Finishing School for Rosie

I’ve been playing Rosie the Telecaster exclusively for a couple of weeks. I’ve been sitting in regularly at a couple of local jam sessions and never know what the environment will be like so I leave my Strat at home. 

However every time I pick up that Strat I’m astonished at how smooth it feels. Everything about it is silky smooth. It feels fantastic to play. Playing it made me wonder how I could smooth Rosie’s sharp edges.

It turns out that a little 1000 grit sandpaper was all she needed.

Recent American Standard model Telecasters (Mine is a 2012) have an unusual bridge design. Just about every Fender Telecaster made from 1956 to 2007 used four screws to mount the bridge to the body of the guitar. For some reason, in 2008 Fender changed the bridge mounting on American Telecasters to three screws (actually 5, two smaller screws were added to pickup end of the bridge to compliment the three large screws at the tail). 

My Tele has a bridge with 6 individual fulcrums rather that the three barrels used in vintage Telecaster bridges. The height adjusters on these fulcrums are small threaded studs with sharp edges. I frequently rest my hand on the bridge when I play these little studs are sharp and I begun to get a callus on my the heel of my hand on that spot

I finally got the courage to take a fresh piece of 1000 grit sandpaper to them. After 5 minutes thay are much smoother. Not as smooth as the bridge on the Strat, but much better that before. Continuing the "dehorning", I removed the Volume and Tone knobs and smoothed the knurled finish a bit as well. I was surprised to find one of the knobs was plastic and one was metal. After the treatment Rosie is pretty much free of sharp edges and much more comfortable to play. No reason to do it to the Stratocaster, as it’s already perfectly smooth. The lesson here is not to be afraid to modify your guitar to make it fit you better.