Body mounted neck p/up on a tele

I am assembling a parts telecaster and will probably mount the neck pickup directly into the body, ie under the pickguard.

Does anyone know the trick or technique for accurately locating the positions for the wood screws so that the pickup protudes vertically through the hole in the pickguard?

I've heard it's very fiddley but also that there's a 'trick' that makes it easy.

TIA

Hey Rob, finally getting around to it are you, I had a strat p/u solid mounted in my tele but without a pickguard and I recently swapped it out for a SD Hot Tele, and I also finally put a pickguard on too, I did not solid mount the p/u, I chose to use the modern style pickguard with the adjustment screws, seems to me you have 2 options, use the modern style pickguard or once you have all your parts, set the neck p/u down in the cavity ( they do fit fairly snug and don't have much wiggle room ) then carefully set the pickguard down over it, make sure everything is setting right, then carefully lift the pickguard back off, take some small thin pins or nails, (brads) and push them thru the mounting holes in the p/u into the wood , then place the pickguard back over the p/u and check the fit, if all is well, then you can drill for the mounting screws, just a word of advice, when using multiple suppliers you may run into some issues with how things fit/ match up, make sure you check all possibilities before drilling holes etc,, Good Luck with it.......

....yeah...finally getting round to it...:o)

My plan was
1. buy a Saga kit and test to destruction if necessary else give to the kids to paint when finished...It got stolen in the mail & the USPS is taking forever to process the insurance claim...ie from August 2nd til.....????

2. buy 'good stuff' & do the lot using the experience from 1. above but the house renovation from hell has us still in temporay accommodation 5 weeks after due completion date. I won't go any further down that track. I will have a music room though I've had to agree to a sofa bed for extra guests that's thakin the space for my guitar stand!!

Anyway I've ordered all the stuff trying to minimise the number of different suppliers as you suggest. Tele hardware kit from Callaham. Shielding kits & a few other pieces from GuitarElectronics.Both arrived within days. Body & neck from Warmoth due in a couple of weeks.

Due to impatience & frustration because of 1. & 2. above I requested Warmoth to do the finishing. I will do more (complete) projects later I' sure when settled.

I was tinkering with the parts that I've received & trying to foresee the issues. I've got the bits to mount the pickup either way. I would have to tap the pickup holes & drill the pickguard but I'm thinking simplest is best & the wires on the pickup make setting it down on a flat surface a bit 'wobbly' & I thought..millions must've done this so at least someone has to have a hot tip :o)

I don't have the body yet as I've said. I'm just ...er ..thinking things through.

Also the Pickups & hardware kit had no info at all & the control assembly was prewired differently to all the schematics I could find on the web. Callaham said wire it per the 50 tele schematic (which of course is exactly what I want to do) but their switch set up is different so I've spent some intriguing time revising high school switching theory drawing my state diagrams etc in order to figure out where the pickup leads connect to which lug on the switch.

I want to avoid the repeat till it works loop. :o)

Thanks for your tip.

I don't know what I'll do with the Saga kit if it ever arrives...Customise it a bit. LOL

CYA

[font=trebuchet ms]At some future time I hope to build a custom Tele myself, so I hope to tap both of you for info when I need it. I'm still trying to figure out what to do about Warmoth's refusal to work with cocobolo fretboards.

For now, since I'm sure you're about to deploy single-coil pickups, I would strongly advise paying a visit to Guitar Nuts and spending some quality time going through their modifications, starting with "Quieting The Beast" in the Wiring & Shielding section. This shows a very good way to apply shielding techniques and ground isolation to not only reduce hum, but also greatly lessen the possibility of getting yourself killed by bad electrical wiring or amplifier failure. I routinely apply these mods to my guitars. I believe in them. Take a look at my Profile - I have some experience in matters of shielding.[/font]

Hey Rob, don't feel bad, the body for my tele sat in a closet for 8 years until I "got around to it", funny how life just gets in the way, of course my first parts guitar waited about 4 years to get a paint job, so maybe I have a problem with procrastination, well I'll worry about that some other time.


Hey LATS, have you tried USA Custom for a cocobolo fretboard? Strange that Warmoth offers 3 species of Rosewood but cocobolo is the one that causes allergic reactions, seems like an operation that generates that much wood dust would be able to take precautions, since several of the woods they do offer are known to cause reactions with some people, hmmm.........

Well USA Custom Guitars does not carry cocobolo, but will build if you supply the wood and it doesn't sound like they are charging extra, might be worth an email.....................