From the ball end and a few cm:s, there's some textile decoration on the strings. On the thinner strings quite a lot of it... Is there a safe way it can be removed? On an old string I burnt it off easily, but does it cause damage to the string?

It's highly irritating because it limits how close the tailpiece can be to the bridge. On my planned electric I want to minimize the aftervibrations and maximize transfering of string vibration to the solid body. Therefore I'll use a one-piece bridge/tailpiece solution.

The other alternative would be drilling a hole through the bridge and further down through the body, so that the strings would be anchored on the back side. However, I'd prefer using the bridge pieces the way they're meant to be used.