RAD -- Fast Guitars LP Kit Build

[RestorationAD]

Another look at the nut slot and trussrod access. Very clean. You could easily run without a trussrod cover.

 

[Tom Drinkwater]

Impressive.

 

[RestorationAD]

Checking the thickness of the top at the control cavity. As you can see no need for long shaft pots.





Weird angle but I wanted to show how much wood was left by looking into the control holes.

 

[RestorationAD]

Plenty of room for a full size regular pot, mini push/pull, or a Bourns vintage premium.






The import 3 way switch had some space to wobble but I have full sized Switchcraft LP switch on the way the I know will fit tight.

 

[RestorationAD]

And a little character for me.

 

[RestorationAD]

Time to test hardware fit. Here we have a Gotoh bridge and an Economy Tailpiece from ALLPARTS.

Gotoh Metric TOM and an economy Tailpiece.

 

[RestorationAD]

The bushings for the Economy tailpiece are large. The holes in the body would have to be made bigger. Bushings are .475 and the holes are around .433 . While not impossible to do with a hand drill I would definitely rather use a drill press for this operation. The tailpiece does seem to line up well enough.

 

[RestorationAD]

The Gotoh bridge lines up perfect. At .438 the bushings fit much closer though still too tight to just pres them in. I would need to expand the hole one drill size to make them fit easy enough.

 

[RestorationAD]

The Gotoh bushing fit the tailpiece holes the same as the tom holes. So I would assume a Gotoh tailpiece should be fine.

 

[RestorationAD]

Since I was testing the fit I went and grabbed some vintage metric posts I have had since the 80s to see how they fit.


All the vintage Japanese hardware fit like the Gotoh or better.

 

[RestorationAD]

And the economy tailpiece with the vintage bushings fit perfect

 

[RestorationAD]

The large bushing Tone Pros hardware fits perfect. It is drop in no drilling fit.

 

[RestorationAD]

Needless to say we are using Tone Pros on this build. So I decided to test the Tone-Pros Klusons as well. They looked the part.

 

[RestorationAD]

 

[RestorationAD]

The slanted Bone Nut from ALLPARTS needs a little trim to fit the slot. I think the LP nut would fit perfect. This is a generic martin style I had lying around. In the picture you will see it is larger than the 1/4" file from Stew Mac. Probably just cut my own from stock.

 

[RestorationAD]

Stew Mac .25 file fits the slot perfect

 

[RestorationAD]

Black Metal Curved pickup rings from ALLPARTS. The fit is not ideal. If I was going to use them I would have to put a piece of sandpaper on the top and sand them to match.

 

[RestorationAD]

Also looked at the regular plastic pickup rings as well. The back one fit better but the front still had gaps.


I do not think it is the carve causing the poor fit but the inconsistent pickup rings.

 

[RestorationAD]

The curve on the top is really nice.

 

[RestorationAD]

A Metal Electrosocket Tele cup from ALLPARTS fits right in the hole for the input jack.