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Sex Panther Tele

Tele Bridge and Bridge Pickup

I plan to install a full on humbucker in the bridge. Since this body is routed for a traditional single coil pickup, I need to do some surgery.

In order to mark out the pickup location, I need to fist determine the bridge position. This was a pain in the butt, but I think I got it right.

The bridge is located in it’s correct home based on 25.5″ scale length.

Then the pickup area is marked on the body, and some forstner bits remove the bulk of the material.

Drilling out material is way easier than routing or chiseling

My friend made me a template for the pickup and I’ll use this as a guide to mark out the areas for the pickup screws.

Pickup template my friend made for me with his CNC router.

Now it’s time to get busy with the chisels. I made the cavity a little bigger to provide wiggle room for the pickup.

Humbucker cavity is marked out. Time to chonk out the stuff in the way.
The chisels got most of it. Although it smells awesome, it’s a bitch to chisel this because it’s so soft. Now I need to use my router plane to clean up the bottom.
The router plane is super fun to use and shaved up all the leftover stuff in the bottom and in the corners.

Now the bridge pickup cavity is done 😀

Next I will do some sanding on the edges, locate and drill the new string holes, and install the brass ferrule block on the back of the body.