hipshot install, woo~ i did it! (i think)

[kp8]

Okay, so my hippo came in today and i just could not sit till this thing was installed. I am just too dang curious.....

So while i ate dinner i stared at my ever-shrinking flock of budget guitars and tried to figure out which one to put it on. I thought it would go on the '51 very easily, since that is already a top loader... but i just put that up for sale in the TDPRI classifieds. I know if i put it on there i'll only have to take it off. So i was down to the Squier tele .... and then my trusty old MIA snotcaster (a.k.a. sage green metallic). This parts tele, which is already several years old, has several battle scars, but the still looks clean and still needs new pots and electrosocket, if i put it in the partscaster i can gig it next week .. hmm.... So i decided to go ahead and put it on the MIA. I can change it later i figure.

• I took off the b string
• took out the strap button
•*then took one look at that Callaham and decided i could eyeball that hole and drill it.

Well, the eyeballing went shockingly well (the hole is in *just* the right spot) but the Callaham hardware is some serious sheet. Holy cow is that steel thick and hard. I nearly broke the bit getting that sucker drilled and well... since i didn't have any clamps or a drill press handy i decide to leave the bridge on and do it. I will give you three guesses what happened when the drill bit finally broke through the other side of that bridge plate. ... well, one more battle scar.

The screw they give you to substitute for the strap button screw is extremely long. I am certain they sent me the wrong screw, there is no way this is the screw that goes in there. That sucka would reach halfway up to my pickup cavity! So, i will have to find the right screw and get that, in the meantime i put the old one in. Good enough for now.

I decided that since i already done mucked things up good on this guitar ... well, what is two more holes? so i drilled two small holes and used those 2 supplementary black screws they give you to secure the hipshot. Ironically they are pretty small. My first screw doesn't seem to grab much. I might need to wick in the CYA and do the toothpick thing or go with a slightly longer screw. The second one went in nice and tight.

So i got my hole drilled. I got the thing screwed on there.... but it takes me a good couple of minutes of head scratching to figure out where the string goes in (oddly, not noted in the directions!) ... found it... it is that hole on the top of the bending arm... but i did as the instructions said and put that teflon doohicky on. You gotta run the string through first *then* put on the teflon sleeve... I do that... snake it through the weird wire thingy and through the hole and line the teflon thing so that it protects the string as it goes through the bridge and string it back up.

Is that it? That's it!

So i tuned it up..... and low and behold, i think it works! It sounds freaking boss! Man this thing is well made and well engineered. They don't send you junk that is for sure. It looks significant, even next to the NASA-esque Callaham plate. Wow, i am totally loving this thing so far. Now i have to learn some country cadences and some bender licks and practice coordinating it with my vol. pedal.

I am having a hard time playing it sitting down though and that bar hurts when it jabbs you so i have to find a position that works (they should make a bar with a smooth ball end), but the bending is smooth as buttah. What an impressive piece of hardware. Hat's off to hipshot for a really neat design and really sturdy build. I can see me wanting a G lever and the drop D thing down the road.

I'll take pictures soon and you can let me know what i did wrong and mock my handywork.

The TDPRI rules! Word to the motha!

-kp--

[jmiles]

I've never needed "the weird wire thingy" with a top-loader bridge. I slide a piece of plastic tubing from the hardware store onto the hipshot lever. Makes it a bit more comfortable, specially when playin' nekkid!

[bender-freak]

yep, the hipshot rules IMO...there are all kinds of thingies you can put over the end of the bar if it gouging you; even a wad of duct tape...ha ha...where would we be without duct tape...???...i've seen some guys even put a small round rubber ball on the end...i never did do that, myself....

last hipshot i got came WITH an elongated plastic "handle" knockockthingamabob that fits over the end of the B lever, but again, i have never used it.....have fun with the hipshot...been my weapon of choice for years...

[getbent]

try playing some chord stuff... like a regular c cowboy chord, strum and bend...

how about a barred G7? oh yeah! how about a barred Dm7?

I think I've decided to go with a long throw when I get my pw just for the ballady chord stuff... it sounds so pretty...

[kp8]

This thing is awesome! Why did i not get one years ago! amazing... i hate to put this down, but i have to go to work. I'll try to snap some pictures too.

[jmiles]

Well,,,,see? Now you need the G bender!