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Post subject: Highway one bridge questions
Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 8:01 pm
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Hobbyist
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Joined: Fri May 30, 2008 7:14 pm
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Hey everybody
I am starting a project based around a highway one body. I love the smooth nitro finish, and the overall quality, but don't much like vintage style six screw tremolos. They sound great, but I don't notice too much tone loss with modern two-pointers, and I prefer the look and tuning stability for slightly more extreme whammy action (think beck and hendrix, not vai or van halen)

As the wilkinson seems to be the standard, and my favorite bridge for sure, I would like to try to install one on the highway one body. If anybody has done this, how hard was the install? If I understand correctly (which I'm sure I do not) the outside screws just need to be widened right?
These are the two bridges I am talking about
http://www.warmoth.com/hardware/bridges ... _wilkinson
http://store.guitarfetish.com/wistsatrfial.html

If anybody has any suggestions for a six screw that would drop right in and hold up under some pressure


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Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 8:25 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2007 12:29 am
Posts: 336
Location: Puget Sound
Well I haven't done this particular swap there plenty here who are well qualified to help you.
My contribution to your project is filling the unused holes left in your guitar.
You can fill them with a small dowel rod available from most stores that sell lumber; some hardware stores and even some department stores.
Measure the screw's largest diameter at the shank (that's the part directly under the screw's head) and get a drill bit and dowel rod that same size or as close you can; SLIGHTLY larger would be ok so long as your dowel rod is the same size as your drill bit.
You will want to cut off the end of the dowel leaving a very smooth end; a hobby saw and possibly a hobby mitre box would be useful for this; they are available at hobby stores. You may wish to use some fine sandpaper on the ends as well; some sort of fixture to keep the rod at 90 degrees to the paper would help insure a nice ending on the rod.
Using a drill press would be ideal as you could control the drill's angle (relative to the guitar's top) and depth very easily; baring that using some way to control the depth of the drill bit while you drill (a piece of tape around the drill bit to show when to stop works well) go and drill out all 6 holes and wet (just a little) the dowel rod with some wood glue and gently press it into the hole(s). You can use some sort of rounded tool to press the rod home.
Try to cut the rods just as deep as you drill the holeswise so they will fit in and not go too deeply.
It would be VERY WISE to practice this on a 2"X4" or some other non-essential material.


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Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 6:11 am
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Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:57 am
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Location: Peckham: where the snow leopards roam
This is going to be an ENORMOUS post, ladies and gentlemen…

I recently wrote a big post on this exact modification, which I have done many times. I won't repeat it here, but check this thread (we haven't heard whether the gentleman went ahead with it)…

http://www.fender.com/community/forums/ ... php?t=8816

However, after you've read that, there is another crucial element which I didn't mention before because that post was already huge and I suspected he wasn't going to do the job after all.

Your bridge, Wilkinson, Hipshot or whatever, will likely come with a little diagram sheet covered in measurements. BUT. The one really important measurement is very probably not shown on that sheet, goodness knows why. In short, we need to know exactly where to drill our new post holes so that the guitar intonates properly. Where to put them?

The answer. As we know, our scale length on a Strat is 25.5 inches; 647.7 mm (I suggest millimeters are easier to work with on a job like this). That is the distance between the front of the nut and the breaking point of the top e string on its saddle - the point where string and saddle-metal part company. Somewhere along that scale length is the point where we need to drill our post holes so that the bridge ends up in the right position. Where? Try holding the posts against the bridge and measuring from the saddle to a centre-line between the two posts. You need four hands and will get a very inaccurate measurement. This is what I did the first time, got the holes too near the neck and had to have the saddles set right at the back of their range for the guitar to intonate. I got away with it by the skin of my teeth - yet my error was little over 1 mm.

So. The ace piece of advice. Take a hunk of scrap wood and drill two holes into it near the edge with a pillar drill (NOT a hand-held drill: see my other post). In itself this dry run will give you some insights into the difficulties of getting the holes the right distance apart and the right depth. Vital points.

Now assemble the bridge with the post bushings in those holes. The trem block will hang over the edge of the wood. Use a couple of old strings in the e and E saddles to hold the bridge firmly in place against the posts. Now you can make an accurate measurement of the distance parallel to the string run from the saddles (set around the middle of their range) to the centers of the posts. Digital calipers are ideal for this, but a steel rule will suffice. You will discover all kinds of nuances with this exercise and be very glad you made your mistakes on the scrap wood, not on your guitar. Heed this advice!

Now take that measurement, subtract it from the scale length and, presto, you have a number something like 640 - 641 mm. Measure this distance from the front of the nut and that is where your post holes must be drilled. Stick a piece of low tack drafting tape onto the front of the guitar and you can mark your positions onto it.

Next. Where to locate those holes to either side of the string run? A neat trick for this: take two pieces of wood, two feet long and say 1 by 1/2 inches, or similar. Place each length of wood flush to the edge of the neck so that it extends over the front of the body as far as the trem cavity. Clamp in place with G-cramps, padding the back of the guitar body so as not to mark it. The inside edges of those two pieces of timber will show you precisely where the edges of the neck would be if it extended as far as the bridge. Mark onto your drafting tape stuck on the front of the body and remove the bits of wood.

Now you can use these marks to measure to the exact centre of the string spacing, and then outwards again to where your post holes need to be drilled. Nicely logical, huh?

If you like your bridge offset so that the low E string is very slightly closer to the edge of the fingerboard than the top e, this is the point to factor in that feature. Don’t offset by more than about a millimeter, though.

Now, after you measured everything several more times, sweated a bit and took a deep breathe, you can drill your holes.

By the way, don't imagine that you are just going to enlarge the existing outer holes of your vintage bridge. You MUST fill those holes first and then drill out, and you'll find the Milliput I recommended in the other post gives you a better finish to your final hole than a dowel filler. I've tried both. (Though if you have a transparent finish on the guitar you must 3/4 fill the holes with Milliput and then cap with side-grain wood (not dowel), or it will look awful through the lacquer. See this page for how to do it: http://www.stewmac.com/tradesecrets/ts0 ... clk=108571 .)

Be sure to use a piloted drill bit, known as a brad point bit. It has a little barb in the centre of the tip which guides the bit in and gives you a beautifully clean hole. Available at any tool shop: you'll never want to use any other drill bits ever again. If your post bushings are 10 mm use a ten mil drill bit. Do not try and make do with a 13/32 inch bit: the fit won't be good enough.

Get the depth of the holes spot on, as you discovered during your dry-run. Come back to me if that goes wrong: I have advice on how to remedy. Likewise, if your post bushings don't end up absolutely snug and tight.

And please let us know how you get on!

Very best of luck - Ceri


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