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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on February 7, 2011 at 12:51pm

Yes, you want to use something like that to keep the strings from cutting into the wood. You can search for ferrules or eyelets. You can also use rivets from the hardware store with the shaft tapped out of them.

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Permalink Reply by Jason W. on February 10, 2011 at 3:25pm

I encountered the same curiosity on my first build. I took some old .22 caliber shells I had sitting around and drilled a hole into the back end of them (where the primer would be on a .357 or shotgun shell). I tapped them into the holes and used them as eyelets to keep the strings from biting into the wood over time. Not the prettiest, but they seem to work. With a little doctoring, they could be made to look alright, I think.

Make sure the rounds are fired first. I don't know what setting an open cartridge primer off with a drill would be like...and I don't think I wanna find out.

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Permalink Reply by Bluesdog on February 10, 2011 at 9:14pm

Ball ends from old strings should work just fine, just cut them of the old strings and place them in the hole, thread your string trough there and it won't cut into the wood.

 

Just make sure that you drill your stringholes are barely large enough for the string to pass trough so you can use a sligtly larger drillbit that's exactly the same size as the ball-end and drill that in a little on the back of the stringhole so it sits flush with the underside of the neck.

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Permalink Reply by Mungo Park on February 11, 2011 at 4:26am

I have used a small rod, i use welding rods as I have a bunch an tey are cheap.

 I cut a mall slot in front of the string hols and the tension of the strings holds it in place, qick and easy, then the strings are resting on the rod and not the wood .     Cheers Ron

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Permalink Reply by Mark Werner on February 11, 2011 at 5:07am

No end of ideas; another approach is to use a piece of flat stock, aluminum or brass, screwed to the end of the tail-piece.

drill small holes in same for the strings to go through...

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Permalink Reply by Bad Finger (Eric) on February 11, 2011 at 9:13am

I used a small piece of angle aluminum I had left over from a R/C Rock Crawler project.  I had a slight redo since the pic below was taken.  I took a bit of stock of the tailpiece so the angle Al was flush with the top.  It helped with string pressure on the bridge.  I've also used something different for a bridge since taking that pic.

 

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Permalink Reply by Brendan deVallance on February 11, 2011 at 9:29am

The real thing is referred to as a ferrule. I bought some on ebay and they were not expensive. But i havent used them yet. I have used a hinge plate. Those are things you can find laying about the garage. —B

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Permalink Reply by BT Cohosh on February 11, 2011 at 10:16am

I've used the rivet-shaft approach as well as improvising a fret-like arrangement just upstream of the holes with a piece of stainless-steel wire (salvaged from a bicycle spoke).

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Permalink Reply by Kel Wilson on February 11, 2011 at 3:52pm

My first build I used a rolled steel pin.   found loose a Ace hardware.

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Permalink Reply by Outhouse Instruments on February 13, 2011 at 3:10am

I just put a piece of fretwire right in front of the holes.

 

AFKAM

 

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