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Welcome to the Telecaster Project Build blog.  Posts are listed in reverse chronological order, or can be selected via the tiny menu icon at top left.  You might also start at one of the page links above for an overview.
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Process - Electronics

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Soldering the pups was actually one of the most relatively easy aspects to this entire build.  There are good wiring diagrams online, but I really relied on my intuition and a good multimeter.  The switch was the hardest part, only in that there are 8 terminals coming from it while there are only three leads connected to it!  And I wanted to ensure that the forward position went to the neck pup and the rearward position went to the bridge pup.  I easily isolated which terminal did what.  After realizing that each pup connected to two terminals, it was easy to work out which ones would have the right pup active in what position - including both at the middle switch position.
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Template - The Body

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Fortunately, many classic guitar body designs have been around for decades, and plans exist for download or purchase.  Fender plans were especially easy to find online.  My first concern was whether I could print to 1:1 size and trust the measurements.  A quick test print revealed that the output of my pdf plans already printed 1:1 with no changes to printer settings.  Yah! Twelve pages later I had all the 8.5x11 sheets necessary to construct my paper template.  These pages were taped together and then cut to a more manageable size, followed by careful measurement of each element to verify the scale.
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Process - Finishing Elements

Pickguard style? Given that this was my own design brief, and I wanted to see enough of the wood grain, I knew that I would be making modifications to the pickguard.  And since I'd moved the control cavity position this would have to be accommodated.  I found a smaller than standard ('F-hole') shaped pickguard for a really good price and held it up to the body and neck to get a sense of where it needed to be trimmed. 
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