Endpin drilling--F5 mandolin

[LARRY KLOSE]

I am considering installing a pickup in my F5 style mando. I'm leaning towards a K&K internal, but I will need to drill the endpin hole out for the jack. Is this reasonable without removing the tailpiece? It's a Unicorn and Mustang LF5 with varnish finish (not brittle like poly or nitro lacquer) so there seems to be little danger of chip-out from a slowly and carefully drilled hole.

Comments?

[Nick Anthony]

def gotta remove the tailpiece....drill it out on your drill press then the hole in the mando and replace....i've done a few with a flush mount les paul style and location w/ a chrome football plate and kinda like that better....easier and just as reliable...replacement in the future is easier too (dont have to remove the tailpiece or the strings for that matter)

[Cornelia]

Just looked at reverse curl on Unicorn and Mustang design.
http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Museum/museum.html
really cool and great photos
(I'm really impressed with the museum! Wish it had more!)

"The Unicorn and Mustang are his Japanese Zodiac signs."
New one on me!
Japanese Zodiac is the same as the Chinese (12 years, 12 animals: Rat - Ox - Tiger - Rabbit - Dragon - Snake - Horse - Sheep - Monkey - Rooster - Dog - Boar).

Horse maybe, but Unicorn?

Maybe Taku Sakashita is having someone on...?

[LARRY KLOSE]

FWIW, I happened to be near Gryphon a couple of months ago so I presented this issue to them. They recommended that they use the Stew Mac combo enpin reamer and ream it out with the tailpiece still installed. I had them do it, it worked just fine and the K&K now resides in its innards.

My U&M has a conventional scroll. No reverse scrolls were available when I got it and it was already built.

Re Unicorn and Mustang and Japanese Zodiac signs, I know nothing personally. But Taku Sakashta was born and raised in Japan and he might know some subtleties about the Japanese Zodiac that we don't. I'll ask my friends who spent 21 years in Japan if they have anything to add.

Larry