Guitar Reviews 4U Gretsch Paint repairs - Gretsch G5420T examples shown

 

Guitar Reviews 4U Gretsch Paint repairs - Gretsch G5420T examples shown

Upgrading a guitar can leave you with new areas to paint match -

this is often tricky for existing metallic colours like this Fairlane Blue

So, you've upgraded some parts on your Gretsch guitar but this leaves you with a situation to overcome - that of matching repair paint to the original colour.

In this review, I'll show you how to match Gretsch colours to Fairlane Blue and to the Anniversary Green used on the 5420T guitars for the repairs.

Obtaining a perfect match to paints can be expensive for the amount needed and often the amount of paint needed is very small. 

On the 5420T in Fairlane Blue, I upgraded the open back machine heads to closed back Wilkinson WJ45 units you can see this review here on how I did that job. This left me with bare wood plug ends to disguise to the original paint colour.

Blue mix in a Bigsby B6C unit I did -

Acrylic car touch-in paint used

After drilling the new holes for the replacement Wilkinson units I plugged the original screw holes that were now not usable with hardwood cocktail sticks. Small wood plug pieces were glued in to flush level and left to dry.

Once I fitted the new machine heads, I then had the bare wood to cover. In this case I already had some car touch-in paints to hand to use but not a direct match, this was a Trophy blue acrylic paint for a 2004 MGTF car. I find the car acrylic touch-in paints are easy to use and dry quickly, working with cured poly and epoxy paint and cellulose.

Touched in Fairlane Blue on my 5420T

after fitting Wilkinson Machine Heads

I used a couple of drops of clear acrylic finish in the mixing palette and then toned this with the MG TF blue a small amount at a time, in this fashion you increase the colour depth in the clear carrier gradually until it matches. Its done a pretty good job here. 

Dark Green infilled B6C detail on my Gretsch 5420T upgrade

I upgraded my 5420t 2 tone Anniversary Green 5420T with a Bigsby B6C and you can read the story here. During this job also I replaced the strap buttons with strap locks and had to do a reinforcing repair to the strap button area nearest the neck which meant I needed to do repaint areas to chipped paint. 

My 1958 Cadillac Versailles Green Dietzler paints match!

for my Gretsch 5420T 2 tone Anniversary 5420T

Once I had done the repair to the inside of the body of the green 5420T guitar, I was left with an area where the paint had chipped away. The colour I needed I found was from Dietzler paints and although I did find some Du Pont cross reference, it would likely be tricky to get a pure match to the darker green on the 5420T. So I mixed my own by eye to suit.

5420T Versailles Green repair around the strap button area -

you can't see the new paint - so a successful job done

The Dietzler 1958 Cadillac paint chips 

On this darker green match for the 5420T, I noticed that the Versailles Green was a 'smoky' looking green and rather than just use a dark Racing Green type of shade and lighten it, I would blend up to the green shade I wanted.

The Versailles Green has 'yellow' tone to it rather than some of the green shades which have more of a  'Blue' tint to them.

I noted that a Ferguson Tractor Grey would be a good carrier base to tint up, so found a Ferguson T20 Grey which was a mid grey and could be tinted up with a dark green, for this I Green I used a Fraser Green I had modified the shade of slightly to paint garden bench ends. 

Both of these shades are UN1263 Synthetic Resin paint base used in vehicle restoration, the type it is also referred to as semi-cellulose in some places. 

For the final paint match, I put a small amount of the Ferguson Grey into a mixing palette and then using the Fraser Green, added small amounts into the Grey and mixed it around with a brush.

I checked the paint on a brush by eye to the Gretsch paint, until it matched and then painted in the repair areas on the guitar.

Once the paint had dried and hardened, after about 2 days, I carefully flatted the proud paint back to the level of the original paint using 1200grit wet and dry paper with water and washing up liquid to get the blend of paint levels. 

Once to level and dried, I gently polished the repair area with Farecla G3 rubbing compound to remove any surface swirl scratches and then used a clear autoglym resin polish to finish it off.

As you can see here, the paint match is invisible which is the intention! 

Paint matching to original paints can be done at home, but can be more challenging with some sparkle and candy finishes.

For the 5420T with clear tint coats like the Orange, I would use a Tamiya X-26 Orange Clear tinted into Tamiya Clear Coat. These paints are shown below

X26 Clear Orange and X22 Clear Coat acrylic paints

 

Guitar Reviews 4U Gretsch Guitar Strap Button area wood repair and Strap Button replacement

Guitar Reviews 4U Gretsch Guitar Strap Button replacement and wood repair

Here's a quick guide on how to fix your Strap Buttons if the wood is damaged.

A Bigsby upgrade on my Chinese made 5420T led to repairs needed 

and to the replacement of both of the strap buttons with Strap Lock Buttons

The Chinese made 5420T is supplied with spin-on Strap Lock Buttons 

These have LEFT HAND threaded screw posts into 

the body unlike the Korean and Japan guitars

that feature normal right hand threaded parts!

Gretsch  nice quality Japan Strap Buttons R/H Threaded posts!

The unique threaded Strap Buttons an innovation Gretsch Guitars are very good, but have a drawback that if the button gets dropped and lost on a dark stage you are in trouble!  As a consequence, many owners fit strap locks for speed of strap removal and guitar safety. 

On a recent Bigsby B6C upgrade on my 5420T guitar, the Strap buttons were replaced, but the screw post threads that go into the guitar are left hand threaded on this Chinese made guitar, unlike the Korean and Japan guitars which have right handed thread units. 

Holes can 'tear' out - like on this 5622T -

This is a fairly easy to repair.

Removing the button screwposts from the Chinese made 5420T guitar led to some damage at the neck end of the guitar and here's a quick article on how to fix a Gretsch that has damage here. The threads on the Chinese posts were left handed!

On the hollow body guitars fixing enlarged holes is fairly straightforward and this method I used actually strengthened the guitar in the button area.

Neck area Strap Button repair - hollow body Gretsch

The button post nearest the neck damaged the wood on removal as it was very tight. The wood here is quite thin and to avoid more damage I devised a simple way to reinforce the wood when fitting a new strap button to that area. The body in this area is not completely flat, so I cut a small block of hardwood - Maple is best, but I used a Mahogany substitute block around 1/2" by 5/16" approx. for the job.

I sanded by hand the top of the repair block away from the centre of it in all directions to give a 'contour' shape to match the guitar interior body profile curve - not much wood is needed to be removed here. (A plastic contour gauge will aid you in this job.) Then I drilled a hole through the centre of the block to aid the installation.

Showing how to pull up the repair block into place -

this block provides a good base for the post to screw into.

To instal the block, drop a piece of string or thread through the old button hole and catch it with a crochet hook or a piece of bent wire and pull it out through the F hole below the strap button hole. I then put the block onto the string and left plenty of spare string outside of the F hole. You'll see why shortly!

I tied a piece of match to the string under the block and applied some PVA wood glue to the top of the block, then holding the lower end of the string to keep the whole string taught, pulled the block up and through into the guitar body, so it glued into place under the string post hole.

I taped the string out of the post hole over onto the body to keep the string taught so the wood glue would bond the block to the inside of the body. It took this particular glue 24 hours to dry out.

A day later, I removed the tape and pulled the string back through the F Hole and removed the match, then pulled the string back through and out of the guitar body. Now I had the wood reinforcing repair block right under the place I needed. So when I redrilled the hole to the final size I would be drilling into much deeper solid wood than just the body side.

Next I needed a Dowel peg to repair the oversized hole left, a BBQ Skewer fitted the hole well so a short length of it was cut off and readied to fit. Get it as flush as you can before fitting so your work to level the peg dowel is reduced. This helps reduce damage to the body when sanding or finishing.

The Peg Dowel was then glued into place with PVA Wood glue and left for another day to cure. Once that was done I used more PVA glue to fill the recess around the peg and again left it a further day to cure. This PVA glue can be sanded and painted over so it was simplest to use this as a filler and it goes hard when cured. 

Schaller Strap lock Button installed and damaged paint touched in

Once this glue was cured I carefully sanded the peg back with a Dremel Hobby tool using a fine sanding band. During the string post removal the green body colour was marked by the grips used on the reluctant string post so i had now to colour match the green paint.

I used a UN1963 resin paint to do the paint repair - Ferguson Tractor light Grey and tinted it with some Fraser Green Tractor paint to the correct shade. I did this under artificial light which is not ideal but as you can see from the above picture, you can't see where I touched in the areas so that was successful. There is some light flare above the selector switch, so that is not a defect area.

Paint colour matched for the damaged area on the guitar - 

Ferguson tractor Grey base with Fraser Green added to suit

Once the paint had cured I sanded it back using wet and dry paper with water and washing up liquid carefully. I used a 1200 grade fine grit on the job using light pressure. This did scratch the surrounding paint area so I used Farecla G3 fine rubbing compound to remove the scratches and a wax polish to finish off.

Next up was to drill the blanked off hole to take the new Strap Lock screws. I decided to use Schaller Strap Lock Buttons rather than the Gretsch screw on button posts. 

A Drill Block Guide - this keeps the Drill bit squarer 

when drilling using a cordless drill

To drill the holes I used a Cordless hand drill. I predrilled the Drill Block Guide from a piece of Pine Beading wood on the Pillar Drill. I used 1.5, 2 and 2.5mm Drill Bits as you can see on the Block here.

The way I used it was to put the drill block guide on the 1.5mm drill bit and start the drill bit carefully, then slid the block down flush with the guitar body top and then carefully and slowly drilled through the dowel peg repair. I then repeated the process with the 2 and 2.5mm bits to open the holes out enough for the new screw.

When doing this drilling job - check your screw sizes against your drill bits before doing any drilling. I would suggest that you use a scrap piece of wood to drill and try your screw into that to get the right size for the job before going to do the job on the guitar.

I use this Beeswax Leather Polish to lubricate screws for guitar work

Once drilled to the right size, I fitted the Schaller Strap Lock Button and felt, over a stainless steel washer which sat on the guitar body top to provide more area for mounting. I gave the screw some wax sparingly and screwed on the button, job done.

Looks great and much stronger than originally made.

Bigsby area Strap Button repair - hollow body Gretsch

Strap Button hole enlarged - a fairly easy repair to do

Some guitars may have a wood block in this area inside the body so all that is required is a dowel peg repair. If one is not present then use the wood block method used on the neck end to do the repair. The advantage is here the Bigsby tail plate covers the repair area over so paint colour matching is not so critical here.

Be aware that some guitars run a ground wire through the end of the body to sit under the Bigsby plate so do ensure this is in place and making contact after doing your repair.

Watch Reviews 4U The Longines L2.640.4 47mm White dial Avigation Watch

 

Our review is for the supersize Longines L2.640.4

a 47mm 'Avigation' Pilot's watch 

A mighty white watch and there's a bit of a story to it!

I came across this particular Longines L2 47mm size sometime ago when it came up on Ebay as a used watch that was being listed by a Pawnbroker in Manchester and it was up for around the thick end of £900 but I recall it went for around £795. 

(A mint unworn condition example with box had gone a year or so before for £1700 on Ebay.)

This one here did sell, I had been quite interested in it back then as I had a black dial version for about the same money. I was no stranger to the 47mm size watch as I had owned a number of marriage watches previously, but had decided to move those on and concentrate on collecting original Longines pieces from the 2000's on as they were just such great design and value for money and easier to move on in the resale market.  

No exhibition back here - but a dual rear cover watch

I saw this particular watch back on the market a good few months back on Ebay again and kept an eye on it, it was up for around the £1000 mark and kept an eye on it, which was worth doing as it came up in November 2024 at an offer price that was too good to pass up.

The large crown is endorsed with the Longines logo and name

So to the review. This L2.640.4 is based on an early aviation watch style, where pocket watches were adapted for wear on the wrist rather than on a leather fob or watch chain. 

Early aviators and automobile racers needed convenient timekeeping and a watch on the wrist was the requirement. And the large 43-50mm case sizes on pocket watches provided an easy to read dial for this purpose.

The classic simple design is functional and very 'Bauhaus'

with elegant form and function on display here

It was from this concept that the 'trench watch' style became popular, pocket watches were plentiful and fairly robust too.

Longines has always since the days of Charles Lindbergh been synonymous with aviation, he wore a Longines specially made for his historical 1924 transatlantic flight and it was from that event and the requirement for aviation watches in WW2 that Longines became well known for that market.

The more 'military' looking black dial version of the same watch -

which Longines have used as inspiration for their 'avigation' watches. 

In the 2000's Longines as a brand started to rise in popularity again for a number of reasons thanks to a wide range of bold designs drawing on elements of the past and also of modernity, in this L2.640.4 those meet and provide you with a 47mm width Stainless Steel cased beauty, with a 26mm lug width, this example is on an aftermarket white strap which looks great against the white dial.

The dial looks white face on and yet at angles gives casts of off white and pearlescent white depending on the angle it is viewed from. The hands are dagger shaped with generous lume filled recesses, the numbers are applied in polished silver metal, it is simple, plain but very stylish, an exercise in modern design with a hint of vintage.

The L2.640.4 movement - almost a shame to conceal it!

The movement is a pocket watch sized unit and contained under two back covers, as you can see from the above photograph the movement is nicely finished and it is almost a shame to hide it away!

The Crown is a large size with the Longines logo and name present which is a nice touch. There is no date as is correct for an aviation watch in the early style and a seconds dial at the 6 o'clock position complements the large name and logo on the dial under the twelve marker.

On the wrist it is noticeable weightwise but I am used to this size of watch and I am ok with it, I do like larger watches and 40mm upwards suits me, 42-44 is good for me, the watch is not over thick either, I have some Longines that are quite deep at around 14mm, the Grande Vitesse chronograph comes to mind there. However this watch is no heavier than a Longines 44mm tri compax chronograph.

Elegance without compromise - I love the simplicity of the Bauhaus ethic -

this watch embodies that form and function style so perfectly I think

So if you are ok with a larger watch and like the visual impact, it is sure to start a few conversations. Given the size of the watch it has its own market away from the smaller wrist. 

I purchased the watch on a brown leather strap which looked good but it also came with the white leather strap it had worn earlier, and to me this colour suited the white dial well, so I have gone and fitted the white strap.

Condition wise this is very good and lightly worn, a few small scratches near the lug ends from strap changing showing but for a sub £650 deal price watch that retailed at around £2000 when new, it is great value for money and another worthy addition to the collection. 

Great value for money, fairly rare and great quality.

Guitar Reviews 4U - Gretsch 5420T Machine Heads upgrade to Wilkinson WJ45 machine head units

 

Guitar Reviews 4U - Gretsch 5420T Machine Heads upgrade

The Wilkinson WJ45 Machine Heads - I use the Chrome ones in this upgrade

I had been considering doing this upgrade on my 2016 Korean made 5420T for some time to replace the original units for improved tuning stability, its a straightforward job to do. 

I chose these units as they will fit the existing bushings and are 2 screw fixing - although I had to drill new holes. They also are based on the Kluson style units from the 1950's so look the job. 

A shame that Gretsch didn't use the the sealed units from the modern Streamliner 2420 guitars on the Electromatic as they are much better.

I had a set of Wilkinson WJ45 3 + 3 units to go on the guitar in my spare parts stock. They are also 2 screw fixing type and based on a Kluson style design with a better gear ratio than the ones on the guitar at present.

Remember to check any screw sizes before drilling! 

I am re-using the original screws that were on the guitar. 

Later guitars may have different sized screws. 

Always check the size twice before drilling!

The original unit left and the Wilkinson at right

Notice a moulded on collar on the original, more on that later!

Firstly, before removing a machine head unit I placed a small piece of masking tape under the machine head base lower side to ensure I had a straight line to work to after removing the original one. The original small holes for the baseplate do not match the hole spaces on the new WJ45 units so the old ones would have to be filled. 

I used a PZ1 Screwdriver to remove the screws and it fitted the ones on the guitar fine. (Take care here removing the screws and ensure your screwdriver really fits well as the last pack of WJ45's I got for another job didn't have any new screws or bushings in and small screw heads are easy to damage.) If you rip the screw head recess this creates a real headache to get the screw out!

The original unit left - Wilkinson Right -

Wilkinson with Stainless Bush as shown front.

Bush is 8mm OD Stainless tube bored to 6mm and 6mm tall

9mm OD Tube could be used for a tighter outside fit.

The Bushings in the Head stock were the same size as the new Wilkinson ones so I did not remove the old ones as the WJ45 posts fitted them fine, I did lube them carefully where the post touched the collar area.

I used cut down cocktail sticks to make filler plugs for the old holes that had to be filled as they did not line up to the holes on the baseplate of the new units. To do this cut off the sharpest part of a cocktail stick point at 3mm or 1/8" from the tip so there is still some taper on it, then using the original screw depth of 9mm, measure on and cut a c. 9mm filler plug from the stick to that length. This means you likely won't have any excess to trim off.

I used a small amount of PVA resin Wood Glue to glue the plugs in and this worked well - don't overpack the hole with glue as it may stop a tight fitting plug going in fully. I ensured the plugs were to the level of the headstock rear face by using the flat end of my scalpel blade holder to seat them flush.

One of the old screw holes is covered over by the new machine head under the plate on each new unit, but I decided to fill both old holes for each unit to make a good job of it. Once the new WJ45 machines are in place and the glue has had a day to dry out, I can paint match the exposed plugs.

Masking tape strip to help line up the new unit

I've done the E and A string units here.

I greased the new units before installing through the oil hole on the 

back cover. I used a light duty general auto chassis grease from a tube 

Having taken off the A string machine head I found that an order of removal would be needed here. When I test fitted a new WJ45 unit onto the headstock in to the A string position, I found that the WJ45 plate just sat on the E string baseplate of the old unit.

So I would have to also take the low E string unit off to get the clearance for fitting the new A unit, having firstly used a piece of marker tape placed for alignment purposes, before removing the old unit as you can see in the picture above. I found this method gave a clear run to the job and replaced the Low E and A string units together.

The original unit has a moulded collar to the baseplate - 

I will use a lathe to hold the string post and cut these collars off with a parting tool

and at the next string change, then install them with the WJ45 units

to give more support to the base of the post into the headstock

For the new screw holes, I used a 1.5mm drill with a piece of masking tape 9mm from the tip as my drill depth gauge - you don't want to drill through the headstock plate here! I drilled one hole, blew out any wood debris and partly screwed in one screw to the new unit, I lined up the baseplate snug against my tape line, checked that the post wasn't binding in the bush by giving the key a turn or two and then drilled the second hole using the baseplate to the tape as a guide.

All the new WJ45 machine heads fitted

Once the second hole was drilled and any debris removed from the hole, I took the unit out and gave the post shaft at the lower end a light coat of Brass instrument Key oil to help lube it where it contacted the bushing and then lubed the small screws with beeswax.

I retrospectively fitted these Stainless Steel Bushes as shown front

and on the Post of the WJ45 machine head at right

I retrospectively fitted Stainless Steel Bushes to the machine head Posts to prevent any lateral stress on the post - from it being pulled to one side by the string tension. 

The Headstock holes were 9mm width and having already pre-drilled the holes to mount the WJ45 units, I decided to go slightly undersize with 8mm OD Bushes to prevent binding of the Post inside the Bush in use, if the Post wasn't centred in the hole.

The Bushes have improved the sustain and made the keys easier to turn. 

If going from new with Stainless Steel Bushes, then you could use 9mm width Bushings made from Stainless Tube, if 9mm tube diameter isn't available you could get some 10mm thick wall tube as long as it has 6.5mm core space, that should fit the Posts. 

This thicker 10mm Tube can the be turned down on the outside to 9mm using a Lathe and cutting the Bushes to 7.5mm length. Grease the inside of the Bush and the post before fitting to the guitar. This way the unit will be a push fit and you can then drill the screw holes for the WJ45 units anew.

Stainless Steel won't corrode and a light car chassis general purpose Grease will last a long time and make the operation smoother.

In retrospect I recommend having these Bushes to hand before fitting the WJ45 units!

I installed the WJ45 units with the Bushes and screwed them down checking again that there was no binding of the bushing against the post. I was co-ordinating this upgrade with a string change so I didn't waste any strings in the job. 

Start with the the machine heads on the lower wound strings, firstly having detuned the guitar slightly to prevent too much uneven strain on the neck.

The rest of the high E, B and G string units were then replaced in the same fashion and holes filled.

The new WJ45 keys look in place here from the front and suit the headstock size

The button style of these is like the G6118 Anniversary style ones

So, that's the job done, and the guitar has some improved machine heads on. The WJ45 units have grease holes on the rear casing, I greased mine before use and turned them to distribute the grease around the gearing, then topped them off again.

I did consider fitting locking machine heads to this guitar but I think these Wilkinson ones will be adequate. Once I have the colour match on the wooden plugs, it will finish the job off.

With new D'Addario 10-46 strings fitted, the guitar sounded better than before.

The Wilkinson units are around £25 GBP a set and although inexpensive look and feel good in operation. I have fitted Gotoh versions to a Stratocaster without problems and they worked very well too.

Paint colour matched in - MGTF Trophy Blue base

added to clear lacquer to colour tint match with a brush

Guitar Reviews 4U - Gretsch 5420T 2 Tone Green 'Anniversary Green' model China made upgrade with Bigsby B6C and Vanson Roller Bridge

 

A few quick and easy upgrades for your Chinese made

Gretsch 5420T guitar in 2 Tone Anniversary Green

Out of the box - the Chinese Gretsch 5420T Electromatic guitar

**Before you drill any holes on this project, I suggest that you drill holes in some scrap Pine or similar softwood and try the screws for fit so that your 'final' holes will not be oversize. I use BBQ Skewer and Cocktail Sticks to fill any left over or unused holes on my guitar repairs. For info.** 

The new 5420T guitars are easy to upgrade and in this review I'll be adding a USA Bigsby B6C vibrato and a Vanson Roller Saddle Tunamatic Bridge to the guitar in place of the B60 Bigsby and the Blade Saddle Tunamatic Bridge.

My similar upgrades on the Korean version of this guitar went without a hitch, but I did run into a couple of small problems on this job. Firstly, the strap button on the Bigsby was very tight and the screwdriver slotted head on the post stripped out easily so I had to use grips to remove the post which was not ideal and damaged the thread. I had to order new strap buttons and screws and I got a set of Japanese made Gretsch buttons and screw posts to fit. 

Secondly, the spacing on the bridge posts was not quite the same as the Korean and I had to relieve the Bridge block holes with a 4.5mm drill - not a great problem, but a delay all the same. 

I have fitted around 8 of these Vanson bridges to Japanese and Korean Gretsch guitars without any issue in the past, so it was unusual to find on this one that the holes were just too tight on the hole spacings. Fortunately I have a pillar drill to hand and was able to open out the holes to 4.5mm without any drama to get the Vanson to fit . It just goes to show that things can change on guitars!

I have fitted a number of the Vanson Bridges without a problem - 

possibly the Bridge Post spacing and Bridge dimensions may have 

been changed slightly on this model, but I was soon back on track 

The Bigsby B60 is quite straightforward to change over and I used masking tape to mark out the positions off the old unit and for the alignment of the new one. The B6C to go on this guitar has 3 screw holes and the strap button is also used on the end plate as an extra 'screw' - on the B60 it has 2 screw holes and the strap button screw post has a central hole so you get 3 screws holding the tail on which is not really sufficient as the holes are not in the best place to stop the tail plate lifting with the string tension. 

The B60 also relies on the strap button as a screw hole to locate the unit.

The B6C has 3 screw holes plus one for the button

On my 5120, I drilled 2 extra holes as the plate was lifting away from the body. The screws are in the 'wrong' place, they need to be lower down the plate to get the best advantage. It is a cost cutting measure to only use the 2 main screws.

The B6C detail recesses here have been in-filled with green paint.

Against the light green body this will look nicer than the stock black

The B60 is not as smooth in action as a B6C and the B6C is the design I find looks better too. The B60 does the job but the B6C is miles better, it is the one used on the Brian Setzer Hot Rod guitars and the Player Series, a unit design that was launched in 1960 on the 6120 and similar guitars. 

The B6C overlaid on the B60 - you can see the tail plate holes here .

The paint fill effect works really well

The job to replace the B60 with the B6C is quite straightforward to do. Firstly I measured up the gap on the my other Gretsch guitars at home and 6mm between the bottom of the plate and the top of the binding strip on the guitar top seemed to be the distance on most of them.

A 6mm card spacer used to gauge the right height of the B6C

I made up a spacer strip out of 2mm art board card strips and used this to get the height for the new B6C, this takes the guess work out of the job!

Masking tape was used to locate the new B6C in place - 

always measure twice and check before you start drilling holes! 

I drew centre lines off the existing guitar Bigsby and checked the alignment twice before going anywhere near a Drill. For this job I used a Cordless Drill, you get a lot of control and can drill slowly which is the ideal situation.

The B6C now installed 

I used a 1.5mm drill to make the pilot holes for the B6C main 3 plate screws but do check the screws supplied with your new B6C for size before drilling anything! I found I had to open out my drilled holes out to 2.5mm for most of the screw depth and then used a light smear of Beeswax on the screw threads to help them go in to the wood easier.

You can always drill a scrap block of soft wood like Pine and try the screws in that before drilling into your guitar. Fortunately I have a Vernier Gauge to hand so I could measure the screws and drill bits before doing anything further.

The new B6C's plate just covers over the holes from the previous B60 -

Be aware that the threads on the strap button posts on the Button end differ in thread pitch between the Japanese and Korean / Chinese type posts. The Japan Buttons won't fit the other Korean / Chinese Button posts.

Lastly here, the strap button hole was drilled, having first checked the size of the strap button post thread. The Japan made threaded screw also has a cross point end and I found a PZ1 screwdriver fitted into this really nicely. The thread was lightly coated with Beeswax and it screwed in nicely into the guitar body.

New D'Addario 10-46 strings fitted -

The Green in-fill paint really looks smart against the lighter green top.

I had already adjusted the Vanson Roller Saddle Bridge Saddles to approximate the old Blade type  Tunamatic Bridge's saddle positions, before fitting it. One all the strings were on, I did intonate the Vanson Bridge Saddles correctly.

I used the spring from the original B60 unit as it was shorter in height and the arm now sits at around the right height position, there are different length springs available as aftermarket parts.

Adjusted ready to play - taken in daylight to show the real green colours

Lastly, a spot of adjustment to the set up and action and the G5420T was ready to play. The B6C I found was much more responsive and had an easier action than the old B60.

This upgrade really makes a good improvement to this guitar. 

I plan to upgrade the machineheads on the guitar in the near future with Wilkinson

Kluson type closed back units in place of the standard open back 'Waverley' type units 

Wilkinson WJ45 Kluson type machine heads

a replacement for the Gretsch 'Waverley' / Grover type units 

On the subject of the machine heads, the G5420T standard heads fitted to the guitar are 'at a cost' units and not very expensive, although functional. A good upgrade is to use the Wilkinson WJ45 type heads - these have 2 screw holes which are an almost dead fit to the original types. 

Another advantage is that the metal cases enclose the gears which are a good gear ratio. Plus the hole on the back shown here is used to add a light grade auto grease - I add this before installation and this helps give the gear wheels longer life and to retain tuning accuracy.