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It's been a learning experience...(lengthy)
...but that's okay, learning is my favorite thing to do.
I've posted a couple of times about the homebrew telecaster I picked up a few months ago. My first electric guitar in many many years. The more I studied it the more things I found wrong. The guy that assembled it did a nice hack job.
The wiring was butched and the leads from the pickups were on the short side. Got some coax from Stew and went about replacing the leads. Broke one of the coil leads off, and it had to be the inside one. Ouch!
Figuring I had nothing to lose I carefully "removed" the bottom plate of the Schaller pickup and unwrapped the tape to expose the coil. I was luckily able to unwind a loop of the interior wire. Glued it back together, reinforced it with some epoxy, taped it up, all is well.
I also found that the bridge mounting holes were cockeyed. The top one, along with the string through holes, appeared to be in good alignment. Using those as a guide I plugged and re-drilled the other three. Success again.
Now we get to something that could have been left alone. As is often the case, it seems, the ferrule holes were a little erratic. I figgered WTH, I have a drill press. Plugged them and used the string through holes and the bridge to find center and start over. That was a mistake.
First of all, even with a drill press, smaller bits tend to flex and follow the path of least resistance. I also checked and found that the holes in the bridge itself weren't all that accurate in terms of spacing. I tried to map it out with pencil lines but after re-drilling a few I'm dissatisfied with the results. Result - not good.
So, I need a good template and I can't find anyone who sells one. It's also hard to find 5/16 Forstner bits, the sets all seem to skip that size. Two steps forward, one step back.
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January 3rd, 2010, 07:09 PM
24 Photos
