Hello World! My first guitar project

[Simon Barden]

Looks like the pickups have proper magnet pole pieces, so they could very well sound quite decent. The bridge pup also has its important baseplate.

The normal way to drill the holes is to mark out the holes on the top using the bridge, then drill the two outer E string holes all the way through, and the four inner ones 2/3 the way. Then using the bridge plate on the back of the body, align the two E string holes and mark the 4 inner ones, then drill about 1/2 the way into the body for those 4, and hopefully the holes line up. The rear holes will be in a straight line.

If your rear plate spacing doesn't match up (it should), then drilling holes at an angle that line up isn't going to be easy, so you might need to get a plate that does, or else swap to individual ferrules. I'd still drill through with the two outer holes and drill the other 4 from the back to get the holes aligned. A small difference in alignment could be taken up by using slightly over-sized holes for the plate ferrules to sit in.

[ross.pearson]

Looks like the pickups have proper magnet pole pieces, so they could very well sound quite decent. The bridge pup also has its important baseplate.

The normal way to drill the holes is to mark out the holes on the top using the bridge, then drill the two outer E string holes all the way through, and the four inner ones 2/3 the way. Then using the bridge plate on the back of the body, align the two E string holes and mark the 4 inner ones, then drill about 1/2 the way into the body for those 4, and hopefully the holes line up. The rear holes will be in a straight line.

If your rear plate spacing doesn't match up (it should), then drilling holes at an angle that line up isn't going to be easy, so you might need to get a plate that does, or else swap to individual ferrules. I'd still drill through with the two outer holes and drill the other 4 from the back to get the holes aligned. A small difference in alignment could be taken up by using slightly over-sized holes for the plate ferrules to sit in.

I had been thinking of a few different ways to do this but the way you've mentioned sounds like the best option. Personally, I get irrationally irritated seeing ferrules that are even slightly out of line or spaced slightly incorrectly. Which means I'm a near certainty to make some kind of mistake =)