hi13ts Posted January 11, 2019 Share Posted January 11, 2019 Hi friends, Just installed a trapeze tailpiece on my ES 333. Been a fan of that look since saw Trent Reznor play the 2013 Studios on tour that year (I know, unlikely player to think of when it comes to 335s). Thought the juxtaposition of his digital onslaught with the inherent vintage vibe of a 335 with a trapeze was the coolest thing. To my surprise, it plays and sounds great with the trapeze. Tuning is actually very stable, not much different than with the stop tail. I was certain that the floating trapeze would impact my tone, sustain, and tuning, but so far, it's been excellent all around. The last thing I have left is to relocate the ground wire from the stop bar studs to the ABR-1. I tried pulling the ground wire out of the maple block but it's not moving. I'm not very familiar with how to ground the guitar, but I see that wire is soldered onto the neck volume pot. My question is if it's possible to attach another a new wire to the neck volume pot and route it up to the ABR-1 instead of trying to finagle the existing wire out of the center block. I think this would be the easiest way. If so, should I look for a particular wire size? Please let me know what you think. Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaicho8888 Posted January 13, 2019 Share Posted January 13, 2019 My memory is failing on me. I think the ground wire usually goes to the end of the trapeze mount where the strap button is screwed. The vintage bridge sometimes have plastic saddles and if it's grounded to the ABR-1 machine post, it will not work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hi13ts Posted January 13, 2019 Author Share Posted January 13, 2019 You're absolutely right, kaicho, I was mistaken. I ended up drilling two holes near the strap pin, one with a broken drill bit forever stuck in there, and the other reaching into the inner cavity to route the ground wire out. It is finally a success and the trapeze masks the holes. The question now is how do I cover up the stop bar holes? I was thinking of finding wood veneer stickers finished in cherry or red, but am having a hard time finding it. I realize that finding the exact matching shade of red may be impossible, but I haven't been able to find wood stickers that come close. I am currently resorting to using red label dots. I had some black soot (it's not soot, I'm think it's some sort of colored fairy or chalk dust. It came with an album as an artistic component) that I rubbed on it and it's fades okay. Not great, but will work for now. Has anyone worked on filling those stop bar holes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.