Wood Filler In Tremolo Cavity?

[Castro]

Hey, hope everybody is doing well, I am new to this forum. I have an 80's model Charvel Model 1 and I want to replace the old Kahler fulcrum tremolo with the new Kahler fixed bridge. Question is, has anybody had any practice filling in a tremolo cavity?

[soapbarstrat]

I shaped a scrap of alder to fit the trem hole in an alder strat body. The scrap of alder was from a couch I tore apart.

Actually, I think it was two pieces of scrap alder, because the hole is smaller on the top of the body. There were gaps big enough that I needed to use a good gap filling glue, so I used long cure epoxy. Two of the hardtail bridge screws went into the scrap piece and two went next to the scrap piece. To keep the strings from pulling the scrap out (don't really know if they would pull it out or not), I made a wood spring cavity cover for the back of the guitar and put string ferrules into that, so the string pull would be on that. I should have made it thicker, because the string pull warped it pretty good over time.

I would not just fill the cavity hole with any kind of putty filler. I really don't think that would hold up well enough.

Edit to add: Actually that guitar of yours is probably a basswood body, and I think a body like that would sound better with a trem cranked down tight against the body with 5 springs in the cavity. Gives ya a little "reverb".

Edited August 6, 2007 by soapbarstrat

[Castro]

I shaped a scrap of alder to fit the trem hole in an alder strat body. The scrap of alder was from a couch I tore apart.

Actually, I think it was two pieces of scrap alder, because the hole is smaller on the top of the body. There were gaps big enough that I needed to use a good gap filling glue, so I used long cure epoxy. Two of the hardtail bridge screws went into the scrap piece and two went next to the scrap piece. To keep the strings from pulling the scrap out (don't really know if they would pull it out or not), I made a wood spring cavity cover for the back of the guitar and put string ferrules into that, so the string pull would be on that. I should have made it thicker, because the string pull warped it pretty good over time.

I would not just fill the cavity hole with any kind of putty filler. I really don't think that would hold up well enough.

Thanks! I was thinking about cutting and fitting some scrap wood in the spring cavity, filling in around it and sanding it smooth. Crazy thing is I have to fill in the two holes where the fulcrum screws were and screw the new bridge screws into the filler! That worries me.

[TheIRS]

Get hardwood dowels to fill those holes. I've done it before, it works quite well.

[biliousfrog]

there's a tutorial on the main PG site showing how to fill a trem cavity. I did a perminent fix in an Ibanez Roadstar body & a non-damaging fix on a strat (clamping the trem flat to the body) using wood. You should be able to get a nice secure fit if you're patient. I cut the filler blank on the Roadstar out of ash with a tenon saw & chisels...it was a lot of work but the result was worth it.

[brewu22]

Get hardwood dowels to fill those holes. I've done it before, it works quite well.

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