KnotheadII

That is exactly how mine is done except the hole goes sideways directly to the control cavity (rather than going to the bridge pickup).

Thanks for the response.

So, you drilled the hole to come up and out underneath where the bridge sits? Then, I assume you put some foil tape or something in that area to have enough surface area to have a good ocntact with the bridge?

I have a rear-routed Strat body and will be using a Hipshot fixed bridge. How do I run the ground wire from the bridge?

I was thinking I might be able to drill an angled hole from the face of the body underneath the bridge to the bottom edge of the bridge pickup cavity, then run it back to the control cavity from there.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Hipshot makes two hardtail saddles -- one for stock string height and one a bit higher.

The higher one is not listed on StewMac's site -- to directly to Hipshot's site and order it there.

I have a stock height Hipshot. The machining is perfect. High quality all around.

My Warmoth neck was flawless. The neck bow was right on the nose, the frets probably don't need dressing (at least for my levle of play) and the wood shaping was smooth as silk. Not cheap, but I like the comfort of knowing I am not compromising on the quality of such and essential component.

Thanks for the first reply on this.

I decided to go with the fabricated "grommets" where you epoxy and nut into a short piece of piping and set that into a drilled hole in the rout, then mount the p/u wi/ machine screws.

There seems to be plenty of debate about whether to seat the p/u against wood or let them "float." Might try both approaches.

thanks.

Well, I am replying to my own post. I found that the term everyone hereuses is "direct mounting" so I found plenty of posts on the raging debate between "floating"and solid-mount approaches. I did not see much agreement or consensus on it.

I will probably use custom-thicknessed wood shims to do a firm mount and see how it works. Also intrigued by the idea of fabricating a grommet by expoxying a nut onto a copper tube sleeve.

I still welcome any thoughts, but it looks like a well-worn topic.

I am totally jazzed -- just got my curly maple stray body from Warmoth and doing all the drlling tonight before starting my finishing (Cabernet Curl, as I'll call it).

As long as i am doing all my drlling, what is the best way to mount the pickups in the routs? Since they are mounting right into the wood, instead of being on the back of a pickguard, I am considering two options:

1. Drill and install T-nuts or grommets and then use machine screws to mount the pickups into the grommets.

2. Use wood screws directly throught the pickup holes and into the wood.

The former seems cleaner, more stable and more professional to me, but perhaps harder to do since the fit is tight. The second seems sloppy to me (as a woodworker, the idea of having a wood screws in only halfway is repulsive and potentially unstable since wood screws are tapered).

Any ideas of there?

thanks for any help.