TeleAx-1

This is the 1st Variax transplant I tried back in 2003.  I ordered a Tele

body from Warmoth with pickup routs only. This was long before Warmoth

started offering Variax routs in their Tele and Strat bodies.  Hmm... I wonder where

Warmoth got the idea to offer Variax routs in Tele and Strat bodies? 

 

Okay... Here's phase 1 of the transplant. I took my Variax apart and made some

routing templates for the rear cavity. I have double-sided tape I got

from Stewart-MacDonald holding the template in place. I also put a little 2"

masking tape around the sides just to be sure it won't move.



Done! It took me about 2 1/2 hours to rout everything out. I routed down an 1/8" each pass.

Here's the hole for the bridge cable. It is a 1/2" hole drilled down about 3/8".

When you rout the back cavity to the correct depth, this hole will open up

from the back. It will give the saddle ribbon cable plenty of room to pass through to the circuit board.



THE CIRCUIT BOARD FITS!!!!



Variax & TeleAx... Here's some pics with the covers in place on TeleAx.

They look a little strange on a Telecaster, but I'll get used to it.



I got lucky and didn't screw up anything so far!!!! I knew watching the New

Yankee Workshop w/ Norm Abram all these years would pay off sooner or later.
I have routed the pocket under the bridge. The output jack rout is next.

The output jack rout is done. This took a little while. I had to be

extra careful because there's only about 1/4" of wood left on each side.

I've never put so many holes in a guitar in all my life!

I did a test install of the output jack and she fits!!! I'm now done with

the bridge, output jack and control cavity. I'm moving on to the 5-way switch.

Here's a couple mock-ups of TeleAx with the neck in place. She's gettin' there!

I installed the Earvana nut and did a quick setup on TeleAx last night. So far

I'm really happy with how it's turning out. It's actually way better than I was

hoping for! I needed to raise the bridge saddles quite a lot (about 1/8") from where

they were set up on the Variax. The saddles were pretty low to the bridge base

 on the Variax. Luckily there was plenty of travel on the saddle set screws to get

 the strings to the height they need to be an a Telecaster body. This leads me to

my next observation. For some reason, the models seem to have more sustain now

 than they did on the Variax body. I don't know if that's because

the strings are a lot higher off the body now or what.

I know you guys are wanting to hear TeleAx. I recorded some chords and

things with some of the models last night. I didn't record all of the models,

but I'll try to get more done as time permits. This was done really quickly,

so the sound quality could be better... All of these samples were recorded with

 the mixer set flat (no EQ). I did nothing to enhance the recording at all. I just

plugged in a went with it. There's just a bit of verb and that's it. I used my POD

 Pro straight to the recorder for the samples. Here's what they are:

Telecaster bridge - POD Pro Twin Reverb
Strat bridge/middle - POD Pro Twin Reverb model
'58 Les Paul bridge - POD Pro JCM800 model
'52 Lep Paul Goldtop - POD Pro Rectified model
Martin D-28 - XLR out straigt to the recorder
Martin D-12-28 - XLR out straigt to the recorder
Martin O-18 - XLR out straigt to the recorder
Guild F212 - XLR out straigt to the recorder
Gibson J-200 - XLR out straigt to the recorder
1935 Dobro Model 32 - - XLR out straigt to the recorder
Coral Sitar - XLR out straigt to the recorder
Gibson Super 400 neck - POD Pro Line 6 clean model

Here's the sound sample:
http://www.guitaristjeffmiller.com/audio/teleax.mp3