Fitting Ashtrays to a 51 P Bass

[Old Horse Murphy]

I've decided to fit the chrome pickup covers to one o fmy 51 P basses and need a bit of advice on placement (are there any templates or measurements available?) and also how to stop the painwork getting damaged when I drill the hole.

Any help woul dbe much appreciated

[icastle]

[quote name='Old Horse Murphy' post='1334909' date='Aug 10 2011, 01:01 PM']I've decided to fit the chrome pickup covers to one o fmy 51 P basses and need a bit of advice on placement (are there any templates or measurements available?) and also how to stop the painwork getting damaged when I drill the hole.[/quote]

Placement can probably be done 'by eye' - I've not seen any templates floating around.

If I'm drilling into a guitar I tend to use a strip of masking tape and mark the precise placement on that - the matt surface removes all risk of the drill bit scooting off in an unwanted direction when it hits a shiny surface.

[spinynorman]

I fitted the bridge cover on mine by feel, that is, if nothing is touching the bridge, that's it. I felt very pleased with myself for quite a long time, until someone pointed out I'd put it on the wrong way round. And I'd spent ages looking at pictures and was convinced I'd done it right. I still think the right way round looks ugly.

[Delberthot]

From memory the pickup one is almost but not actually touching the scratchplate and the bridge one is almost at the end of the body. Usually a bit of masking tape over the paintwork but if you use a small drill its not going to chip anything

[Pow_22]

spineynorman - im about to fit a p bass bridge cover. Do you mean the cover should be touching the bridge i.e pushed up against it?

[hillbilly deluxe]

The cover should not contact the bridge at all.

[4 Strings]

Surprised it doesn't have the holes, did it not come with the ashtrays?

Tape and a braddle to make the holes. Easier to avoid disaster than with a drill with such small holes.

Look up pics on Google and find references for position.

Some here:http://www.bass-guitar-museum.com/bass-14584-1951-51-Reissue-Fender-Precision-P-Bass

[KiOgon]

[quote name='4 Strings' post='1358018' date='Aug 31 2011, 08:28 PM']Surprised it doesn't have the holes, did it not come with the ashtrays?

Tape and a [size=3][color="#FF0000"]braddle[/color][/size] to make the holes. Easier to avoid disaster than with a drill with such small holes.

Look up pics on Google and find references for position.

Some here:http://www.bass-guitar-museum.com/bass-14584-1951-51-Reissue-Fender-Precision-P-Bass[/quote]
That'll be a 'bradawl' a sharp pointy thing with a handle, used for making holes

[4 Strings]

That's the one, thanks case of being really tired and tried all sorts of other wrong spellings before settling on that one. Embarrassed but just seemed using a drill rather over kill for starting off such little screws.