wild.joz
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2008
- Messages
- 1,934
Thanks to a fellow LPFer, I got hold of a set of 2" 6/32 nickel brass posts to "mapleflame" my almost brand new 2011 R8. Living in France, we only have metric stuff here...
The guitar was perfectly fine, and sounding great, but being how I am, I knew it could be better. :fc
To make a long story short, I know it's been said before, but BE VERY VERY VERY careful when installing those brass posts. I carefully rounded the ends with a dremel so they were smooth, made sure all the threads were clean, waxed the hell out of them, pilot drilled the exisiting holes in the guitar with a 2,5mm fresh drillbit, drove the posts a quarter of a turn at a time (took forever!). Only thing I didn't do was to thread the holes as I can't find a 6/32 tap over here.
I started with the treble side, turning carefully the posts in, it went pretty smoothly in the expected 1 1/2 inch. Not sure it bottomed out, there might be a millimeter or two still left.
Moved to the bass side, same scenario. Why I hate myself is because the post went in about 1 1/2 inch, but my fucking brain though "one extra turn couldn't hurt" (in french we say something like "better is the enemy of good"). Sure enough, without a warning, the damned post snapped right off, flush with the top of the guitar. Leaving behing just under one millimeter of post exposed, impossible to grab with a plier (even the small ones).
Now I don't even know if I'll ever be able to "unscrew" the 1 1/2 inches of brass rod that's in the body of the guitar. I'm looking around to see if I can find a small enough "screw extractor" but I doubt I will, and doubt it will work if I find one.
I thought about cleanly cutting a small slot on top of the post to try to unscrew with a jewelers screwdriver, but my bet is that it will just make the post collapse...
It leaves me with the option of drilling the post with a metal bit, but that's something I'd like to avoid as much as possible.
Ideas welcome...
Holy crap, I guess if someone took a picture of my face when the rod snapped, it'd be worth framing it. I thought I was going to pass out!!!
One last time:
BE VERY CAREFUL WITH BRASS POSTS
P.S. : good thing I have another LP to keep playing, otherwise I'd be totally... screwed!
The guitar was perfectly fine, and sounding great, but being how I am, I knew it could be better. :fc
To make a long story short, I know it's been said before, but BE VERY VERY VERY careful when installing those brass posts. I carefully rounded the ends with a dremel so they were smooth, made sure all the threads were clean, waxed the hell out of them, pilot drilled the exisiting holes in the guitar with a 2,5mm fresh drillbit, drove the posts a quarter of a turn at a time (took forever!). Only thing I didn't do was to thread the holes as I can't find a 6/32 tap over here.
I started with the treble side, turning carefully the posts in, it went pretty smoothly in the expected 1 1/2 inch. Not sure it bottomed out, there might be a millimeter or two still left.
Moved to the bass side, same scenario. Why I hate myself is because the post went in about 1 1/2 inch, but my fucking brain though "one extra turn couldn't hurt" (in french we say something like "better is the enemy of good"). Sure enough, without a warning, the damned post snapped right off, flush with the top of the guitar. Leaving behing just under one millimeter of post exposed, impossible to grab with a plier (even the small ones).
Now I don't even know if I'll ever be able to "unscrew" the 1 1/2 inches of brass rod that's in the body of the guitar. I'm looking around to see if I can find a small enough "screw extractor" but I doubt I will, and doubt it will work if I find one.
I thought about cleanly cutting a small slot on top of the post to try to unscrew with a jewelers screwdriver, but my bet is that it will just make the post collapse...
It leaves me with the option of drilling the post with a metal bit, but that's something I'd like to avoid as much as possible.
Ideas welcome...
Holy crap, I guess if someone took a picture of my face when the rod snapped, it'd be worth framing it. I thought I was going to pass out!!!
One last time:
BE VERY CAREFUL WITH BRASS POSTS
P.S. : good thing I have another LP to keep playing, otherwise I'd be totally... screwed!