Well, I woodshedded all day yesterday and made some progress.
Also had some setbacks, but forged ahead and conquered this beast.
I had my heart set on a Bigsby.
In hindsight I should have gone with a B5 and been done with it.
But I went with a B3 instead to get the look of the B7 without the added length, as a B7 just wouldn't fit.
I cut the hinge off the Bigsby & rounded the bottom edge, then drilled 3 mounting holes right thru the face of that sucker then screwed it right to the body with
#6 screws.
I had previously mentioned setbacks...
One just bit me in the a$$ and it was a biggie. Very little break angle from the B3 to the bridge.
Strings would have been floppin' all over the place.
So I fabricated brackets and a roller consisting of an axle and an outer rolling sleeve to put some break angle over the bridge.
It worked... Perfect amount of break angle.
Must not have had the close up focus on, but you can see the results.
And look at those huge sparkles in the finish.
Pictures don't do this finish justice. In bright sunlight it's epic!
Another setback was trying to reinstall the pickguard after adding a push pull pot to flip the phase on the middle pickup.
These bodies are quite thin and the pickguard would not sit flush.
I did some careful measuring and set my router to shave a little wood from under where the pot sits.
It took three passes each shaving off a hair, but eventually made a recess deep enough to clear the pot, without blowing a hole thru the backside.
I could now breathe a sigh of relief, so I celebrated with a few well earned beers.
Now, the full monte.
very well done!!!!
