Fender Telecaster Gibson Humbucker Bridge Setup
Replaced Old Pickup With Gibson Humbuckers
About the Job
This Fender Telecaster came into the workshop as you see it in picture number 1.
It arrived in pieces and all the screws were in a bag.
The Problem
The client had neglected this 1998 American Telecaster in his loft and wanted it reassembled but also changing the the old pickup with Gibson Humbuckers that he supplied.
This is what we call a nightmare project because we did not have the opportunity to dismatle it ourselves, so you never know what will be missing.
Initial Inspection
The guitar was very neglected, scratched, basically in a bad way.
It was obvious that someone had tried to repair this themselves and failed.
Repair & Setup Work
We began by removing the old pickup and soldering the wiring for the humbuckers. This was straight forward as this pickup had only two wires, a hot and a ground.
We soldered the hot to the 3 way switches hot spot and soldered the ground to the body of the volume pot.
The next problem we encountered was that the gibson humbuckers were too wide and deep to fit in the shallow pickup cavity. We had to file and shave some wood out of the cavity as well as having to cut the pickup mounts so that they would fit. This was a delicate job as we did not want to damage the guitar anymore that it already was.
When we tried to reinstate the pickguard we realised that the original neck pickup was sitting at a angle. The screws that were still attached to this pickup were too long, which meant that someone had tried to dismantle and reassemble it incorrectly with the wrong screw lengths. We had to cut the screws so that the pickup would sit in its correct position and then we could reassemble the pickguard.
After nearly 4 hours of work, the guitar was finally ready for the final setup. We checked the intonation action and neck relief and made the necessary adjustments to ensure that the guitar played perfectly. We carried out a sound check and the client was very happy with the result.
Final Setup Measurements
| Low E Action | 2.00mm Capo on first fret holding down 24th fret measuring at 12th fret |
| High E Action | 1.50mm Capo on first fret holding down 24th fret measuring at 12th fret |
| Neck Relief | Was -0.35mm reduced it to -0.18mm after adjusting truss rod |
| String Gauge | D'Addario XL 9 - 42 Super light gauge |
| Standard | Standard E |
Final Result
After the setup, the guitar played more comfortably with improved tuning stability, corrected neck relief and a more balanced action. The sound was amazing with the new Gibson humbuckers, providing a richer and fuller tone.
The instrument was fully tested before collection.
