Sick String Guitar Repair

Problem solving\serenity prayer

Made it another round

RIP all you 2025 tours. See you next year.

Jesse accepts his fate

File under things I don't love to do on the road: this Tele thinline just got converted from a string through hard tail to Bigsby B5 with a jazz\jag style thimble bridge mounted straight into the body. This stuff gives me some anxiety even in the shop where I can lay everything out accurately, use a drill press to make sure my holes are square to the body, and so on. Doing it by hand, in low light, on the side of the stage, before a show was not my favorite.

3 bolt neck, with a little bit of wiggle room in the pocket, so it was hard for me to really trust that I was establishing the right centerline. Although the conversation plate that came with the Bigsby kit fit the existing 3 screw hole pattern for the original hard tail, the intonation point didn't match up when the conversion plate was mounted. After doing my best to lay out center on the guitar, bridge plate, nut, and neck, I used the conversion plate as a template to align the holes for the bridge thimbles with the correct intonation line, convinced myself I'd done my due diligence in measuring, crossed my fingers and zapped some holes in the body. After getting the bridge mounted I could clamp the Bigsby to the guitar, string up the outside Es, and drill for the Bigsby. I've done Bigsby installs with the included string for layout, but sometimes I feel more convinced about my placement when I see a real string on the guitar.

Luckily it came together decently. I tried to place the intonation point right in the middle of the new bridge so there's room to adjust both sharp and flat, and it worked out. I can barely draw a straight line without a guide, so I always second guess myself on these operations. Thankfully the margin for error is a teeny bit forgiving, so I ended up looking like I know what I'm doing.

John played it for about 2 songs at sound check then went straight into the show with it as his main guitar and we haven't gone back in the past 2 shows. Special thanks to for the advice. Exhale.