Arrrgh
When we discussed the string-through body design implied by the bridge I bought, Heinz said: “Handwerkliche Herausforderung: Die Löcher für die Saiten durch den Body ordentlich hinzubekommen”
Reflecting upon his words had a lot to do with ignorance on my end. Check out the resources down below showing how it’s done right. Now, here’s me butchering the task…
Those are some serious battle scars…
As you can see, I ended up cutting out all my previous attempts. This left a huge gash in the body, which is covered by the bridge on the top side of the guitar. On the back I routed a cavity for a cover using a p90 pickup template. To fit the string ferrules, I drilled holes into this cover, which was made from skate wood leftovers.
The resulting line of ferrules is a bit tilted due to the alignment of the gash. While the back cover itself looks almost intentional, it’s a fairly messy fix functionality wise. The gash makes it difficult to thread strings through the body quickly. I might add in some pieces of hollow bamboo later, to help guide strings from ferrule to the correct hole on the bridge.
Damn.
This was the most impactful fuckup of my build, which was again fuelled by impatience. My only advice to anyone attempting ferrule holes is to take the time and do several practise runs on junkwood until you feel confident. Let the above images remind you that you don’t want to screw this up.
