Problems With Rear Ferrules

[Quarter]

Milled from bar stock even

Medieval bar stock from the 12th century to be exact!

[WezV]

but you will be likely to have trouble restringing in the future and the ball could easily become stuck in the wood.

that can be a real problem actually - i once pulled 6 ball ends from the high e string hole of a mates telecaster that had lost a ferrule

for that reason i wouldnt use anything softer than ebony

here is a ferruleless tele i did a few years back

in bright flash you can see the ebony block through the lacquer

[Xanthus]

I was actually thinking of using leftover bubinga from my neck. At the rate it's going through sandpaper, a block of that might be a contender

[Quarter]

I'd bet bubinga would work well, I've see cocobolo used too.

[Drak]

What I think is humorous about these rear ferrule conversations is that I don't even own a damn drill press.

I use a regular drill, a Brad point bit, a block of wood to keep me true, and a Dremel tool from the top,

and mine come out just fine.

...Almost damn perfect if I were to be boastful.

You know why?

Because I (hahahahahaha..........wait for it............you KNOW it's coming........)

Practiced. Yup.

With what I had to work with.

And I developed a way that works every time, and I don't need any big fancy tools to do it for me.

Very simplistic tools and some patience and a dash of common sense.

If you're not willing to put the time in to learn how to do something, where do you think you'll get with building anything really?

[riffster]

I may use ebony or bone for where the ball end of the string will be up against. I know ebony is hard, but I know that bone is also a hard material. Bone is an option, but there may be some ebony scarp laying around that is more easily available.

Nathan

[riffster]

I am probably not going to redrill because I was going to finish the hondo mahog body in tru oil. If I was going to paint it then I would redrill and make them perfect.

[soapbarstrat]

I think others have suggested ways in which you can make the ferrules look perfect even in your given situation. If those methods still need to "sink in", you can always , for now, slip small washers onto the ball-ends of the strings, and string the sucker up without added ferrules.

[Drak]

Can you at least post a pic of the back so we can really eyeball your situation?

I always say, if you make a mistake, then do your best to make it work for you, make some sort of fix that makes it look like you meant to do that all along...like with rear ferrules, if there is any kind of 'theme' to the guitar, then take that theme to the rear ferrule block if that's what you're going to do.

Like, if it's a very 'Metal' guitar, make a skull & crossbones type of block...if it was a southwestern/country kind of thing, make a block like a steerhead or something...you get the idea...use your mistake to drive your creative juices...don't make it look like a mistake was covered up...then, when someone flips it over, they'll have no idea that a mistake was even made...

In the Telecaster world, it's quite popular these days to do a pin-up decal on the back...just think it thru and come up with something cool, don't settle for a plain old block of wood or bone...put a curl or mustache curve on it or something...make it work you harder to learn something new...use it to your advantage

[riffster]

I will try to get a pic of what we did on Friday.

We routed out a space on the back that looked rounded like the shape of the tunomatic recess. We then took scrap ebony and hand shaped it on the sander attachment to the drill press until it fit in the routed spot closely. We used epoxy and ebony dust to fill in the gaps then drill for the ferrules. To mark location to drill we used a string spacing ruler so the bass side has more room for error, but it still look great IMO. We did this just to make sure we got it right and it looks great. The black ebony tied in with the black plastic control cavity cover and the gold ferrules. In fact, it might look kinda cool if I inlayed a chunk of ebony to the top of the guitar where the top ferrules are. Then it would be Madagascar ebony fingerboard. black pickups, gold bridge, then Madagascar ebony inlay with gold ferrules. I am pleased with the outcome and look snazzy. I can't work on the guitar this week and I will take a pic next week if I can.

Thanks again everyone