Advice needed: anyone have experience with jazz/jag trem cavities open on the backside?

[Roemer]

Hi gentlemen/women,

A long time ago I built a guitar after becoming inspired by this forum, and it's served me well ever since.
Because I was young and an idiot (never did any woodworking before) while building it, it's very much not perfect... Some minor blemishes, first time builder mistakes & stupidities. The biggest mistake I made was accidentally making the body blank too thin. It was uncomfortably thick at first, but I fucked up and in the end it came out on the thin side. No biggie, but my plan was to put in a jazzmaster/jaguar tailpiece, and I couldn't make the cavity for the tremolo deep enough.

The problem is that I can't set it up properly: when I'm trying to balance the whole thing so I can use the trem-lock as intended, I run out of space in the cavity and the trem assembly touches the bottom wall before I can use the locking switch. I can still use the tremolo bar, but it's always bothered me that I'm missing this feature in my guitar, especially when switching tunings during a gig.

A possible fix has long been on my mind: to break out this bottom wall of the cavity entirely and give the tremolo assembly the space it needs. But I'm not sure whether this is a good idea. As of now the cavity is 3cm deep (a little under 1 3/16 inch) and I've seen 1 3/8 inch (about 3,5cm) floating around as a required depth, which is coincidentally about the thickness of the guitar itself.

Seeing as this is a pretty permanent intervention, I thought I'd ask around first.
Does anyone have experience with trem cavities that are open on the backside? Do you think this might pose a problem? The only thing I can think of right now is possibly bumping in to the trem accidentally from the backside.

At the same time, I suppose I could always dial back the tremolo with the spring to where it sits right now and cover up the hole with some scratchplate material.

Thank you all!

[oid]

No, no problems putting the cavity through the body, all you need to do is drill a hole for the spring, no need to do the entire cavity.

Only possible issue is if the bod.y is real thin you would stab yourself with the trem spring every time you dive bombed, but your skin will toughen up and your trem will function. You likely will not have issue here though it will maybe tap you on a deep dive, but that is about it.

Suppose you can also look for a stiffer but shorter spring to avoid running a hole through.

[hpr_hpr]

AND . . . if you are worried about the open cavity, cut a nice decorative design of appropriate size from a plate of 1/32 or so (annodized) aluminum and use that as a cover (use something like 1/8" #4 round head phillips screws to attach it).

[Sonichris]

No, no problems putting the cavity through the body, all you need to do is drill a hole for the spring, no need to do the entire cavity.

The spring is stationary. It’s the collet and arm that touch the bottom in a case like this.

Early in my guitar modding past, I had a router bit that walked its way out during a trem route, and I ended up going all the way through the body. I made a plate out of pickguard plastic shaped like the trem plate on top, and covered it that way. It worked fine.

[oid]

The spring is stationary. It’s the collet and arm that touch the bottom in a case like this.

It is indeed, not sure what I was thinking there, thanks for assist.

[timtam]

Do it. Cover with a strat back plate.

[kimson]

I'd say any problems are purely aesthetic. A while back, I routed a through-body cavity to a kit guitar body that was a bit too thin for a normal cavity.

I was also planning on cutting a cover for the cavity from a leftover Strat backplate, but we'll see if I ever get around to actually doing it...

I could post a few photos, but I'm not liking any of the ad-infested hosting services - anyone know if Instagram images can be embedded here?

[Roemer]

Thanks for your replies guys!

I'm going to go for it today, you have assured me that there's probably no issue.

Thinking about it a little more, I expect that the collet/arm will only stick out behind the guitar when I really push down on the trem, and I don't really use it that heavily anyway.

Might make a cover for it too further down the line.

On an unrelated note, I have been loving rediscovering this forum! I used to lurk here years ago and this place inspired me to build this guitar, something I never would have thought was in my reach. Thank you all.

[601210]

I'd say any problems are purely aesthetic. A while back, I routed a through-body cavity to a kit guitar body that was a bit too thin for a normal cavity.

I was also planning on cutting a cover for the cavity from a leftover Strat backplate, but we'll see if I ever get around to actually doing it...

I could post a few photos, but I'm not liking any of the ad-infested hosting services - anyone know if Instagram images can be embedded here?

You could probably share an Instagram link, but I personally haven't had a problem with Imgur.