Re: My name is Trevorus and I'm a Tele-holic
nice teles, guys!
i have a tokai tele clone that i like a lot - ash body and maple neck/fingerboard
it's not super awesome special as guitars go, but it is plays real well, is good looking (kinda like a 52ri with a yellow-y buttercotch color and a black guard) and very fun to play for a classic tele vibe ... and it makes me focus on playing well because it is unforgiving ... and because it was inexpensive, i don't mind keeping it out on a stand to make it easy to grab when i have some free time
a few years ago i swapped out the stock pickups for a set of Seymour Duncan vintage stack for tele pickups - gotta love noiseless, especially when sitting in front of a computer learning something off a youtube lesson, jamming to a backing track, or transcribing a song or whatever ... sounds as good as it feels and looks now ...
i also did the 4-way mod that allows for both pickups to be connected in series as well as parallel (pretty huge sound)
so i got the idea that it would be cool to be able to more easily and less destructively take the neck off and put it back on ... with airline travel hassles, i thought it would be cool to be able to disassemble it for packing in a carry on ... so i looked into using threaded inserts and machine screws instead of wood screws
after researching, i bought the 8-32 E-Z LOK stainless steel inserts with the associated E-Z LOK drive tool and 1 3/4" 8-32 stainless steel machine screws ... i was particularly glad to have the correct tool for the job - there is a keyed tang on the drive bit that fits into a notch in the top of the insert to assist in driving it straight
- disassembled the neck from the guitar and inspected it (very straight - essentially no relief - and no twist)
- checked for fret level with a rocker tool and only found one slightly low fret (2nd)
- secured the neck to the table of my craftsman table top drill press
- took careful measurements of the depth needed to allow the inserts to sit slightly below the surface of the wood
- wrapped tape around the bit corresponding to the depth and set the depth gauge on the drill press spindle
- opened up the holes in the neck where the wood screws had been with a 1/8" regular drill bit then a 1/4" forstner bit per the instructions that came with the inserts
- put the drive tool in the chuck and aligned it over the insert resting on the hole
- lowered the spindle and turned the chuck by hand while maintaining downward pressure with the spindle handle to start screwing in the insert
- got about 2/3rds of the way in with pretty substantial effort before the whole thing just seized up ... couldnt get it to budge and the keyed tang took a substantial chunk out of the top edge of the insert itself
- had to fight it with a short wide screwdriver to get the insert out of the neck
- upon inspection of the hole, found nothing that might be impeding the entry of the insert
- tried a second insert in the same hole with same results ... the inserts got severely chewed up and i was pretty pissed that the $$ tool was not getting the job done as advertised
looked for plan B - thanks joe at rockrabbit guitars for your excellent video on youtube
- decided to use a machine screw screwed into 2 hex nuts and then into the threaded insert to full depth - used an extra deep socket in the drill press that gripped both of the hex nuts
- repeated the hand-turned chuck method and all 4 inserts went in easily
- screwed the neck onto the body (each screw a little at a time untill all 4 were snug) and the joint was flat and tight
while i had it apart, i swapped out the steel barrel bridge saddles and replaced them with brass, compensated saddles
i eyeballed where the saddles should go based on where the ones i removed had been, being careful to get the orientation (low-high, high-low, low-high) correct, knowing i'd have to set the intonation more precisely once the setup was done
i strung it up with d'addario XL110s
determined my preferred string height by bending up the high E string a minor third from the 20th fret until it didnt fret out
matched the curvature of the saddles heights to the 12" radius of the fingerboard
i strummed a few cowboy chords then a few barre chords and instantly could tell that it had been worth it ... the guitar was noticeably louder acoustically
so i tuned it a half tone sharp and stretched the strings out and then retuned to pitch then let it set overnight
i'll do the intonation tonight
then i'll plug in and see how it sounds and feels
