Bill, you asked about the ballpark intonation setup. Here it is with stud anchor drilling procedure:
My other body front templates have the proper bridge mounting hole positions drilled in them as well as the pup routes. These were taken off the back 'master template' which involved a lot of trial and error.
You can see where a line crosses the body centerline and 4 holes are drilled. the smaller two were for a previous bridge version and the larger 2 are for the current one which uses #14 wood screws. The white is where holes were filled with plastic dowels and redrilled when they weren't correct
I line up a front body template with the pup routes and body centerline and use a transfer punch to dimple the body. Excuse the crazy angle of the picture.
Tailpiece gets located with center screw on centerline. The two dimples get connected with a line. Tailpiece is lined up parallel to the line and outboard screw holes drilled and filled. Bridge with E and G saddles moved to extreme positions is lined up with dimples. Bass gets strung and tuned. Tension holds down the bridge. I check intonation, I want to be slightly sharp on the G and flat on the E.
Drilling for the bridge starts with a 3/8" brad point bit to get the most accuracy. Center hole is for ground wire. Tape on bit is a depth stop.
Then a 15/32" HSS bit which centers itself on the 3/8" hole for the metric anchor.
And finally a very shallow counterbore to allow the collar of the anchor to be flush with the top of the body using a 9/16" HSS, being careful to make sure it centers itself.
Done
The cutouts in the bridge channel are big enough to allow the entire bridge to be relocated slightly fore or aft . Height adjustment is done by the saddles, not the studs. Their only function is to hold the bridge tight to the body for increased sustain, magical tone, amazing clarity and maximum potency. Your mileage may vary.
