I ended up ordering a Babicz Tele Z bridge. I chickened out with an ashtray-style bridge, because I don't know if it'll be in the way. I was looking for something that didn't look like the usual six saddle bridge (they can be kind of ugly), and it's hard to find a thicker, nickel plated three-saddle bridge with no sides. It was just getting a little out of hand. This had to fit the vintage 4 screw position.
Anyway, I do love a chunky bridge and I don't mind the more modern look, that's kind of what I'm going for anyway. I'm happy that I found a nickel bridge (and that the logo isn't in your face like the original FCH bridge).
I keep flopping back and forth between soldering my own electronics or paying for it. The price tag for paying for it isn't astronomical compared to doing it myself, because I need to get a soldering iron and some 60/40 solder after purchasing the parts. Honestly, it doesn't seem that difficult to do. I've been watching a ton of youtube videos on soldering techniques and soldering guitar electronics. The challenge seems to be more about following the schematics. I dunno, might be fun to play around with treble bleeds and caps and see what I actually like. Learning more about it, I am starting to understand my Gibson controls more, and I think what I don't like is that the treble drops off when I turn the volume down, so I assume it doesn't have a treble bleed circuit.
Other options are most expensive to least expensive (it's about a $50 range):
1. Have a guitar shop put it all together
2. Have Fralin load a pick guard (would require me to solder at least the input to the electronics, so technically this could be the most expensive if I had to get an iron anyway)
3. Doing it myself and experimenting
cakes wrote: Fri May 30, 2025 10:54 am
I ended up ordering a Babicz Tele Z bridge.
Nice! They're made around here, I have 3 or 4 of their Strat bridges that I bought directly from the guy, and I really like their adjustabilty. You just have to remember which set-screw is the lock and which one is the adjuster.
Got my tools and supplies for doing electronics and setups. I did a setup on my LP over the weekend after I dropped my string gauge down to 10s from 11s. I noticed in the bridge saddles there was more than one filed slot in each. I'm assuming because tunomatics aren't as adjustable, it was done to accommodate for different string gauges or someone at some point didn't like where the B and high E were sitting? Anyway, got the intonation down and the action is still pretty good. I'm really liking playing 10s, everything is so much easier to play. (I'm going to experiment with 9s next).
Waiting for my pickups to come in. I should practice soldering in the meantime.
cakes wrote: Fri May 30, 2025 11:00 am
Other options are most expensive to least expensive (it's about a $50 range):
1. Have a guitar shop put it all together
2. Have Fralin load a pick guard (would require me to solder at least the input to the electronics, so technically this could be the most expensive if I had to get an iron anyway)
3. Doing it myself and experimenting
You can also try it yourself and, if you botch it, you can take it to a shop and they can fix it. I've lost count of the amount of times I look something to Rebound Repair (formerly Shake Shop) after getting some late night inspiration from Dan Erlewine vids and realizing "Oh no, I've really made a mistake here" after putting everything back together.
If you don't botch it, then great! You saved yourself a few bucks.
cakes wrote: Fri May 30, 2025 11:00 am
Other options are most expensive to least expensive (it's about a $50 range):
1. Have a guitar shop put it all together
2. Have Fralin load a pick guard (would require me to solder at least the input to the electronics, so technically this could be the most expensive if I had to get an iron anyway)
3. Doing it myself and experimenting
You can also try it yourself and, if you botch it, you can take it to a shop and they can fix it. I've lost count of the amount of times I look something to Rebound Repair (formerly Shake Shop) after getting some late night inspiration from Dan Erlewine vids and realizing "Oh no, I've really made a mistake here" after putting everything back together.
If you don't botch it, then great! You saved yourself a few bucks.
I've been watching so many videos, it seems dead simple. I'm not doing anything off script right now, so hopefully I don't muck it up. What were the things you messed up and needed to have a professional help you out?
I'm lucky enough to have Gleason on call if I really need some help.
I built a strat last year. Warmoth had a swamp ash body on sale. I think it was on sale because it was made from four pieces and not particularly attractive if the finish showed grain patterns. I don't really like wood grain finishes on fenders so I didn't give a shit. I am of the opinon that multiple piece bodies only affect cosmetics if a wood finish is desired.
I decided to paint it myself. I am happy I did that because I learned a lot. I also would never do that again in a million years, You will save no money under any circumstance and it takes a shit ton of time. I think you could eventually get to a factory style finish with a rattle can, but that's not an achievement that is appealing to me.
I referred to this stew mac video series:
It was very helpful.
Here's what I would change if I did it again:
1. I would use way more body filler on swamp ash or mahogany, especially since I was painting a opaque color. Yes, I watched the video I linked to, but I thought I wanted it to just fill the pores. It would have been fine to have a very thin layer of filler over the whole thing, like an actual opaque vintage fender. I was under the impression the grain was completely filled - it wasn't. By the time I figured that out there was no way I was going to sand the whole thing down again. You can see the grain in the picture below.
2. Stew Mac guitar aerosol paint is relabeled Mohawk paint. You can buy Mohawk from Kilngspors Woodworking: https://www.woodworkingshop.com/finishing/aerosols/ StewMac has more colors, though. The art supply store down the street gave me the adjustable caps for nothing. The klingspors drip corrector areosol is amazing.
3. I did not use a booth. I just painted outside with a respirator on. I would never do that again. Nitrocellulose paint is nasty shit and I live in a densely populated metropolitan area. It was super stupid to do that. Don't spray in your house under any circumstance, unless you've already got some berserk paint booth already set up for auto body work. If you are in the sticks - go outside and go for it. Maybe not if there's a shit ton of pollen everywhere, but there's no cosmetic evidence I didn't use a booth on this thing.
4. I saw odd dark spots before clear coating when I was painting with metallic gold. Those spots were gone by final sanding.
4. The timeline from start to finish is months. You need to let the thing cure for ages. Don't rush it at all.
The neck is a musikraft. They make very nice stuff. I think they are the gold standard. Fret finish is great. It was dumb luck but the neck pocket fit on this warmoth body is outstanding - better than anything I've ever seen on any guitar.
Wow, yeah def worth the $200 or so bucks to have Warmoth do the paint job for you. So much effort, it's crazy. I barely have time to put this warmoth together, I can't imagine taking a month or so to pain a body just to save a few bucks.
