Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I did something stupid. I'm installing a new Schaller bridge on my 4004 Cii 4-2-5 bass. One of the bridge screws came too close to the ground wire. So before I could blast through the wire with a drill bit, I pulled the wire back into the electronics cavity for reinserting after drilling the hole.

Except in my haste I neglected to tire a thread or something to it to pull it back through. now I can only get about two inches of ground wire back into its hole before hitting something and not getting all the way through. I've made sure the bridge end of the hole is clear where the new bridge screw hole brushes against the ground wire channel. So the question I have, is the ground wire channel actually straight or do they put a curve in it at the factory? This is the last thing holding me back from playing with a new bridge - a frustrating ground wire insertion.

Off to the hardware store in the mean time to find something thin, yet stiff enough, to try and find my way through the entire channel.

An old guitar string would probably work...

What an oblivious flipping idiot I can be. Thank you for that idea! I'm only sitting here within reaching distance of a stack of strings, and sure enough, one went right through. Thank you so much, the day just got better,

These are drilled with curved drill bits, you know:

I've got one of those out in the shop. Takes a lot of skill to get it to work just right...

jingle_jangle wrote:These are drilled with curved drill bits, you know:

I figured as much. Hell, what do I know? Could've been some fancy routing between maple and walnut layers, maybe drilled from two different directions, more likely me clogging up the hole with drilling debris........

Although I'd never admit the latter.