Quote:
Originally Posted by ehawley
This is also the body shape that Terry Downs used for his tele print! An interesting fact about this...The bridge pickup cavity was routed at 14 degrees!! but all the Fender bridges that I used to make all my guitars from are at 17 degrees, the standard, and everything still fit....Fender did some strange stuff! All my drawings for the 53 build were at 14 degrees. The drawings for this build are at 17 degrees. All my others, and there are quite a few, are at 14 degrees! A Fender vintage style bridge still fits perfect though |
I missed this the first time around... noticed it looking for the 43 wind info.
On paper, when it's perfectly centered, the layout with 14 degrees is tight - to the point of the control plate side of the pup rubbing the side - possibly knocking the poles slightly out of position as it'd tilt in on the screws and springs. With the route positioned slightly below the center, it would fit ok. I think I even pestered Terry about the angle after having a look and scratching my head for a few days.
As stated, that's on paper... if it fits, it fits. If someone wants to do a GE Smith mount... they might want to do a nice tight clean 17 while keeping the poles lined up perfectly under the strings.
fender - perhaps having the route slightly lower than center reduced the frequency of route gaps showing from under the top edge of the bridge plate - where it would show most to the player.