bridge post drill measurements...

[greysun]

Hey everyone! Long time, but getting back into the building saddle again...

I'll get right to my question: Does anyone have a definitive measurement from neck pocket to the center of the bridge post holes on a jazzmaster? From what I can tell, it's 7.125" but I don't have a guitar I can currently take apart to know for sure...

Why I'm asking: I'm currently building a (don't hate me) telecaster, but outfitting it with jazzmaster stuff - kind of like this: https://www.chicagomusicexchange.com/li ... n/10154456

I plan to keep the telecaster pickguard, and will be using a mastery system (vibrato, bridge and telecaster plate). The bridge pup will be a standard tele mounted on a metal plate, and the neck will be a jazzmaster pup.

The problem I'm having is related to the post holes for the bridge - I did some sleuthing online and found a few standard telecaster and jazzmaster body route templates. I overlaid them to create my routing template on the telecaster I bought for the vibrato, bridge posts and JM neck pup. However, The bridge pickup route doesn't match up if I'm aligning to the bridge holes. Essentially, it's a hair over 1/16" off in either direction.

Long story short - something is off. hehe. Since the mounting plate is metal and the body is already routed for the bridge pup, I'd like a more exact measurement of the distance from the neck pocket, and I'm not sure I'm getting it from these templates online... Any insight?

Thanks in advance!

[pscates]

7.125" is what I've always heard (and used, once). Seems fine. I pulled up two 1:1 templates and, in Illustrator, one is dead-on 7.125" from the heel to the center of the post holes. The other is 7.113" when I snap it to from the rear of the neck pocket to the center of the post holes. The difference from 7.125" to 7.113" on screen looks to be about the thickness of a business card, if that. That's .012", right?

Wait for more knowledgeable input/confirmation (an actual measurement, even), but from all I'm seeing - in addition to all I've ever read/heard over the years - 7.125" seems to be the distance (on a 25.5" scale Jazzmaster), from the part of the neck pocket closest to the bridge (the highest arc of the curve) to the center of where the bridge posts holes are.

If the "official", written-down-by-Leo-himself number is something else, it surely can't be much off the 7.125"...not enough to where 7.125" couldn't be used, as that's probably a lot easier to measure than 7.118 or whatever...we're talking paper stock thicknesses at that point!

[greysun]

I took apart my tele to get a sketch of the route using the kindergarten method of "scratch over it with a piece of paper and a pencil." I also did a tracing of the mastery decorative plate to scan and superimpose over the CAD templates using Illustrator.

The actual route is slightly different than the one in the CAD drawings I've found online. Getting the pickup opening on the plate lined up with the route, and then re-measuring the "neck pocket to post hole centers" distance, I get 7.1428"

If I take the range of online measurements I've read about as my base: it is .0298" more (or .75mm) than the 7.113" measurement, and .0178" (or .45mm) more than the 7.125" measurement.

I know there's not a TON of room on the mastery bridge to move the saddles forward, but looking at the 2 jazz masters I have, I think I can spare a fraction of a millimeter. ;-) hehe.

However, one can never be too sure, as instruments are fickle. If anyone thinks that I actually CAN'T spare a millimeter, let me know.

As always, thank you in advance - and thanks for the reply so far. :-)