My Shobud Dilemma to drill or not to drill

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

My latest acquisition is the most perfect LDG I have ever seen, I think its life to date has been in the case colour and condition is 10 out of 10 but here lies the problem, it is a very early model with tear drop knee levers and the levers all but one are set in the middle of the guitar, just the one near the back skirt being easy to access that raises the E's. I have enough bits here to cobble together an extension for one other lever and have made it work by utilizing a couple of the screws that hold the pad on so at this time it is secure enough to prove it works ok but to make it really secure I would have to drill a couple more holes in this beautiful machine,:( and I an loathe to do it Waddaya think?? at this time I could put it back to "as was" in about 5 minutes but oh! the agony of the decision....

[Zebedee]

I always use aluminium plate, about 5mm thick, to mount stuff on pedal steels. I fasten the plate to the steel using whatever holes are already there, then mount levers/widgets etc to the plate, using tapped holes (M5 usually).
This method means that I never drill any holes in the steel, so it can all go back to original if necessary, and it also gives me the luxury to 'trial and error' the positioning of the knee levers. If the plate ends up looking like a piece of cheese, I simply throw it away and make another one

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

What a great idea Richard thanks for the suggestion, I would not worry about it if it were not for the outstanding original condition of this guitar but, from a playing point of view even my junk together idea has made it slightly easier to play....... but I think I will put it back "as was" and let the new owner decide on mechanical improvements.....

Will post some pics of the prob. when my email is sorted

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

Ere tis, This puts me in mind of when I moved from a ZB D10 to an Emmons push pull and my first observation was how close the machine heads were to the nut position and I said to Gordon "This is no good I will not be able to play nut position chords!" All he said was " Emmons manages" that shut me up PDQ.

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[elparkirio]

Beautiful looking LDG John

[jonshack]

She's a beauty alright, I had to snap her up I'm really glad I did too, as John says, it's as near to box fresh as you'll ever see. It's a transitional model circa Jan '76, most of the older features but with nylon tuners instead of the barrels, sounds fantastic! I haven't had to drill any holes (yet ) but I swapped two knee levers round without a problem.

Going to take her for her first (ever?) gig on Sunday