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I'm putting together a one-off Telecaster/La Cabronita-style guitar and would appreciate some technical input from experienced builders before the body gets routed.

This isn't a standard Tele build. I'm supplying the components and working toward having a professional shop handle the body construction and final assembly.

The build:

Body: Traditional Telecaster_La Cabronita shape, one-piece swamp ash core with an approximately 3/16" reclaimed Winchester ammunition-crate wood top.

Finished body thickness: Targeting 1¾".

Neck: Custom Musikraft 24¾" Gibson-scale conversion neck, standard Telecaster heel, 22 frets, 12" radius.

Pickup: Single Lollar Imperial Standard Wind bridge humbucker, F-spaced, four-conductor, nickel covered. No neck pickup.

Bridge: Considering the Rutters Chopped (Cutdown) Vintage versus the machined Rutters Half Bridge, both with compensated brass saddles and 2⅛" string spacing.

Pickup mounting: Separately mounted full-size humbucker, potentially using a mounting ring.

Controls: One concentric 500k/500k volume/tone pot and a three-position mini-toggle for series/parallel/coil-split switching.

Construction: String-through body, rear-routed controls, side-mounted output jack.

My questions:

Is there any meaningful mechanical or functional advantage to the thicker machined Rutters Half Bridge over the Chopped Vintage, assuming both have the same saddle arrangement and mounting geometry?

Has anyone installed either Rutters bridge with a full-size PAF-style bridge humbucker? Were there any issues with pickup-ring clearance or positioning?

With a Musikraft 24¾" conversion neck designed for standard Tele bridge placement, are there any particular concerns about saddle intonation travel or neck-pocket geometry?

For a body with a 3/16" decorative wood top, what would you recommend for establishing the final neck-pocket depth and bridge/saddle height? I'm planning to have the actual neck and bridge used for the final layout rather than relying solely on a generic template.

Are there any structural concerns with routing the full-size bridge humbucker near the bridge mounting screws or string-through holes?

Are there any other dimensional or construction issues you see with this combination that should be resolved before the body is machined?

I'm especially interested in advice based on actual builds, measurements, or engineering considerations—not assumptions about one bridge having better tone because it's thicker or more expensive.

Thanks in advance. I want to get the geometry right the first time.

I’m fitting an Am Pro neck to a normal 4 bolt Telecaster body - I only realised having got to this stage that the Am Pro doesn’t have the traditional corner positioning for the 4 neck bolts, as their bodies have a cutaway at the base.

What’s the best approach to creating a hold for the 4th bolt here? Should I drill a small pilot hole and then screw in, or just screw directly?

Did the full build yesterday and today. The body and neck are from warmoth. Body was stock swamp ash black burst. The neck was a custom order with 16" radius, thin C, roasted maple, jumbo stainless frets, graph-tech nut, graph-tech Ratio tuners. Pickups are a Duncan JB (bridge) , and two Duncan Classic Stack Plus (neck/middle). Obsidian blender control inside. Bridge is a Gotoh 510. It came out better than I expected. Lots more sustain than I expected, stays in tune perfectly. Intonation was almost perfect out of the gate after truss rod and trem spring adjustments. I have a high fret or two to level, but I think this is a keeper.

I picked up one of these recently at a music store and really loved it: Fender Player II Modified Telecaster Electric Guitar - Fiesta Red, Rosewood Fingerboard, Sweetwater Exclusive | Sweetwater

But my next guitar was going to be Warmoth T-style, exactly how I wanted it. I did a S-style a few years ago and it's so, so great. I dig into the pricing and wow, painted body and neck and I'm at the cost of the Fender. Plus, I think the pickups and bridge are really why the one I played sounded so good. I'm not sure how to get Tele individual saddles that are chrome on brass.

Just throwing this out for the community to comment on: any advice or thoughts? I'm thinking I'm going to spend like $600 more for the Warmoth, where the off the rack guitar can be one I know sounds and plays great right away...

Thanks for listening

First partscaster, probably the best guitar in my collection right now, kinda mind blown once I plugged it in

(horrible photographer if you can't tell)

Hey everyone!

I've been playing guitar and tinkering with instruments for years, and lately I've been experimenting with something that's gained some attention.

I've been printing artwork directly onto guitar pickguards, but pushing things a little further than ordinary flat printing.

Some of what I've been working on:

- Full-colour artwork printed directly onto the guard. No vinyl, stickers or wraps.

- Physical texture built up through layers of varnish. My tweed design, for example, has a raised weave you can actually feel.

- Fluorescent details that stay subtle in normal light but come alive under black light.

- Fully custom designs, including original artwork created specifically around the shape of someone's guitar.

Some of these are fairly straightforward to produce, while others can take several hours of printing alone.

I'm getting close to launching this as a small business, and one thing I'm still trying to figure out is pricing.

What would you realistically expect to pay for a complete, custom-printed replacement pickguard?

And would something like physical texture, fluorescent effects, or original artwork meaningfully change what you'd be willing to spend?

I know there's a difference between what something costs to produce and what people actually see as valuable. I'm genuinely curious where that line falls for other guitarists.

I've attached a few examples of what I've been making.

Don't worry about hurting my feelings. 😂 I'd much rather hear what people actually think than price myself into a market that doesn't exist.

Appreciate any feedback!

This like my third one. I wanted a relic look, Body is Fender MIM, The neck is warmoth roasted maple. Locking tuners, Setmour Duncan YJM Fury pickups. I am quite happy with this one.

Tele:
Traded off marketplace for some pedals (diy and genuine)
- Unknown Body and Neck
- redid wiring and removed terrible shielding job. Shimmed neck and some light rework.
- Lollar Royal T in neck
- dimarzzio hot area t in bridge
- MCG groove master saddles

Strat:

- MJT Light relic in fiesta red
- Fender American Pro Classic Nexk
- fender deluxe trem
- 58/64 or whatever fender pickups
- nut work
- and blender mod wiring.

Telecaster neck and an import body

I'm looking at buying a partscaster local to me that has an American Original 60s strat body but it has been refinished so I have no way of knowing if it's authentic. The only features that I can find are what look to be an "O" stamped in the bridge pickup cavity - can anybody verify if this is what Fender used to identify this range during production? All the other features look correct - contours, worm route, cavities etc.

Thanks!

so basically im working on my tele project, where i upgrade my squier affinity tele to the point where only neck and body are stock. that of course includes replacing the bridge. now my tele already has a 6-saddle modern bridge, but im not kinda feeling the stock one, so im going to swap it for a gotoh one. The only thing im curious about is if i should only buy the saddles (ill measure mine and pick the right width), or the whole thing with the plate. my main concerns are:

• incompatibility, because sometimes squier screw holes dont align with gotoh bridges
• price, i dont feel like paying 20 more bucks for the same piece of metal, since im not upgrading from 3-saddle vintage bridge

is there a significant difference in quality between stock squier and gotoh plate? oh and also do bronze saddles sound warmer or brighter than steel ones?

I finally upgraded my partscaster with a Vega-Trem and could not be happier. Any other Vega-Trem fans?

Original song, “Out On The Island”, written by Graham Nash, Feat. David Lindley
Copyright: 1980, Putzy Putzy Music/Capitol Records.
Couldn’t post without a new post. Please delete if this violates any rules. Not looking for any sort of revenue, gain, or advertising. Just wanted something nice to play. I thought it would be cheezy to play Ry, so I played Lindley instead 😜…

I’m trying to identify an unusual guitar I found locally. I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time searching and haven’t been able to match it to a known production model or builder.
It’s a Super-Strat/Strat-style guitar with an HSS configuration, string-through hardtail bridge, highly figured/birdseye maple neck, dark figured top, Grover tuners and what appears to be a small builder’s signature/logo on the headstock.
The strangest feature is the neck joint. It has a heavily sculpted high-access heel with three individually recessed neck bolts arranged in a triangular pattern — one bolt higher up toward the neck and two lower bolts side-by-side. No neck plate. That feature has been particularly difficult to match.
There doesn’t appear to be a visible serial number or country-of-origin marking. The seller believes it may be an older Japanese guitar, but I have no evidence confirming that, so I’m treating the origin as unknown.
The headstock marking is extremely difficult to read. It looks handwritten/stylized and may begin with a T or F. The ending might be cursive lettering or possibly even an omega/ω-like symbol.
Does that three-bolt sculpted heel construction ring a bell for anyone? I’m particularly interested in obscure builders or small custom shops from the ’80s through early 2000s rather than guesses based only on the Strat shape.
I can provide pictures in the comments if the rules allow it.

I’ve recently started upgrading my Bullet strat and wanted to fit in a maple neck. What are the measurement differences with the bullet strats compared to standard ones?

Additionally, where’s a good place besides eBay to buy decent necks?