Drilling For Bridge Studs

[wwwdotcomdotnet]

So my second guitar is a neck through with no neck angle and a TOM bridge, therefore I will have to route a recess/cavity for it. However, the body is 1.25 inches thick, and route will need to be ~1/4", which means I stand a very good chance of drilling straight through the body for the studs. I've already coped with the fact that this may happen, however I will obviously be going slow and drilling around 1/2mm at a time basically once I get close to the propper depth. My question is: what if I do end up drilling through the body? There really is no room for error, and I wouldn't be surprised if the body was a little thinner than the studs are long.

Edited June 13, 2007 by wwwdotcomdotnet

[mattharris75]

Then just route out an area roughly the shape of the bridge on the back and fit a contrasting piece of wood in there and turn it into a feature. But with calipers and a drill press I don't see why you would have a problem.

Edited June 13, 2007 by mattharris75

[wwwdotcomdotnet]

thats what i figured. i have both calipers and a press, but the room for error is less than 1/32", so it is very possible that the wood might even pop out when i tap the studs in. i have some leftover from the neck laminate, maybe positioning that horizontally on the route would give a nice look.

[mattharris75]

Yeah, I think that would look cool if worse comes to worse. I'm using a leftover piece of my neck laminate to make a pickup cover, and I think it's going to look really sharp.

[DJMhr]

Hi -

Have you considered the possibility of shorter bridge studs or inserts?

I just installed a Schaller roller bridge on a guitar body 1" thick,

within a recessed area for the bridge routed 1/8 deep.

I was surprised at how short the studs were for this bridge - about a 1/2".

DJ

[wwwdotcomdotnet]

Perhaps I could grind the studs down a little bit since the bridge posts will not be completely bottomed out in it. I will have to check on that

[Setch]

Is it too late to angle the neck?

[wwwdotcomdotnet]

yep, all glued up, in fact the guitar is about 90% done

[j. pierce]

The shorter studs thing was going to be my answer. I'm surprised at the size of some of the studs on these import bridges.

What about the type that screws directly into the body?

[MP63]

How about grinding the studs and screws a bit?

No one sees that bottom end.

You can also have the bottoms show like the Telecastar holes.

Drill straight through with a wood backing of course, to stop chipping.

I'm sure the holes on the Tele were taboo at one time, now people WANT the holes on the bottom.

[j. pierce]

The holes on a tele are for the strings to pass through - these are for the bridge themselves.