Official Luthiers Forum!

hi,

"lil bess" is a custom resto-mod project that i'm working on and while prepping the surface for paint, i noticed that the screw holes (as seen in this picture) for the "float plate" [is that the correct nomenclature?] were not aligned. will that negatively affect a.) tonality or b.) playability? also, these screw holes went clear through into the pickup/wiring cavity in the front-side of the guitar. :faints:

my question is: other than looking bad, does this affect the output tone? (i'm leaning towards drilling them out and filling them with a dowel rod and re-drilling fresh holes with a long drill bit.)




http://lilbess.blogspot.com

thanks,
shad

I have seen them like that before. I doubt they will have much effect on tone one way or the other. I don't even think it has any real effect on playability as far as the tremolo is concerned. As long as the cover fits I'd say it was ok.

_________________
Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

thanks, brian.
let me ask a further question ... are float plate screw holes standard in positioning or am i going to have to wait until i buy one to know if the holes will line up?

Shad - Fender (and others) do it all the time.
Ain't no thang, man.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

thanks, everyone.

by the way, are floating plate screw holes standard positioning regardless of brand?

They are all copying Fender.
By the way, it's called a vibrato - not a float plate, and the screw holes are for the spring claw.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

thanks and thank you so much for the correction! i really like to speak intelligently on topics when i discuss them and ironically, i did look for a schematic with the proper nomenclature, but for some reason, wasn't able to find one ... so i head to result almost to nearly saying "that silver thing"! LoL

cheers!

We all have to start somewhere, ya know.

When I had my repair shop, I heard a lot of wrong names for stuff.
A kid came in and wanted "his aperture adjusted".... he meant his truss rod.
Another kid wanted a "screaming bar" installed on his guitar.... he meant a Floyd Rose.
You just chuckle and drive on.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

that's pretty funny. thanks for your patience ... including with my horrible grammatical error i just noticed in your quote of mine ... "head"!?? LoL

cheers!