Guitar Blog

Guitar Project: Update

Remember this? This was to be my next guitar project:

To re-cap, it's an Encore "Guitarist" guitar, very beaten-up and with missing pickup, knobs, bridge saddles, etc. The heavily-scratched body appeared to be made from MDF and still had the sheared-off pickup mounting screws stuck in the front of the body.

The neck, however, is in very good condition, so I was considering marrying this neck to another - better quality - guitar body.

Today I received a parcel containing the Telecaster body I've been expecting.

The neck from the Encore would seem to be a perfect fit into the Telecaster's neck pocket, and indeed, I think that the shape of the headstock is aesthetically pleasing when used with this body shape. But I will have to make some careful measurements as it is highly likely that the body has been designed for a 21 fret neck whereas this is a 22 fret neck. This means the whole neck is slightly longer and to compensate for this the bridge on the guitar would have to sit slightly more forward from the usual position, bringing it very close to the rear pickup cavity.

I'm wondering what are the rules governing distance from the rear pickup to the bridge. Obviously if it is too close, there will not be enough string vibration for the pickup to capture. But, of course, this depends on what kind of pickup I put into that rear cavity. If I put in a single coil pickup, I could position it away from the bridge.

By the way, pickups I currently have available are a Seymour Duncan Stratocaster-style single coil pickup, and a DiMarzio humbucker, although I am still on the lookout for others (just in case).

Another thing I have to bear in mind is the scratchplate and/or control plates that the body will need. I have no idea from where this body originated or who made it, but the routing is hardly typical telecaster. All the standard Telecaster-style scratch plates that I have seen (including Custom and Thinline variations) would not suit this body. For example, with a regular Telecaster scatch plate mounted on this body, the routing from the rear pickup to the control cavity would still be uncovered.

Also, that control cavity looks longer than normal, so again, a standard Telecaster metal plate would not be suitable here.

I need to find someone who can cut a custom plate to my own specifications.