When I purchased the Holy Grail Telecaster body in this video my first thought was, I would build it out and sell it in my Reverb store. I have built many telecasters using Holy Grail bodies. Nothing new to see here. I wasn’t even sure I would cover the build in a video.

After sanding and spraying it with many coats of Satin Nitrocellulose Lacquer the body hung in my shop for weeks. I would walk by and think I will eventually get to it and mechanically put it together. Meaning it was more of a process of manufacturing than it was an exercise in fun.


I finally pushed myself to build it out. Since I had three pickups to work with, I decided to do something a little different with the switching of the pickups. I ordered a 5-way super switch and picked out a powerhouse trio of pickups. A super switch gives you a lot more capabilities than a typical 5-way switch that you would find in a Stratocaster. Otherwise, why would they call it a super switch?

The wiring diagram I got from a great resource of Telecaster wiring diagrams for 3 pickup telecasters on the forum named Guitar Nuts 2. Link included to the diagram that I used.

guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/8882/3-pickup-tel…

The five positions of my circuit would provide me with the following:

1. Bridge
2. Middle & Bridge - No Tone Control
3. Neck & Bridge in Parallel
4. Neck
5. Neck & Bridge in Series

I ordered a bridge, middle, and telecaster neck pickup all from the Seymour Duncan line of Quarter Pound pickups. These pickups are really heavy hitters and pump out tone and volume like crazy. Whoever ends up with this guitar would have a strong rock and roll guitar. Too be honest I was worried that I would overload the amp like Seymour Duncan Invader Pickups tend to do and would not get good clean tones out of the guitar. I wanted her to have more capabilities than just overdrive and distortion.

www.seymourduncan.com/single-product/quarter-pound…

To wrap things up and make her really an elite playing guitar I decided to use a Fender USA neck to complete out the build.

While installing the pickups I started to notice how light the body was. I expected a solid body with some walnut in the body to be on the heavier side. Instead, she felt like a thinline or chambered tele although she is not.

I have stopped using the chrome pickup rings on the guitar bodies where you want to be able to see the wood and not cover it up with a pickguard. I have replaced the metal rings with transparent plastic rings. I like that they secure the pickup in place but still allow you to be able to see under the ring.

www.ebay.com/str/mlavalguitaraccessories


I needed to prep the neck pickup prior to building out the circuit. I needed to make it four-way ready. I cut the ground jumper on the bottom of the pickup and then ran a separate ground from the pickup cover.

This would allow me to have a “Series” position with the two pickups combined. I really like when you have both pickups in Series. It is like having the two pickups on steroids in comparison to the normal anemic output of the two pickups in Parallel.

The circuit build was a little difficult for me. Not technically but because of my large fingers. There were just so many side-by-side jumpers on the switch that made it a challenge to solder in tight quarters.

The first time I plugged the circuit into the amp, positions 1 through 4 checked out perfectly. Position 5 is supposed to be the Bridge and Neck pickups in series and when I would test it only the neck pickup was working.

I had put copper shielding in the control cavity. I have had this cause shorts in the past as it is basically like wrapping your circuit with copper wire.

I assumed it was possible the switch was somehow shorting against the copper and as a result, I overreacted and tore out all out of the copper shielding from the electronics cavity to see if this would fix the problem. It did not.

What was stupid for me doing this was just pulling the control panel out the guitar and setting it on the top of the guitar would have eliminated this as a cause. I was tired and not thinking clearly or logically.

Normally I am really good about trimming the excess wire leads that extend out of my solder joints. I found I had missed one on the switch.

When the switch was placed into position 5, I could see that the switch aperture was shorting out. As soon as I clipped off the end of the wire that was extending beyond the solder joint position 5 worked like a champ.

My wife says I should cover more of the mistakes I make in my videos and then tell how and what I do to fix them. I will try to do this in future videos.