Warmoth Nocaster Build: THE DRILL...

Here it is - one of the most nerve racking things I've had to do to a guitar.

Holes need to be drilled. This should be no big deal, but for some reason, I was really nervous about screwing this up (no pun intended). Hopefully, since you are reading this, you won't be. After I went for it and came out unscathed, it really was no big deal. Just Do It!

So for the control plate and the pick guard, I left the bridge in place, and put the control plate and pickguard on the guitar. I wiggled them around a little until they looked pretty symmetrical, and marked the holes with a pencil. I'm sure the factory workers at Fender did something similar. These ARE production guitars after all!

The tuners were the same way. Warmoth drills the holes for your tuners to fit through already. You'll have to put them all in place, make sure they are in line, and mark the holes for the little screw on the back of each tuner.

Strap buttons were a little more interesting. I started with the bottom one here because it was easier. What i did was measure the height of the body (as it is laying on it's back), divided by two, and marked the guitar in pencil. Then I took a straight edge and squared it up to the bridge plate, aligned it with the middle of the middle adjustment screw, and marked the top of the guitar indicating center of the body. Then I took a straight edge on the bottom of the guitar and marked that center line across my previous mark. This is where I drilled my hole.

Make sure your drill is in line by running a long straight edge down the center of your guitar and look over it as you drill.

I used white felts in between the strap buttons and the body. I had these laying around, but you can buy them cheap from StewMac in black or white.

The top button was a little trickier - I just had to eyeball where to place this one since there is no symmetrically to the shoulder here. Use the "look over a straight edge as you drill trick" here, too. Line it up to be in line with the bridge. You don't want this button to be crooked. It'll be very obvious.

Not bad, eh?

Here's a useful tip - measure the end of your screw against your drill bit and put a piece of tape around it to mark your spot. This way, when you reach the depth you want, you'll see your tape flag brush away all the sawdust from your drilling area and you'll know to stop.

For any of you out there who are unfamiliar with Dunlop's StapLok system, here's a few pictures to explain.

You push the button on the strap as you put the end of it into your guitar's button, and then let go of it. It should be locked in place then! Yay! No more worries! I am addicted to these things. I retrofitted all of my electrics and basses with these. It's really nice on my Flying V and my Thunderbird. If you have one, you probably know why.

All done! almost...

My daughter Nola helped me out on this next step

Hard to capture on film, but I started rounding over a few edges on the pick guard. I was afraid I'd cut myself on the sharp 90 degree angle on that new bakelite. Ouch!

Here, I'm lining up the bigsby. Talk about scary! I'd never owned a bigbsy before, let alone installed one! I consulted my expert, Mark, over at Bronson Guitar Works in Scottsdale, AZ. They do all of my setups, and have done good work for me in the past. He calmed my nerves about this process and I got back to work. Don't sweat the small stuff!

According to Mark, the trick is to center the bigsby on the bridge, and make sure it's square to the bridge. The rest is esthetics. Here, I've already marked the middle of the bar with sharpie (line this up with the middle screw of the bridge), and I'm checking to make sure I'm square. Don't trust your eye - use a ruler! The tremolo arm will throw you off!