Ok, I am stumped !

[Alfonse Pagano]

1961 Kay Galaxie Semi-Hollow Body.

How the hell does one take our and then reinstall the electronics?

No acsess from te back of the guitar

Hire a kid with tiny arms?

Any tutorials out there?

Please see attached photos.

Thank You

Alfonse

 

 

[Doug T]

Mike, if Tim is using pidgin English that may come from Pennsylvania Dutch country or parts of Montana or the Dakotas this would literally translate to "tools that dwell in a home" or "tools which have homes"  assuming that a toolsheim is a tool house.  There is a German word "Altheimer" which is similar.  An Altheim is what in the US used to be referred to as an old folks home and now is (for better or worse) called assisted living.  But, the meaning went beyond that.  It implied familiarity and community, and did not have a negative connotation.  An Altheimer was one who lived in those facilities.  Probably more precisely is should be toolheimers and toolheim.

[Grahame Myers]

Doug

For the sake of accuracy an old peoples home is called an Altenheim  in German, don't know what it is in Dutch. In old east Germany, before the reunification, they were called a Feierabendheim , which translates to retirement home, although when you knock off work here, you say "now I have Feierabend" German is a crazy language :-)

[Bart van Weperen]

The Dutch word for the German "Altenheim" is "Bejaardentehuis"...

"Bejaarden" meanig people of age, and "tehuis" meanig home.

As far as I know the word "tools" isn't used at all in Dutch.

On the other hand, we do use the German "Heim" (we borrowed the German "Heimweh" meaning homesick)

and even "Heimer(s)", but the latter I only know from "Pappenheimers" (meaning people), no use of Heimer(s) as such in Dutch. The German "Heim" is in Dutch "Thuis" (Home).

In other words: Toolsheimer(s) is just as much Dutch as it is Chinese, but pigeons fly as they please!

 

[Joshua Levin-Epstein]

This thread was certainly the victim of international air hijacking. I think Tim's reference is to "Alzheimer's" when forgetting where tools are. And the missing tools are either right in front of you, at the bottom of the pile, or in your hand.

 

Alfonse, did you get the guts back in that guitar yet?

 

Joshua 

[Grahame Myers]

I sent him a PM and told him how we really do it: We cut a hole in the back with a jigsaw. All that stuff with threads and tubes and things,no way..takes far too long :-)

[Eric Steven Johansen]

Then I stick on one of those Gretsch plastic backplates and install a new snap-on back pad. Ahh, finished.

[Alfonse Pagano]

Oiy !!

No I have not got the guts back in yet, I can not believe where this thread  went! Ha!

Anyway, the NYC speed freak in me wants to go with Grahames suggestion, but I may hold off.

As you can tell, I am just getting into all of this and will take it slow.

I am first refininshing the guitar first, then hopefully get the pickups and all working ( o yeah ! )

then put it all back together again........

I call it Zen

[Grahame Myers]

Alphonse!

Stop! I was only joking :-) The problem with using a jigsaw is not how to cut it out, but how to glue it back in :-)  But seriously, some Gretsch's do have a round "service hatch", in the back, held by a spring clip that you can loosen with a big screw in the middle, very handy, but not very pretty: about 20cm in diameter, and covered with what looks like black Tolex. A matter of taste I guess, typically Gretsch geeky....:-)

 

[Alfonse Pagano]

You may be joking, but don't think I haven't considered it...

but I won't.

[Thomas James]

It's one of those things that just takes patience. I use a combination of methods mentioned above. As far as a jig; I just punch holes in a cardboard box.  Ship in a bottle work. I usually charge double scale for semi hollow body wiring jobs. Alphonse, if you are stripping the guitar you may want to practice the fishing routine before you have that new finish. Cheers.

[Alfonse Pagano]

Right Thomas...

Not such a bad idea ....

[Doug T]

Didn't even get the Alzheimer's reference.  Pidgin anything usually combines words from two languages, so that's where the tool comes from... and thanks for correcting me on the German.  I used to swim across the street from a German retirement home in Oakland and I remembered it as the Altheim.  I just looked it up, and it's indeed the Altenheim.  The residents all said, to what my 8 year-old ears, was "Altheimer."  They were very nice folks and said they all had to buy into the home and shared making meals and such, and most belonged to the swim center across the way.   It actually had quite an impact on me when I found out that a survivor from an internment camp lived there along with a German soldier, and played chess a cards together.  That same survivor was the man who told me about the Holocaust.