klik sandwich Posted February 9, 2017 Report Share Posted February 9, 2017 Hi everyone - I'm attempting to make a pickguard for a Fender Precision bass (its actually a copy that I have), that I inherited. The guitar is missing the pickguard and whatever else was mounted to it. So far, I have found a pdf of the Precision bass pickguard shape. When I try to print it, I cannot print the pdf as a full size drawing using tiled output (the printer doesn't give me that option). I have a copy of Draftsight (free CAD software, and Open Office), which might help, but so far I haven't been able to do this. Does anyone know of a method that will work to print full size and allow me to tape the pages together ? The shape I want to print out is shown here - https://www.terrapinisland.com/2011/pdf/Fender Deluxe P-Bass.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted February 9, 2017 Report Share Posted February 9, 2017 Adobe Acrobat Reader has a poster print function that will split big PDFs across multiple pages with cut marks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klik sandwich Posted February 10, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2017 Hey Curtis - Thanks for the info. I downloaded adobe reader, but I'm still having problems. Can I PM you ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted February 10, 2017 Report Share Posted February 10, 2017 If you like, although you'll get more hints if you open the discussion up to everyone. Happy to help out either way - your call. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klik sandwich Posted February 10, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2017 OK - I wasn't sure if I should be posting about this, because its not guitar related and its kind of a dumbass problem. Anyway, I have a brand new printer. So far, the only thing I've tried to print on it is a full scale pdf of this pickguard. Here's what's happening - So, I downloaded and installed Adobe Reader. I open it, select the pdf that I want to print, and set my parameters to print full scale (100% size, full scale with 11 x 17 tiled output). All of that is what you see in the background of the attachment. If you open the attachment, you can see the window from Adobe that I'm talking about. Then when I hit the print icon expecting it to print (while in the Adobe Reader window), I get another window from my printer that appears over the Adobe window. I've attached a screen shot showing what I'm talking about. It's not giving me the option to print out as a tiled 11 x 17. The Adobe window is in the background and is now mostly obscured by the HP print window. No matter what I do, all I can get out of this is a scaled down drawing on 8-1/2 x 11. paper. There is no option here to print full size. Hope I've described this properly. I'm thinking I'll need to ask someone at HP or Adobe about this. I haven't tried opening my CAD program to see if I could print straight from there, yet. I don't think I could handle the frustration right now, so I'll try it tomorrow morning. what I see when I go to print the pdf in adobe reader.odt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted February 10, 2017 Report Share Posted February 10, 2017 Perhaps you've downloaded a different version of Adobe. I've got Adobe Reader DC here and Adobe Reader XI at the office. Both look like this when I hit Print: The Poster function definitely works. Just tried running off the template on A4 paper and it prints the full image across four pages with little crosshairs in each corner to help line everything up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted February 10, 2017 Report Share Posted February 10, 2017 I should probably clarify - the programs I am using are Adobe Acrobat Reader DC and Adobe Acrobat Reader XI. Both are free. The screenshot you've provided appears to be from Adobe Reader, which may be just that little bit different and lacks the Poster print options. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klik sandwich Posted February 10, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2017 (edited) I figured out what the problem is. Curtis, you hit it when you listed what versions you had. Part of my problem was that the troubleshooting info from Adobe is contradictory (it says that Reader 9 doesn't allow tiled printing, which suggests that other versions do). The same article also states that versions 9 and below do not support tiled printing, so that's the problem. I have version 8. I guess its time to search for the ones you are using. Edited February 10, 2017 by klik sandwich typo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klik sandwich Posted February 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2017 OK, so I printed out an outline for a Precision pickguard, (which went ok, once I used a later version of Adobe Reader) and I found out that it doesn't fit the bass I have. Although they look the same, the lower part of the pickguard is a little different, and the overall length is off. This bass is a "Series A", which is a Korean copy of a Precision - I'll attach a picture of a "Series A" below. So now I have a new question to ask. If you had to make a pickguard for a guitar, but couldn't get a sample or template to use to trace it, how would you go about getting the shape ? I was thinking of stripping everything from the body, and taking it to a nearby place, and having them make me a photocopy of the body on 11 x 17 paper. Then I would use that photocopy to draw out where the pickguard needs to go. I'm not looking forward to doing that though, because I didn't really want to take the guitar apart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted February 12, 2017 Report Share Posted February 12, 2017 Trace the body outline on a piece of paper and use that as the basis for the pickguard? You already have the printout of the pickguard template, so between the two you should be able to tweak things to create a new template. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted February 12, 2017 Report Share Posted February 12, 2017 I was going to say the same thing. Sketch it out and then cut it out and lay it on the instrument and see how it works. If need be tweak, rinse and repeat. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klik sandwich Posted February 12, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2017 I thought about this for a minute and came up with what I think is a cool solution. I realize that the experienced people here are probably looking at this and going WTF ? its only a simple pickguard, but I haven't made one in about 30 years, so its a little foreign to me. Anyway, here's a picture showing what I came up with. What you are seeing is the guitar with the Precision pickguard printed out (the white part) taped onto the guitar. Over that, I have also taped on a 8-1/2" x 11" transparency - this works really well. I have used some tacks and put one through each screw hole (all the holes that must have held the original pickguard in place). You can see where I've traced the shape that I want onto the transparency with a sharpie. I still have to tweak it a bit. The close ups show where the mounting holes would have been on a real Fender - you can see that they are way off on this copy. So now I'm going to move my final shape lines around a bit until I'm happy with it, and then cut it out along my marked up lines. Anywhere that I'm in doubt , I'll just have to leave a little extra and take my time making it to the final shape. I've marked in the pickup holes, but I'm not going to do those today, because I don't have the pickups yet. And, The strings are loose, because I'm cutting a new nut. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted February 13, 2017 Report Share Posted February 13, 2017 There you go. Exactly the way I'd have done it. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walidantar Posted September 9, 2018 Report Share Posted September 9, 2018 i post i have written .. https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1815124 i've learned an easier way to print a guitar template with an A4 sized printer and would like to sharea4 for printer often can extend range in width and print a Legal paper format of 8.5" width and with respect to the length can extend for more the 20" depends on the printer's driver maybe, mine is a cheap HP printer and can print up to 8.5x30"when printing a guitar template don't use a4 papers .. for example if i need to print a telecaster neck i used a thick drawing carton that's maybe 100x100cm and cut a part of it of width 4" and whith the printer's software defined a custom borderless print size and printed the neck on one piece of thick carton/paperhowever when it comes to the body it's about 12.75x15 15/16" .. there's no problem with the length but the width as i'm limited to 8.5"i have thick papers for wet drawing about 35x50cm .. to print the body i need one paper only and it's better not to cut in half or print the body half by half the align .. a better suggestion in to let the whole neck pocket and the whole side of the body on the same paper - cut 8.5" from the 35cm and print on it and the rest of the body print it on the paper leftas that part is not muck important the the part having the neck pocket,pickups and controls .. before printing from a pdf use Tools => comment and draw a horizontal straight line spiting the two parts of the print and when i select of take a snapshot to print the selected part i let the line i've drawn to be printed on both prints then i precisely with a ruler and a cutting knife cut on the line on both prints to align and join/glue this way is better the aligning many pages and is less prone to errors or faluts https://i.imgur.com/LLbINxW.png in brief, you can print long pictures on an a4 printer if the printer itself permits Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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