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It says 60 night trial, will building it at night affect the toan?
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no doubt it will be a bit darker
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From experience, something that is the right height for the neck and that doesnāt slip around.
Yes to the fret rocker. Be prepared for extra tools though when you spot those high or low frets. Namely, a (long) levelling beam, triangular file and a fine file to round the edges. Plus some abrasive sheets of various grades.
But if the fretwork needs to be done then the nut might need adjusting too.
If you have to sit a fret better, youāll need a fret setter the right size for the frets and maybe a dead blow brass or nylon hammer. The hammer you can find in DIY stores, donāt fall for the luthiery marketing.
I canāt justify to myself the cost of a string action gauge. A metallic ruler with fine enough subdivisions for the first couple centimeters does it for me. I think mines goes 0.1mm for 1cm. Iāll confirm in due course.
Radius gauges, if you donāt plan to do anything with the radius of the fretboard, give them a pass. Unless you have doubts the radius is what it was advertised for.
Notched straight edge, a definite maybe. You can set the neck relief without it but it could show you where the relief happens. You will definitely need it if you do any fretwork. Some will argue to set the relief and then do the fretworkā¦ I donāt knowā¦ Maybe some research is required on that.
Feeler gauges, not for anything more than 6-7 quid. Marketing tries to sell āLuthier toolsāā¦ I bought a set from screwfix for less than 5 pounds so donāt spend anything more than that. And you donāt really need them. But theyāre useful in a toolbox anyhow.
Iām assuming you have a set of Allen keys and a selection of Phillips and flat head screwdrivers so youāre good to go.
On the electronics side I think you have a prewired kit right?
If I think of anything else, Iāll update here.
Thanks!
I kind of expect to be playing with fret leveling/re crowning one day eventually. The neck is warmoth and they apparently quire frequently are very playable without any major work so Iāll bolt it on set action and see how it goes, if its way off I will do the whole thing otherwise touch up some spots?
Radius is 10-16 so I assume I need to aim for 16 but its a trad tele style bridge, see what I can manage can measure each string on its own etc so yeah could skip
Feeler guages I will prob just go to the hw store but then there are cheap kits like thisā¦ idk if its all junkā¦
In theory you can check the frets with the fret rocker before bolting on the neck. If youāre happy, you proceed. If not, maybe youād need to tap a couple of frets a bit but I havenāt done that myself yet so I donāt know much and i donāt want tobsay anything wrong/silly.
You mean for the action? Last time I did that I just set it by buzz. Pickups all the way down, saddles all the way down, raising them up (the saddles) bit by bit until I got no buzz (or tolerable buzz).
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This is a worthwhile watch if you are planning a build.
So this arrived yesterday, will be what Iām using to finish, looks like about 2 weeks for prep, coats and finishing.
Probably aiming for more gloss than before as I think the wood deserves going that way
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Interesting project. Iāll be interested in seeing the final finished Tele with the final finishing touches.
OK so have all the major parts together, really looking forward to building this should be pretty unique
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That is looking really nice, Rob. Once youāve got that oil on it, itās really going to bring out that wood. Iām looking forward to seeing the finished instrument.
Looking good Rob 
Couple more tools to help.
Cheap set of automotive feeler guages with all the required sizes and a music nomad action guage, probably overkill but was on offerā¦
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Ahā¦ metric. Excellent. No need to bother with all those archaic thousands of an inch.
EDITā¦ wait one is metric and one isnāt?
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Oh hell no, most guitar stuff seems to be imperial as itās very USA centric but itās all crazy pants numbers to me.
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Yes, just noticed that the action gauge isnāt. I do wish those Americans would get themselves up to date with the rest of the world. 
Itās metric on the other side
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Ahā¦ perfect!
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lighting and a tidy up of the workspace ready for next weekends start
A few more minor bits n pieces turned up, felt washers, string trees, some copper foil etc so I think I should have everything i need to get it finished and screwed together at least.
If the frets need work Iāll have to do something there, but hoping notā¦ 
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