Tele/Hardtail Nickel Vintage Spec. String Ferrules
Paint the guitar last and you will avoid chipping the paint. At least drill the body first. You can push the ferrules in after painting.
Here's a reprint of what I posted in another thread about my experience. I was converting a affinity tele so I used a std tele bridge....
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here's a description of what I did and what I should have done.
The Affinity Bridge was the same size and the location of the string bridges were the same as the std tele bridge that I used. So here's what I did.
1) Remove old bridge and place masking tape over the front and rear locations.
2) Put old bridge back on and mark around it with a pencil. This gives me the location to place the new bridge on. If your new bridge is a different size then measure and mark the tape so the new bridge has the individual string bridges at the same location of the old.
3) Remove the old bridge and place the new bridge in the correct location. Mark the holes for drilling the new mounting screws. The masking tap should be in these locations so it can be marked easily.
4) Drill the new mounting holes and mount the new bridge. Clean up and remove tape now. Put a little soap on the mounting screws so they don't bind while putting them in.
5) Remove the string bridges if you haven't already (for the last step) so you can drill the string-thru holes.
NOTE: this is where I messed up. If you don't have a drill press then it's hard to make sure you drill a perfectly vertical hole. In my typical bull in a china shop fashion I just drilled all 6 string-thru holes and they weren't perfectly aligned on the other side. This is one of my cosmetic problems. So the next step is what I recommend instead of what I did...
6) If you don't have a drill press for perfect alignment and you are doing it by hand like me then.... Only drill the two outter string thru holes all the way thru with the same small bit you used for the screws. Drill the remaining interior 4 holes only deep enough to make it to the string ferrules. IOW about 3/8" short of all the way.
7) Flip the guitar over and put masking tap over the two string holes. Then draw a straight line between the holes. Measure equal spacing for the interior 4 holes and drill them about 1/2-1" deep. If you are lucky they will meet the holes from the other side.
8) Drill the string ferrule holes using the other holes as starting points. Use a scrap peice of wood to make sure the bit size matches the ferrule snug tight.
9) You should be done but the string through holes may not match. You should be able to see this in the string ferrule hole if you drilled deep enough from the other side. If you completely missed the mark then you should of used a press. Nah you can;t be that bad at lining up. The thru holes may not match exactly, but they should be close. You should be able to use the small string thru drill bit to route the hole and make them come together enough so that the string goes thru when restringing.
10) Push in the ferrules and you're ready to restring.
NOTE: the last cosmetic mistake I made is fixed by putting masking tape on the back of the guitar before drilling. This prevents paint from chipping around the drill. This is important when drilling the 1/4" string ferrules. I chipped paint on two ferrules before I stopped and put the tap on. Tape before drilling is a good motto.
Anyway so mine has ferrules that aren't exactly in a straight line and a couple small paint chips. But it's solely cosmetic and it sounds great.
