Another little update with this guy...
The electronics inside the guitar have always rattled around a bit, annoying the hell out of me. Then today the battery holder decided to work itself loose & swing around inside the body. I never plug this thing in so figured the time was right to do something about it.
After removing the strings I realised I could reach in & unplug the battery cable from the PCB. The same was possible with the cable leading to the pickup. So, once that was done all I had to do was work these 2 things loose.
They'd actually drilled through one of the braces to attach this...
...and glued this one to the body...
Fortunately it all came out with little resistance. The controls, glued into the inside of the soundhole, peeled off really easily...
I had a thin shim in my parts box, possibly mahogany, I don't know, but it was an identical colour to the guitar. I sliced it into 4 even strips, glued them together & they dropped nicely into the bridge slot to compensate for the loss of height caused by the pickup removal.
Finally I sorted out the unsightly hole left behind by the strap button/jack input. I had an ebony strap button that came with the bridge pin set. I just had to modify a rubber grommet slightly & pushed them both in together...
It's a tight fit so I may leave it like that. Alternatively I could do what I did with an older guitar, inserting a wallplug & actually screwing a strap button in. I never use a strap for this guitar though so will probably leave it as-is. I think it looks OK.
First impressions - The guitar is even louder than before, which is great!! I wasn't expecting much more than that but of course the removal of electronics makes it much nicer. No rattling anymore.
The neck's freshly oiled & it still feels & sounds great! I love this thing!!