LMI Bridge drilling jig
 

I used my new LMI bridge pin drilling template for the first time today. It's a great little jig that makes spacing and drilling bridge pin holes a snap. Check it out.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...cfc2dce3e3.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...1d517d3ce4.jpg

I am sure the LMI Bridge drilling jig is a very efficient tool , but IME some guitarists ( not most, and not many) are as fussy about the string spacing at the bridge as they are about string spacing at the nut, and for these pernickety customers the LMI jig, with is equidistant center spacing , would not be applicable.

It is, of course, the easiest thing in the world to drill the bridge for equidistant string spacing rather than equidistant string centers ... even for shops without DRO's.

Interesting. First I've heard of anyone positioning bridge pin holes for equidistant string spacing, rather than equidistant centers.

Charles, I have a dim recollection that pre-war Martins were all made with equidistant string spacing at the bridge.

My recollection may be faulty, however, and is open to correction.

Nice simple looking jig.

If one is making the same guitars all the time, I can see the advantages, I however always have a slightly different heel width on my necks, so I personally like to fit my bridge and then drill my outer E’s with reference to the string laying along fretboards edge, once I have drilled my outer E’s I simply drill the rest of the holes spacing them as I do when cutting a nut.

Steve

I took a look at LMI's catalog for this tool. Forty bucks for a toolset for one string spacing. Extra acrylic string spacing sets, thirteen bucks. So a nonprecision piece of Masonite, four screws, four blind nuts and a drill bit costs twenty-seven bucks. Eh? This tool is aimed at folks who do guitar fabrication.

I suggest that anybody who wants to use this tool buy the acrylic parts and spend a friendly twenty minutes with your bandsaw making the nonprecision base, the raw materials for which will cost a couple of bucks. The promotional video is all the instruction needed. The purchaser has to do everything but cut the Masonite base, anyway.

It’s easy to rip of someone else’s idea, whilst I have no need for it, on other situations I gladly pay the paltry 40 dollars to help support the fact someone designed and came up with it in the first place.

I have paid upwards of 10,000 dollars for a jig that I had the capability to make, however one needs to factor in their time and overheads and jobs lost to achieve the same end result. Many many times it’s not worth doing it yourself, unless your hobbying and your time is not your wage.

Steve

That's a nice jig for what it does, but I'll stick with using a fence made from whatever piece of straight scrap wood is around. The string spacing can be whatever I want it to be, I don't have to find space to store another jig, it costs much less, and it works fine.

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/quxDk5Xl.jpg[/IMG]

I use the Stewmac string spacing ruler to lay out the pin holes so it's proportional spacing.