up… since I’ll never take it in anywhere and pay out the ying yang, I’m going to get the stuff and figure out how to do it myself.

It’s a 91 American Standard that I bought brand new around 1993 for $500 at a music store in Ogallala, Nebraska. I had it setup shortly afterwards by this Gordon guy who had a music store in downtown Grand Junction, Colorado where our bass player’s wife’s family lived. Gordon was a total pro and built pretty nice guitars himself and did a really great job setting it up and didn’t charge me hardly anything for it.

That was long ago though and it has been beat the fuck up since… bridge pieces are totally corroded, the pots are noisy, it might have a short in the jack, lots of nickel plated screws are rusting out everywhere, the chrome is filthy and corroding, intonation is off, neck might need a little adjusting… it needs some love…

So today I ordered.

Feeler gauges for string height
Another action/string height type gauge
Mini screwdriver set
New fender bridge saddles/screws/springs, the base plate is fine, just needs cleaned up.
Pickguard screws

And some strings… Ernie Ball… and I think I’m going to try some .008 extra slinky on it, I have been using the “Hybrid Slinky” which is .09 and a .46 on the low, but I don’t have any callouses on my fingers at the moment… Oh and I only use Ernie Ball and if I can’t get those D’Addario… because shit strings go out of tune on me. Fender strings for instance suck a big one.

and I’m probably going to be getting some more shit for it… I’ve got a little soldering setup with probably most everything I’d need for that shit.

So I don’t know how to do any of this stuff, I’ve seen a couple people do it… but I’m going to figure it out via the internets…

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Needz moe of that cowbell sound

Brings back memories. Last time I did that sorta work in a proper shop setting was about 1975…I woulda had the guitar 2 or 3 days and you’da been out the door for about eighty-five bucks. Of course, back then a lotta people were wanting to swap as many of the rusted parts as possible, out for brass parts and even aftermarket bridges like Badass. That was before they figured out that brass corrodes even faster than nickel does.

You can do all that shit easy enough, Billdo, there is no rocket science involved. You may be able to get some spray pot cleaner and blow the cobwebs out of yer pots, but really they were cheapo and it’s probably better to spend some dough on the best pots you can fit into the space. All the pot and cap specs are available online, usually from Fender. I’d replace all the screws instead of tryin to clean them up.

The only part that gets tricky is the neck adjustment, and I’m here to help. Is your adjusting rod up at the end of the neck, or at the bottom like it was in the older Teles?

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Yeah I’m not too crazy about adjusting the truss rod. The rod is up at the end of the neck and it looks like I might have to order that long fender truss rod tool to get down in there to adjust it.

Ordered some copper shielding tape before I went to bed last night and a capo for doing the 1st fret action stuff.

And I started cleaning up the small chrome pickguard piece with some aluminum foil and water. It has a couple spots on it but most of the crap came off and it’s about as shiny as it’s going to get. .

Well, the trade-off on the truss rod is, the old style worked great but you had to take the neck off to adjust it right, and there was some trial and error involved. The new style doesn’t do well if your neck is warped below about the 7th fret, but for warp between the nut and the 7th it works fine. And best of all, you can do the adjustment with the strings tuned up so you see how much real world bowing you might have.

All it takes is an allen wrrench which you can pick up at any hardware store once you figure out the size. Last time I adjusted my P-bass I think it was a 4 mm allen wrench.

However, don’t go ape shit. I rarely adjust a truss rod unless the neck is clearly whacko or the instrument is uncomfortable to play. Also, don’t go for a neck that is dead flat…ya need a little relief or it just feels “wrong” when you play it.

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I’ve got a couple sets of allen wrenches, english and metric I thinks… but it looks like it’s pretty far down in there. I think it has just a little too much of a bow, but I might not fuck with that…

I couldn’t really find any info on the pots but I found a site with a shitload of them… I might get one of these TBX pots for the tone knob…

099-2052-000
Fender TBX tone pot. Passive concentric pot with center detent. Offers a wider tone variation than standard tone controls. Includes a .022mfd capacitor, 1 meg resistor, mounting hardware, and installation instructions. As used on the Eric Clapton Strat.

Well, I think most of the Fender pots are the same value…250, if I remember correctly. But I dunno if the capacitor is right for the Tele.

If it was me, I’d call Fender and push the button for tech support…They have really AWESOME music on hold while yer waiting for a live person, some cats playing fender stuff, really tasty. When you do get someone, have them email or snail mail you a wiring diagram for your tele. And then have him put you back on hold so you can listen some more.

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Requested the service diagram… the capacitor in a more recent American standard is the same. So you think that tone pot would work?

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I can play possum

Don’t see why not. If it doesn’t, you’re not out a huge chunk of money.

Ordered the TBX tone pot and one of these Seymour Duncan 250k volume pots.

I learned how to turn my hi-fi clock radio up to eleven.

My son builds, rebuilds, unbuilds guit boxes all the time. He wants to go to luthier school.

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Sounds like he’s already doing it, he should open a repair shop.

Speaking of Bass’s whatever became of those weird looking headless ones that were all over the place in the 90’s? Were they just a gimmicky flash in the pan?

There was nothing “wrong” with them but ultimately they didn’t have the feel and look that stage players were looking for.

ETA…did I say nothing wrong? Okay, the carbon fiber/graphite body gave it a “smoother” sound with better attack and a sonically more clean tone. But that’s like saying “synthetic and weird.” Also, the lighter weight (reduction in body mass) also reduced “sustain.” This was an unacceptable tradeoff for me and many others. The tuning system was slow and hard to get used to, but more accurate than traditional systems.

Yeah. He probably could do that. But he wants to do it from square one. He just can’t go to school right now. He has too many commitments with his band.

This music shit’s expensive, one thing after another, always… broke out the amp today, probably needs new tubes… noisy as fuck.

So I opened up that cavity to check it out and it already has the TBX tone control…