From "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
I use a very simple little wooden shop-made jig, the design of which, if my memory is correct, I got from Jon Page some years ago. Simple and works great. Use a decent hardwood - I chose a piece of black cherry cut from the frame of my college waterbed. As you can see in the picture below, you simply position the wire in the jig (jig holds wire fairly snug), pull the jig back to align it with the tuning pin hole (left side of jig), and then cut the wire flush with the right side of the jig. My jig is exactly three inches long.
I cut a length of wire for two strings, put a bend in the middle, place the bend over the hitch pin, place a small clamp on the hitch pin to hold the string there, run the wire straight over the bridge, place the wire in the jig, pull the wire snug with my fingers, position jig and cut.
Below is a close-up of the jig side pictured above.
Below is a picture of the other side. The little diagram on the right side is an alignment guide - align the rear edge of the jig with the middle of the tuning pin hole for the treble and at the rear edge for bass (thinner wire needs to be shorter than thicker wire for the same becket position). As you move from treble to bass, you simply keep positioning the jig a little further toward the rear of the tuning pin hole. In practice, you really need to experiment with a few wires to get your technique down. Much depends on how tight you make your bend at the hitch pin, if you feed the wire through the bridge pins, and how tightly you pull the string. The key is to be consistent. If you can be consistent with each wire, this jig will help you get picture-perfect becket positioning.
Note to David Love:
Notice that I countersunk the edges of my tuning pin holes as you suggested. I did the countersinking after my initial 1/4" hole drilling. After enlarging the hole on the final drill pass with a 0.265" bit, much of the countersink was consumed, but some remained - a nice little amount IMHO. (The first picture above has only seen the first 1/4" drilling pass.) At first I thought it looked really crappy, but once you get the pins in there with strings on, you really would need to be told the holes were countersunk to see it. Thanks for the tip.
Terry Farrell
----- Original Message -----
Terry, just tell us if all your beckets are going to be facing the same direction once it is tuned. How did you do that?