Piezo trem question

[dan desy]

Is the vintage trem bridge on an Axis w/piezo different from a non-piezo one?
Are there holes to route the piezo conductors, for instance?

 

[beej]

Ooh! Thinking about installing another piezo Dan?

 

[dan desy]

Yep! For some reason, I keep selling my piezo guitars... So I'm now piezo-less.
I'm thinking my Axis RW would be the ideal guitar to convert. I'm just wondering how I'll route the saddle conductors.

 

[beej]

Nice! Good luck with the project - I'm sure you'll come up with a tidy way of putting it all together!

 

[dan desy]

I'm going to route out the battery compartment like you did (that was you, right?).
But the saddle conductors, I'm still not sure.

I'm hoping that the bridge is all ready for that, but I can't look at it right now.

 

[beej]

Yeah, that was me. I did it with a Dremel, but there are <ahem> safer <ahem> ways of doing it. (Like, for example, not finishing it in a rush at night with a flashlight ... but I digress.) I had a battery jack template around (you can get them from Stewmac or make them) and it was invaluable for routing it without incident.

If there isn't already a channel for the wires, you could probably drill one under the bridge body (e.g. the top of the guitar covered by the bridge) near the posts, so there isn't any weight from the bridge on the wires. Probably go through to the cavity underside where the springs are, then one hole to the control cavity or something like that.

Would be neat to know where they put the wires. I had one up close once (non trem), but it never occured to me to look at that ...