The installed strings are nickel R Cocco rounds - .045 .065 .080 .100
I placed some heat shrink on the toaster and HS wiring for added protection. Loctite purple (light duty) was used on the HS screws and on the toaster. Dane Wilder's replacement harness loom is crafted extremely well,(his soldering is better than mine - super clean and accurate...he must have three hands) with CTS 250K/500K pots and switchcraft jacks and pup selector. I went without the 0047 cap. That's an easy install anyway, and I have several flavors to select if desired.
I did not change the shorter switch bat with RIC's custom longer one. The shorter one is fine, and I placed a white tip on it for fun. The stereo jack went into the body well, but the mono was a true pain. An interference fit, and the original RIC mono assembly was challenging to remove. I ended up removing the exterior jack plate to aid in the process.
RIC's replacement toaster(7.32K) and HS (10.88K) were easy to solder into Dane's perfectly arranged harness. RIC leaves plenty of ground wire from the bridge to re-attach to the treble volume pot. I placed hex flathead 4/40 screws into the bridge (thanks Jeff) to ease intonation. I discovered by playing the bass earlier, that I dropped the bridge all the way down (Hey, I'm used to Lakland!) and guesstimated using my normal tuning strobe Sonic Research ST-200, how much the saddle movement I would need to intonate once I got started. So, I was saddle cutting springs in advance. After applying Zymol while working and finishing up, I placed the new strings on to sit overnight, tuned to pitch. This morning a gave the neck rods a slight tweak. A few hours later a pulled the Peterson tuner out of its case.
One of the advantages of having the bridge bottomed out (other than the attendant low action) is that to gain access to the hex heads with an Allen driver, I just raise the bridge up, lift the string clear and move the saddle, and drop the bridge all the way back down. I had to cut more spring from the G string saddle to compensate for its 12th fret sharpness to gain more aft travel. The E and A saddles had to be reversed and more springs cut as they ran very flat. ( I surmised this back when I was just playing it out of the box). In playing position, I simply do a harmonic at the 12th fret, and then fret the note at the 12th. That said, regardless of the value of this method, I strive to intonate it, perfectly. It would be interesting to have a bass Plek'd and then check the fretboard.
I have decided I don't file string nuts often enough these days to be comfortable, so I'll call Joe Glaser and hopefully he'll dress those tomorrow and then I'll re-intonate. Lastly, I have been chatting with Jeff here and Tony and Pickguardian about a white pearloid pickguard that matches the fretboard material. But, I'm not so sure the RIC guards haven't been altered as of late, at least according to Tonys online template. I'll place some photos of the SG pickguard over his template. Anyway, it's starting to get there....
, I hope it sounds just as awesome! The toaster is a very nice touch as well!
