Filling/redrilling Thinline pickguard screw holes

[DavidP]

A couple of the pickguard mounting holes on my MIJ '84 thinline no longer let me tighten in the screws. They are in the area that is hollowed out so theres little depth to play with. In solid areas I normally just drill out and fill with a dowell, then redrill, but what do you do in this case?? Any other solutions (like just using plastic wood)??

 

[rebelern]

This works for me,

I just do the same,but use Wood Glue on the dowell,let it cure and then no problem in screwing down.

Ernie.

 

[Soapbarstrat]

This will seem too extreme to most, but I think one is better off to put small threaded inserts into the body, so you'll never have to worry about stripped holes again, and your pg can always be screwed down tight.
Only problem might be finding machine screws with the same size head. I haven't even looked into that, so who knows ?
Also, with the way things are going,I won't be surprised if in a few years if we take our guitar on a plane trip, they'll probably take the pg off to check out the wiring.

A little wood glue or superglue, and a sliver or two of wood is a much faster fix.

 

[telebelgium]

more fillin' & drillin'

on a related note...

i have a pearloid pickguard i want to install on a MIM standard tele. now, three of the holes in the guard don't match with the holes in the body (bottom ones near the bridge). i wonder, could i just fill up the holes in the body with something like woodpaste and drill three new holes (about half a centimeter away) to be able to fit the pickguard? or is this sacrilegious?

pj

 

[Soapbarstrat]

On a Mexican Tele, that's perfectly fine. Plug the old holes that don't line up, if the new holes need to be just a few hairs or so near where the old holes were. You know what I mean, so the new holes don't "cave in" through the old holes. But you're saying they're a half centimeter away, so you could just leave 'em alone and drill new ones. The pickguard will hide the old holes, right ?

That problem with holes not lining up is the main reason I don't make wood pickguards and sell them.