[quote name='Ghost_Bass' post='843756' date='May 21 2010, 12:20 AM']That route is to acomodate the screws of a thumbrest, in my opinion. Probably back then the thumbrests screwed to the pickguard and not to the body or had some kind of reinforcement plaque under the pickguard. Don't realy know, just trying to guess what it is but it seems in the right place [/quote]
No, for two reasons
The thumbrest was repositioned over the E string years before 1979
There had never been a route for the thumbrest which is screwed directly into the body (just like the pickguard)