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Hi All,
I'm new here, and have been having a lot of fun with a strat body and neck set that i hope to post about very soon.
In the meantime, I also received a tele kit with significantly misaligned string holes. I am not sure how to get any support. Is this the right place? I am not getting responses to email attempts, and I think most communication is in the form. Is that correct?
Is prefer to get support privately, i'm just not sure how.
Thanks!
michael
hi and welcome.
It's the weekend and Pit Bull is a small company, and I believe they only work part-time, so I expect your email will be responded to very soon once they are back in the office. They are really good at sorting out problems.
The forum here gives a lot of support and it's often best to raise issues here first, just in case you've misunderstood or misinterpreted something.
As the Tele kits don't normally have string holes at the bridge, are you talking about the tuner holes in the headstock? They can be rather badly drilled I know.
It would be good if you can post some photos. I recently posted some info on hosting photos on the forum on this post: https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...l=1#post216720
Hi Simon
Thanks for the reply! I did actually get an email reply now, so that is great. I also appreciate your response.
To be more detailed than before, I have a tele deluxe body, not a regular tele. The holes are definitely for the strings at the bridge.
I am thinking I might need to fill and redrill, but I am worried that this might be more problematic here than when done behind a neck, for example. Do you have any advice?
Here are a few pics...
Hi Simon,
Looking at the pics, what do you think my best approach is? If I fill and re-drill, is there a best way to approach it? I am used to using the toothpick trick for things like neck holes, but am not sure that would give me what I am looking for here. I think that I will have to use paint and no stain in any case, as the repair will be quite visible. I am definitely apprehensive about approaching this wrong and backing myself into a corner later!
I would contact PBG before doing anything. That body never should have gone out like that IMO.
I know you're in the US, so it may not be as convenient with shipping and time, but PBG is highly regarded for their after-sale service.
At least you're on the west coast, which a little closer than other states!
PBG has made good on the situation, which is great. In the mean time, I still have that body. What would be the smartest way to try to make a fix?Quote:
Originally Posted by McCreed
That's great news.Quote:
Originally Posted by prophei
Depending on your level of woodworking skills and tools you have, a "string ferrule block" may be a good fix for the back, and a re-alignment of the through-holes in front should be covered up by the bridge plate.
I'm sure finding the ferrule block would be easy given your location. I didn't see any at Guitar Fetish, but I would think there will be other suppliers in the US.
These ones are from the UK, but you can at least see what I'm talking about:
https://graingerguitarparts.com/prod...-105mm-spacing
Note: not sure what string to string spacing you need, so the above is just an example.
Interesting. So I would just route the body for that and be done with it. I don't have a lot of experience routing, but I recently did grab a router, and think that if I am careful, I could manage something like that.Quote:
Originally Posted by McCreed
I assume that the only other option would be to fill and re-drill the holes... leaving me with only a non-transparent paint finish as an option?
Yes, you are correct re: routing out for the block. I can't say 100% from just the photo or without measurements, but it appears to me that the deviation in the line of holes would fit within the footprint of the ferrule block.Quote:
Originally Posted by prophei
It would be worth shopping around, as there are different sizes and designs out there. They're not necessarily a standardised piece of hardware like many other guitar parts. Hell, you could even make your own out some nice hardwood if so inclined!
And yes on the filling and drilling part as well.
One should always drill from the top when installing a string-through bridge, as it's the bridge that defines where the holes need to go. The factory obviously only drilled from the rear with a hand drill, which is just wrong.
There is an 'easy' option to fix this. You could simply fit a top-loading hardtail bridge and fit the standard ferrules in the holes just for show. Allows you to have a non-solid body colour on a guitar that that looks normal.
Or you could have a go at first plugging the holes, then redrilling the holes from the top using the bridge string holes as a template for their position. It looks like the holes are quite small, so you may find that cocktail sticks will do (you may even need to drill out the hole with a larger drill bit to fit a cocktail stick in. But you do really need to fill the holes before further drilling as even if you use a drill press/pillar drill, the bit can still be made to wander if it comes across a hole.
The bridge position first needs to be established. Once you've done that, then you can mark the string hole and fixing screw positions. If the marked string hole positions are a long way from the existing string holes, or the string holes are visible with the bridge in position, then there really is no option but to plug the string holes and either go with the top-loading bridge option, or plug the string and ferrule holes, go with a solid colour and drill the string holes from scratch.
If the holes look relatively close to the marked positions, and if you have a drill press/pillar drill, then you could try drilling through the middle of the two outer ferrule holes on the rear and see where the holes come out relative to your marked hole positions on the top. You'll need a drill that won't move after you've positioned it in the ferrule hole, and will drill straight and true, so I wouldn't try this with a hand drill or a drill guide.
You may find that the two holes line up closely with the positions you've marked. You'd want the side to side positions to be an exact match, but the fore/aft positions could be a mm or so out, which you should be able to cope with using the intonation adjustment. If there is a very slight mismatch in side to side position, then you could plug the new holes, and drill all the holes from the top, as they should come out within the ferrule holes.
Obviously use your common sense to determine if the ferrule hole diameter and the string hole position are close enough to allow you to put a string through the ferrule and into the hole. without the hole being too offset from centre. The string holes should be the same diameter as the holes in the bridge. If necessary you could use an intermediate drill size (between the ferrule hole and string hole size) to enlarge the bottom of the ferrule hole slightly and create a sort of funnel to guide the string into the smaller hole if the smaller hole is offset within the ferrule hole.
But if the two outer holes are a long way from the marked positions on the top, then you really have no option but to then there really is no option but as mentioned before, either go with the top-loading bridge option, or plug the string and ferrule holes, go with a solid colour and drill the string holes from scratch.
Agree with Simon, fill the holes and redrill.
What I did on a body of mine was to locate the bridge, drill holes half way through from top towards bottom using an undersize drill, and drill only one all the way through. Then I used the bridge again to drill undersize holes from bottom half way, so they would hopefully meet up with the holes drilled from the top. That way even if they weren't precisely opposite the top they were at least evenly spaced. Then used larger drills to take it out to size, relying on hole following to deal with any major mismatch of the front and back holes, and only taking it out to full size when I was happy the holes from each side were aligning well. A pillar drill is awfully helpful, but mine didn't have the reach to do more than the outside holes, so the rest had to be done by hand.
Another option that occurs to me, if you don't fancy the ferrule block, would be to inlay a piece of veneer or something into the whole area round the ferrules, and make it into a feature.