Fender Strat Pickup hole size?

[tremoloman***]

tremoloman, I will look into the Callaham block do you remember how much he charged for one block? Also please ask your father what I might be able to do with a broken 1/16th high speed drill bit. Maybe I can chase it with a cabide drill. Ya know I can't say what to expect changing to a steel block but I can just imagine how it would tighten up some of the sound and give more sustain. At least that is what I hope it will do. I am new to this stuff again after many years so I will have to try it out.

Thanks again for your kind words and help.

No problem! That's what we're here for!

Bill charged me the regular price for an American replacement block. I think it was $60 if I'm not mistaken. These things are super high quality and are well worth the price tag they command.

I emailed my father about the block you've been working on. I'll reply back with his response as soon as I hear back from him. I'm guessing he's got a plan that will let you keep the nice block you have built for your Squier.

This is pure specualtion on my part, but have you considered drilling out the broken bit using a smaller drill bit? If you can reduce the amount of mass inside the bit, it may become weak and collapse enough to make removal easier. I could eb completely wrong also, so don't take my idea as gospel.

[tremoloman***]

Ok, here's the official reply from my father:

• Drill a hole from the opposite side if possible. Just as the drill breaks through to the "broken drill", stop!

• Knock the broken drill out with a drift punch or a small nail.

If it doesn't matter, he could use a larger drill that would give him a larger diameter to work with.

You've heard it from the horse's mouth!

[warren0728]

I am curious as to what you mean by burn the edges on the decal? Can you explain how that works?

a popular technique in the 70's was to burn the edges of photographs and such for decoupage or other applications. They would use a candle, lighter whatever and set fire to the edges (small areas at a time) and then blow the fire out. The effect was that of a photograph that had been in a fire but only the edges got burned....i'll try and find some examples on the web....

ww

[SuperSwede]

I think that Photoshop has a built in effect that can do this...

[warren0728]

true, i thought that if he actually used the burning method it would effectivly reduce the thickness of the emblem on the edges and make for sa smoother transition from guitar to emblem...

ww

[M29]

Hello warren0728,

I see what you mean now. This decal is some sort of vinyl or something, I wish it was a water slide like the old days like on our cars and such. I may be able to cut it like that and then use my airbrush around the edge to make it look burnt with some dark brown and black paint. I won't be able to bury this into the paint with clear or anything it is too thick. They aren't very expensive so I should maybe pickup another in case the edges start curling up or something.

Thanks for the tip.

Ya know I just thought of something SuperSwede that may work in Photoshop. I could scan the sticker and print it out on some of the new pritable decal sheets for ink jet printers. This would make it much thinner and I could do the edges in Photoshop. That may work.

Thanks again guys.

M29

[SuperSwede]

Thats what I thought you were planning to do.. there are a quite a few different decal plastics available for inkjets.

[Tinky-Winky]

I'd definitely try to drill it out. However, I've read that cobalt drill bits can drill out broken normal bits, in which case all you'd need to do it drill it out from the top.

[M29]

Hello All,

Well...I got ambitious and finished up my trem block for my Squier Strat... I picked up a cobalt drill bit and thought I would try that first. It would not cut into the broken high speed steel bit and ended up getting dull pretty fast. I then heated the area including the broken bit with my cutting torch to a cherry red state hoping it would take out the temper in the broken bit but it did not. I tried drilling again with no luck. I let the block cool slowly to not create any stress in the steel block. I thought well it is time to get drastic
and decided to cut a thin slot in from the side deep enough to reach the broken bit and get it out. Once I got in far enough, I then welded the slot up, heated the block again to release any stress the welding might have caused and redrilled the hole and ground the weld on the ouside flush.
I hope to disassemble the guitar again to change strings and do a few other things and install the block and see what it sounds like. This block is a bit thicker and heavier, (I planned it this way) and I hope it has enough room to move.

Here are some images.



The one hole next to the weld has a little weld in the opening but the string end goes through okay. I may end up filing this to make it look better but it does function okay, the problem is my small round file is wore out

I painted this with Krylon Camo spray rattle can and it is the tan color, ( I have tested black but it was not as good as the tan color, don't know why...). I have found this to be an very good primer for bare metal. I may finish up with black but it does not get seen anyway so I may leave it as is.

I hope this helps some. Sometimes things need drastic measures to get fixed. At lease now I have a steel block to try out in my Chicom Strat.

M29