Bigsby on a Tele!

I got a great job to do recently; installation of a Bigsby tailpiece on a Tele.  A nice young guy brought me the instrument advising me that he intended to do the work himself but on second thought, was over his head.  I told him I'd take on the challenge. 
I removed the strings and looked over the parts to be installed.  The original bridge is mounted on the bridge pickup plate with the upturned lip to hold the infamous bridge cover, nick-named the ashtray.  Most guys removed them and used them as ashtrays, hence the nick-name origin.
The original bridge plate had to be replaced to accommodate the new bridge, which was very similar to the Gibson Tuneamatic bridge.  The new bridge mounts on two bushings pressed into the body.
The first critical task was to drill the two holes to position the bridge bushings.  The bushing holes would have to be exactly positioned, allowing the bridge to be perfectly lined up with the rest of the string travel.  There is no room for error; if it were off, the vibrato operation could be compromised.  When the vibrato is used, the tailpiece bar tilts forward, allowing the strings to slack pitch and return to the neutral position when released, returning the strings to their exact pitch (in theory).  The bridge bushings are exposed under the two holes in the bridge/pickup plate.  I used the plate to mark the spots I had to drill out for the bushings.  After taking my measurements, I made the customary sign of the cross, and used a brad point drill in the drill press to drill into the body.  I marked the drill bit carefully to show how deep I had to go to accommodate the bushings.  As I said, there is no room for error, as the bridge rocks back and forth with the vibrato action also so it must be perfectly in line with everything.  I used a drill bit one size below of the bushings so they would press in nice and tight.  I used a wood block and small hammer in lieu of an arbor press and carefully tapped the bushings home.  Next, I dropped the bridge into the bushings to test their position.  The bridge feet went down into place but tightly.  Not good, as the bridge must "float" in the bushings freely to work correctly.  One of the two holes was off ever so slightly.  Now I had to fashion a hardwood dowel to plug the incorrect hole and fill it and start all over with the measurements.  The hole was off ever so slightly.  I re-drilled the new hole and re-fitted the bushing.  I dropped the bridge back in their bushings and this time it floated freely as it should.  Good Bridge!  The dowel around the bushing would not be exposed to the eye, being surrounded by the bridge plate.  That part done, it was time for a break before continuing.
The next step was to mark the place to drill four holes to mount the vibato tailpiece.  Again, the measurements were critical.  I laid the tailpiece in the approximate area.  The installation kit came with a length of thin string and the idea is to tie the string to the low E string post on the tailpiece, run it up the neck to the low E string tuner, over to the high E string tuner, and back down to the tailpiece to the high E string post on the tailpiece.  This allowed me to watch the two strings on each edge of the fingerboard and align the tailpiece till the strings were perfectly parallel.  Keeping everything as tight as possible, I wiggled the tailpiece about till everything was straight and marked my spots to drill the tailpiece mounting holes in the body.  After drilling the four small mounting holes, I screwed the tailpiece onto the body.  Using the strings, I re-checked my alignment.  Nice; everything lined up straight.  The string trick was a great idea.  Bigsby thinks of everything! 
Lastly, I had to mount the bridge pickup on the new plate and screw it down to the body.  Next, came the strings.  The customer preferred Ernie Ball Regular Slinkys.  After stringing it up, I proceeded to setting the intonation and string height on the new bridge.  The neck never changed position and no adjustment was performed.  I stood back and looked.  Everything looked as though it came from the factory that way.  I played it a bit to see how it felt and reacted before trying the vibrato action.  It all performed normally so I plugged it in and cranked it up.  It seemed pretty darn nice, but a couple strings were reluctant to return to pitch when applying the vibrato.  I made some slight adjustments to the nut slot and applied some nut lube to the slots.  Bingo;  perfecto-mundo!  I contacted the customer then had myself a nice cold beer!

Happy Twanging, all!