New Project Guitar. Looking for suggestions.

[jprizz]

For fret leveling I highly recommend this as mandatory reading:
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-technical/201556-fret-leveling-yer-tele-101-a.html
It's way easier than most think. I purchase a crowning file from StewMac and my leveling file is a floor level I found at HarborFreight for $5 or so. I also got a reel of 1 inch wide aluminum oxide sandpaper there that will last five lifetimes. Spray adhesive the paper to the file and its good to go. Only other tools you need are masking tape and a sharper marker.
-Josh

[billstein]

LOL...The only thing stock is the body and neck. I found a guy on ebay that hand winds pickups. Do a search on ebay for "Pink Tone pickups"
It says David Gilmour black strat all over the tone. love em
That's just one of my projects. Got 2 others on the bench as we speek. Doing a SRV and I have a blue strat undergoing a huge makeover
its just another addiction. We have John Deere paint at work, now im thinking green strat, yellow pg & green covers and knobs. LOL

Thanks for the quick reply.

I was thinking about trying some CS69 pickups but I will probably end up ordering those "Pink Tones" and save some money. I remember reading somewhere that a better 5 position switch would not fit because of the shallow body. Have you found that to be true?
One other question since you have worked on the same model. Did you change out the pots? If so, did you use the same values? What about the tone capacitor?

[pedalman]

Full size 250k pots. wire extra long leads off the tone and jack. take your jack plate off run the leads through the jack hole to a breadboard. sit on the couch with a table in front of you with the breadboard. go to radio shack and get a assortment of the chicklet style caps to play with.
once you find the one, use it or get that value in a orange drop. guitarelectronics.com had a decent assortment of orange drops. while your at guitarelectronics.com take a look at some of the electronic parts. lots of mojo stuff. If you ever run into clearance issues, dremmel makes a router base for a dremmel tool (worth its weight in gold)
Scour the net for texas specials, a lot of the time you can find these on the cheap
(SE strat is a full size) try to find one of those to mod. Its a sickness that goes beyond pedal building, enjoy !

[gordo]

Keep a few things in mind.  If you buy a guitar and you plan to replace the neck and/or body, it's not a bargain.  Ideally the neck feels nice and the body is workable.  Otherwise it's a scratch build.  As you get better at fretwork you might decide to replace them all.  Not a bad thing, it's a task that's best learned on a  cheap neck.  If you bugger it up...THEN start looking for a new neck.  GFS is a great resource for good quality parts with great service.  Keep in mind we're not talking Jason Lollar here, but the pickups and hardware are WAY better than the price would point to.  I'd pit a lot of their stuff against many big names.  My tele has a set of custom Seymour Duncans and sounds amazing.  One of my strats has a trio of GFS pickups and the whole set cost less than one of the SDs and also sounds amazing.

For tools stick to the StewMac catalog and then buy stuff within your budget.  I have a sanding beam and a nice set of fret files that didn't break my bank.  I'd love to have the neck tension jig and all the other cool stuff but to be honest: even with the simple tools I have, I've accumulated enough experience to setup a guitar that plays with the best of them.  I have a fleet of cheap mutt guitars that play as good or better than a lot of axes costing 10x the price.

[Gledison]

The "right" tools do depend on your goals and needs of course. No sense in spending a ton on things you may hardly ever use. Really fretwork can/is expensive in terms of time investment and tools to do it for a living (as I do). BUT, if you want to learn to do fret leveling for personal use it is a good skill to have for your own benefit. The only "dedicated/unique" tool I recommend is the crowning file. All other aspects of the fret-dress job can be done with common tools/items: leveling block, sandpaper (250-1500 grit graduated), 0000 steel wool.

Totally agree with pryde! Im far away of being a pro on this but i build a Tele and did all the fretts leveling. Other important tool is a very straight metal plate wide enough to put on the top of three frets. I´ve got a spatule for wall repairing stuff for 1 euro. it works fine to check what frets need to be filled.

[Gledison]

My suggestion for the project:
Pickups: u have to decide yourself
500K pot for tone
For the neck, why not a scalloped one?Blackmore style! you can find easily videos on how to do it with a simple file. and you will get a different guitar!
body paint: a two collors swirl coat! very easy to do it, low cost!
Good luck!

[billstein]

Thanks guys for all the suggestions. I just ordered a new tremolo with a brass block and locking tuners from Guitar Fetish. So it has begun. When I take the strings off to put all this on I'll also deal with the frets.

Pryde I've pm'd you about the file you were talking about.

I'm excited and know I'll have a million questions. Thanks again for all your help.

[billstein]

tell ya what, the person you really need to talk to is Brian Holbrook (phreek). he's built two guitars for me. i'm VERY satisfied with his work and expertise.
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g61/TreeSlayer/th_2013-07-30191130_zpsefc0c179.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g61/TreeSlayer/ResizedImage951387076719121-1_zps3656a6ca.jpg

Wow Treeslayer. Those guitars are absolutely gorgeous.

My wife has a Tele that is in need of a lot of work. Soon as I learn what I'm doing on it's cheaper brothers, I want to turn that into a great guitar for her. She's an excellent musician and deserves it.  Your tele inspired me.

[billstein]

Should be getting my tuners and tremolo from Guitar Fetish in the next couple of days. Since I'll have the strings off it will be time to deal with those frets. I have a couple questions for you gurus.

What do you use to check if the frets are level? I see on StewMac these fancy straight edges with notches on one side for the frets. I'm sure that would be great but I can't justify putting out the 80 bucks to get it. Would a cheap metal ruler from a hardware store be sufficient?

Also, what about the neck radius. I see on Stewmac they have tools to use to figure out what the radius is then sanding blocks shaped to that radius. Again, they aren't cheap. Are they necessary, if not what do you guys use.

I do have a fret crowning file that I purchased from Pryde on it's way.

Again, thanks everybody for your help so far and for future help. Wouldn't even try this without you being there.

[pryde]

Hello Bill

Your fret crown file should be there any day.

First, unless you bought a new USA Gibson that has been pleked, your frets will benefit from a level/crown so rest-assured you wont really need to measure them. But...

The small machined fret rocker will help you determine high frets (in relation to adjacent frets) so its a nice little tool to have.
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_supplies/Measuring/Fret_Rocker.html

The notched straight edge determines neck relief based on the WOOD itself and not the tops of the frets. I use one in my shop everyday for setups but it is not necessary if you first do a fret level because your fret tops will be even so you can determine neck relief with any regular straight edge (i.e. hardware store tools)

There are various tools to determine neck radius but I wouldn't worry about investing in them at this point.

Most modern fenders/squires have a 9.5" radius neck unless they are some sort of special run or vintage-spec model.

You can use a straight block to level your frets just fine. I use a slab of polished granite (1.25" thick x 12" long) with free-cut 250 grit sand paper stuck to it. I have done literally hundreds of fret levels with this. 

[billstein]

Thanks Pryde. Just ordered the fret rocker. 

[pryde]

Thanks Pryde. Just ordered the fret rocker. 

If you can add to your order I would also recommend these items as well:

String action gauge: you can adjust each string accurately off the 12th fret to allow them to follow your fretboard radius.
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Measuring_tools/String_Action_Gauge.html

Fingerboard guards: you will need these during the fret crown and polishing process:
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_supplies/Polishing_and_abrasives/Fingerboard_Guards.html

These 2 tools are not expensive and pretty invaluable for guitar work.

[gordo]

+1 to both of the above.  I'd add the Gorgomyte cloth as well.  For routine fingerboard and fret cleaning you cut a 1" square out of the cloth and with a LOT of elbow grease the feel of the wood and frets is amazing.  Best money I've spent in a long time.

[billstein]

Thanks Pryde. Just ordered the fret rocker. 

If you can add to your order I would also recommend these items as well:

String action gauge: you can adjust each string accurately off the 12th fret to allow them to follow your fretboard radius.
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Measuring_tools/String_Action_Gauge.html

Fingerboard guards: you will need these during the fret crown and polishing process:
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_supplies/Polishing_and_abrasives/Fingerboard_Guards.html

These 2 tools are not expensive and pretty invaluable for guitar work.

Picked both of these up.

[billstein]

You can use a straight block to level your frets just fine. I use a slab of polished granite (1.25" thick x 12" long) with free-cut 250 grit sand paper stuck to it. I have done literally hundreds of fret levels with this.

Where did you buy your granite from?