My Kustom Thinline rebuild.

[chuckocaster]

I'll post pix Thursday when I get home, but here's the details:

First off I'm putting a new neck on the ole girl. For whatever reason I never put a neck on her that I liked. Not for anything other that I never had a game plan for this guitar. So with that said, I'm going to use an all maple neck from StewMac. It's shape, build, specs are a lot like newer Fender necks. Soft C shape, 9.5" radius, and middle of the road frets.

The Pickup is a Voodoo TE-60, 7.7k. I wired the pup selector as a tone switch, so I get no tone control, tone control, and a cap straight to ground. The volume pot is always operational.

The Bigsby is a slightly modded F stamped 60s vintage. I'll change the bridge from the brass saddles I have now to regular steel.

I've always liked this guitar, but never had it together correctly. I guess it's that old adage about the cobbler's kids having crappy shoes... And of course that I'm a LOL

Anyhoodle, I'm really excited about getting this guitar "finished", for real this time.

[chuckocaster]

Oh, and I'll be using Sperzel locking tuners. Because I like them, not because I think they tune any better. I only bought that snake oil once... Sorry if that offends anyone, but I honestly love the old school Kluson split shaft tuners!

[chuckocaster]

Here's the new Voodoo TE-60 pup in the guitar, i polished up the pup plate while i had it apart. My plate isn't chromed, like all the other ones are, as I wanted it to match the aluminum of the Bigsby. Only problem is that it rusts up, so I have to clean it regularly.



Here's a side shot, you can see there are lots of "custom" parts on this guitsteel... I don't know if it's easily seen, but the hotdog plate is custom, the Vol knob hole is further back from the switch than normal. Piston knobs, Electrosocket jack, brass saddless, split front roller on the Bigsby. I even had custom body thimbles made so the bridge doesn't rock.



And here's a full shot view. I still have a lot of work to do on this guitar, I'm just scratching the surface on what's going to be needed to finish this thing properly.

[chuckocaster]

Fiddling with my tone circuit I've decided to go with a .0022uf to ground for my rhythm circuit. .0033 & .0047 were too much, and .001 wasn't enough. It's now closer to the combo position sound I like so much.

[Don]

Now THAT'S a hot rod!

Cool piston knobs! I used to have a set!

[chuckocaster]

¡Gracias compadre! I wish My65Pan was still around, I'd see if he could make me titanium saddles. Now THAT would be kool!!!

[Don]

We had fun on the Telemodders forum!

I have early '50s style steel saddles by CJ Tooling on my T-Style these days. Good stuff, cheap!

[Offshore Angler]

I can smell the nitromethane!

[Mikey]

That's freakin' coooooool!
VROOOOMMMMMMMmmmm

[maxoom]

Those piston knobs are cool. O rings to put on that fit tight for grip?

[chuckocaster]

Decided I'm gonna swap pups between my white Tele and the Thinline. I think that'll be "the ticket"... "Yeah, you know. My wife, Morgan Fairchild..." Oh, and I got steel saddles to put on the Thinline, that'll brighten things up too.

[chuckocaster]

Did some more work on the girl today, and it was all for the better. Firstly, I put a GFS Lil Puncher, 6.5k "vintage wind, in it. And while I had it apart I swapped in a Jazzmaster bridge. The brass saddles I had made the guitar a little too dark. The tone now is EXACTLY what I've been after. Don't know why it took me so long to do... Laziness I suppose.

Only thing left to do is get a new neck, but that'll be a bit.

[refin]

Very cool

[chuckocaster]

Thanx. I'm really happy with the tone of this Pickup. Deciding if I want to do any "trick" wiring with it. I'm thinking series/parallel might be cool.

[chuckocaster]

Here's a pic of the GFS pup in the guitar.

[chuckocaster]

Ordered a Warmoth neck yesterday, 7.25" radius, 6105 frets, all maple, standard C shape neck. Just waiting now... It really is the hardest part...

[Cogs]

I gotta know where you found those piston knobs. That's just too killer

[chuckocaster]

Guy by the handle My65Pan, from the now defunct Telemodders site. I dug around my garage to see if I could find his contact info. Sadly I couldn't find it. He built them for me a long time ago! I love this place, but that was a cool little cave for us crazies to hide out and weird out. These knobs are tame compared to some of the things going on over there. One dude "Frenched" a B16 Bigsby into his Tele!!! Freaky stuff.

I'm gonna shoot you an email amigo.

[Offshore Angler]

Chuck, how did you address the neck angle for the Bigsby?

[chuckocaster]

It worked fine for me, luckily. What I do to ALL "offset" bridges is grind off the lip without the screws, and flip it 180 degrees. That way you get a good break angle over the saddles. Stock form just plain sucks! The strings pop out cuz you're rubbing that lip before the strings even touch the saddles. That's a trick I learned a long time ago with my Jazzmaster. The JM has a Mustang bridge on it too. That's another "secret".

Sometimes you run into neck angle issues due to pocket and neck depth. When I apprenticed, I learned a myriad of esoteric things. I was lucky to receive tutelage from a true Telemaster! And that's no joke, BS, or hot air. I can go more in depth if you guys are interested, but basically when you set up a Bigsby, you will need to tweak some angles to make everything work right. Usually it's down to neck shims and bridge adjustments. If you look close in the pictures you will see that Alan made new rollers for the retaining bar. That way the treble and bass strings are independent of eachother. He ditched the stupid nylon bushing, which soak up tone and sustain, and we went with aluminum tubing instead. That somewhat decreases the break angle behind the bridge. That's actually not a bad thing.

This guitar doesn't really have "issues". Part of that is luck, and it's partly due to the fact I have a modified Bigsby. Now, I may have an issue when I put the new neck on. But I won't know until that time comes. So far though, every neck I've used has been ok as is, no need to shim.

I can go more in depth if you guys want. I could start a new thread or post here. Whatever is easiest. Are you having problems? I'll gladly help if I can.

[Offshore Angler]

Thanks Chuck. I noticed in the phtots that the neck seems to sit high relative to the body.

[chuckocaster]

Maybe it's a shallow pocket? IDK, I've never checked or compared it.

[chuckocaster]

Neck will be here tomorrow. I'm super excited!!!

[Don]

Can't wait!

[FrankJohnson]

Chuck - do you have to get a permit for that thing?

[chuckocaster]

I just try to keep it under 100...

[chuckocaster]

Ok, another update... Sometimes I feel like I'm just hanging with my buddies and need to spill the beans before I should. LOL But I really am glad this place has picked back up! New people I'm gonna need to get to know, but so far it seems like alls yous guys are cool dudes, I'm digging the new vibe.

So anyways, I decided to try another pickup in this guitar. I am actually really impressed with GFS pup I'm using, but I always knew there were better pups to be used. With that said, I ordered a set of Bill Lawrence Wilde MicroCoils for this beasty... They are running a special introductory offer right now. They were $80 for the set, after tax and shipping they came in at just under $100.

I don't know yet if I'm gonna use the set, or stick with the Esquire setup I'm running currently. I was interested in these pups since they are a different approach to my normal tone equation. I've experimented with other non vintage type pups and have had both good and bad results with them. Since I will be playing this guitar mainly at church, I'm aiming for a more "new school" tone. I don't want super polished and slick, which isn't a bad thing. But what I do want is to skate sort of a middle ground of vintage grit and newer slick. IDK if that makes any sense to you guys, trying to explain tonal colorations and the like is pretty futile online, and even in person it doesn't make much sense. The stuff we play on Sunday's is sort of in the U2 type music realm. Lots of delay and processing with a splash of roots rock/alt country type stuff. I'm thinking a Tele like this is gonna pull that off nicely. AND, if I REALLY want to, I can get "tweaky" and have some tonal options on a switch outside of the standard selector and pots setup. Not that I'm trying to go for a million tones, but more along the lines of adding or subtracting sparkle and stuff like that.

The neck arrived today, I'm super excited to put that on. I'm visiting a friend so it may not be until later tonight or tomorrow. DEFINITELY before the weekend. Pics to follow!!!

[chuckocaster]

Thanks Kenny! And by the way, "I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it".

[chuckocaster]

I'll finish the work tomorrow, exhausted from travel. But, she sure looks sweet!

[Don]

Hotrod!

[Volumeknob]

NIce!

[chuckocaster]

Tuners are on, guitar is strung up and playing. I need to decide what string tree I want to use, round or butterfly. I also need to shim the neck but will wait to do that when I swap the pickups. It sounds REALLY good! Better than with the crappy neck I previously had on it... Again, I should have just done this from the start.



Here you can see how low the bridge is and why I need to shim. You can also see what I have going with my Bigsby mods. Also, I need to screw down the front of the plate, but that means I need to fix the pickup route as someone had previously routed it for a humbucker.

[Don]

Wicked cool!

[stratcat55]

Seriously cool Chuck!!

[mike inwis]

Hi all,
That is the coolest guitar I've seen. My very first good guitar was a 72 Thinline in 1974. Like a dumbass I listened to our bass player and traded for an L6, what a mistake --one of my biggest and I may hold some kind of record for mistakes. But a Thinline with tremolo, that is my dream guitar. I've told people that don't get it, that you are getting the best of 3 worlds. It's a little bit 335, Les Paul and of course tele. I just about have the courage up to build my own and that may push me over the edge. Thanks very much for sharing that and inspiring me to go ahead and buy a decent body, then search for the correct neck. Maybe in a year it will be done, and done right. Then I can also proudly post such a cool pic. Great job.
Mike

[chuckocaster]

Mike,

Thanks for the kind words, I greatly appreciate it! And don't beat yourself up, cuz I've made more than my fair share of gear mistakes, trust me on that.

A couple things I'd like to mention for you to know before building your own:

I modified my own body as a standard Thinline might not have enough top thickness to support the Bigbsby. I took a standard body and hollowed it out myself, leaving about 1/2" of wood thickness where the Bigbsy mounts. I've seen other guys reinforce the top there on Thinlines in order to mount the trem. I didn't do that as I wanted a "Cat's Eye" as opposed to the standard "F" cutout. Doing it the way I did required a thickness sander to take off 1/4" of the back so I could cap it and recut and round over.

But I see now that Warmoth offers a chambered Tele body that might sound like this? IDK, as I have no experience with those. My body has hollow "wings" that connect where the Bigsby is, there's a gap back there. But, it is solid from the neck pocket to the bridge mount. So I guess you'd consider it a semi-hollow?

Pickups: I've experimented with several types and outputs. Be careful of dark or high output varieties. When I had those in this it lost all subtleties and "air", if that makes sense. Maybe that's an appealing tone to you. But for me I wanted "airy" and "spacious". This is not my main guitar, but a "color" instrument to be used where applicable. I personally like my Jazzmaster, P90 loaded DeArmond, and the other Teles I own for most of the stuff I play. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the way this guitar sounds, it's just not my #1.

So, all in all, I'm excited to see what you build, when you get to it. I don't think there is a "right" or "wrong" equation to putting guitars together. But I do believe there are "recipes" to achieve certain tones. I didn't have much in the way of knowledge of how to make this guitar sound how I wanted. That's why it took me so long to get it to where I wanted it. I've never really played semi-hollow guitars, so while frustrating, I think this was a good learning experience for me. I feel like I know plenty about Fender guitars in general, but think I should have bought or borrowed some Thinlines to check out prior to building this one. That would have given me a base to start from as a reference. Seems like you already have that. I just jumped in...

Best of luck to ya buddy! And when you do get to building post some pics, we all like that stuff around here. Take care amigo.