Having a mere fraction of the creativity and technical skills of most of the people on this board, I figure a good place for me to start working on and finishing guitars is with the Warmoth bodies and necks. I'm having a bit of a problem, though with their flexibility over what they will and will not do/tell me how to do...
What I want to do is have them drill for a tune-o-matic bridge. But I don't want to use a stop-tailpiece, I would like to drill string-through holes myself. When I asked the friendly staff at Warmoth, they told me that they don't know anything about tune-o-matic string-through, and thus couldn't advise me on it, and that I'd be doing it at my own risk, etc etc....
I'd like to know a few things, actually:
First, is it a good idea? Is their reluctance to tell me anything about it a clue that their bodies aren't build for that kinda bridge arrangement?
Secondly, if it's ok to do this, is there some minimum/maximum distance that the string-through holes must be from the bridge?
And, also, I know Warmoth sells string ferrules for the back of the body where the string goes through, but what about when the string comes through the top? What can I use to protect the finish from the emerging string?
Thanks in advance to any who post on this!