Bridge fix ES kit question

[stan]

Perhaps a question for DB or Gav...
On my Lefty ES kit the holes for the bridge are drilled in the wrong location - they are for a right handed setup.
No worries, i have a few possible solutions and was wondering which is most likely to succeed...

Essentially there are two main ways in my mind to go about it - hide it, or make it a feature



1. Hide it. Dowel the original holes, sand to contour, re drill (yes I have a press). The repair won't be invisible and will need a completely opaque finish i.e. paint. I understand there will be a tonal difference with the finish, but I am looking at this simply from the aspect of the quality of the repair and its strength.

2. Make a feature of it. route, or fine chisel, a rectangular section that goes from one hole to the other. Inset a piece of timber like mahogany, and make it flush and gloss black (goes with the pup surrounds, pickguard etc...). It will cover the old holes and provide a base for the new ones. Drill it and mount the bridge on top.

The new holes will overlap the original, by about half a hole. I am tending to think I'll go with version 2: I can still have a translucent finish that shows the timber and preserve tone, and it will look a bit like a flush mounted tune-o-matic on a timber saddle.

I can't use a real timber mounted tune-o-matic: it would hide the holes nicely, but would sit too high.

Of course I am open to other suggestions

[Brendan]

Dumb ideas, but you can buy maple headstock veneers online - that will be lighter and easy to get your hands on a thin piece...

http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_t...at=0&_from=R40

From your description #2 sounds good.

Alternatively - depending on skill level - could you get a strip of something dark (jarrah?) - and run from the corner of the pup, through the two holes to the back of the guitar - get some racing stripes in there...

[stan]

Thanks Brendan, not dumb at all, I was thinking along similar lines, the piece I would put in would only be the thickness of the top maple veneer.

It would look a bit like a flush mounted es 175 bridge, and a bit like this (but left handed)and cover over the original holes:

[DanMade]

Doh. They must bore the bridge post holes for lefty's on a Monday morning at the factory.

[WeirdBits]

As the new holes will partially overlap the old ones... I'd be tempted towards a "least intrusive" option first, and if that didn't turn out as planned then go the full route/inlay repair.

What if you plugged the holes with dowel so that they are 1-1.5mm short of being flush, then cut a couple of maple veneer circular caps that can be glued in on top of the dowel? If done really carefully and with a little colour-matched Timbermate added aroud the seam (hopefully hairline, at most), once it was sanded flush it should be almost invisible with the finish on and the bridge and strings in place. It would be relatively easy to cut the veneer circles to match then grain pattern and exactly fit the holes to minimise the 'seam'. I'm planning on trying something like this if the 175 kits have the bridge holes drilled, as I want to use a wood mount floating bridge if possible (depends on height etc).

[stan]

Thanks Scott, I had a think about something like that and wondered if once you hit it with wudtone if you would get these nice perfect circles highlighted, or circles that didn't take up the stain - fine rings where the joins were.
I'm not sure if I could get it accurate enough...

[stan]

ES 2 kit on the catalog pics looks pre drilled mate...

[WeirdBits]

Yeah, I know... that's why I'm planning ahead.

[stan]

I wonder if plugging the holes and then making slightly tapered maple plugs and sanding would do it, much like weirdy's idea

[DanMade]

If you used a hole punch like this to cut the veneer you would be able to get an pretty good fit. And you would only see about half of the covered hole.

If you were to use any type of stain, there is a good chance of there being a darker line around the edge of the circle as you say. The affects would be more noticible with a thin alcohol or water based stain than with a thicker oil based finish like Wudtone.

And using maple sawdust mixed with glue would probably leave aless prominent glue line than timber mate. Best to test this though.

If I were attempting this sort of repair . Doweling the holes and capping the hole with a veneer is how I would do it.