Benny’s Squire Telecaster has been in the wars. Described initially as “a grounding issue” it didn’t take long to work out what was wrong here! I had visions of hours spent with a multi- metre, but not on this occasion…
This was one of those jobs that a few people had clearly had a go at before and on inspection there was even evidence that some epoxy glue had been used in the past in an attempt to hold the socket cup in.
The standard method of retention on these cheaper socket cups is a piece of curved metal sandwiched between the cup and the socket which flattens and thus widens to hold the cup in place when the socket nut is torqued down. This had been completely mangled over the years and, while it could have been reshaped, I was not happy with this as a long term solution.
Electronically this was a very simple fix; I resoldered the socket with a much shorter length of exposed ground wire to minimise any risk of further shorts. The real work was in working out how to securely retain the socket cup.
A quick phone call to Benny to go through the options – a new socket cup or a bit or two discreet screws to hold the old one in place – and we decided that two small screws was the way to go.
There were a few other issues I picked up along the way which could be quickly rectified while I had the instrument: a split nylon washer on one of the machine heads, a mismatched screw on the control cavity cover and stripped threads in the body for the aforementioned screws.
Here are a few before and after pictures. Screws may not be your choice on a vintage Fender or MIA Tele, but I think they work on this instrument and don’t offend. To be honest, you’d have to be looking for them to find them. Most importantly we had a happy customer!
How would you have tackled this one? If you have any better suggestions I’d love to hear them in the comments below. I you need any repairs or setup completed on your guitar make sure you get in touch info@broadwayguitars.com.
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