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Plywood "Mattocaster" Manson replica


Rizh

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It's been some days since sunday haha, but I've finally gotten everything I need to finish this up (maybe)

two 3mm plywood... blanks? and the neckplate arrived yesterday

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I traced the back of the body, some cavities included, on the new top (lower layer)

The plans are to glue them together, then drilling the cavities, cut the body shape with the jigsaw and then glue them on to the body.

But the layers are... bent, like warped.

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Do you guys think I could glue them like that? Also I dont have anything to make the clamps' pressure even, so I thought I could use construction blocks weight for that. Or I could find something to use the clamps?

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Another thing... the neckplate's screws are different. Two are smaller and I am not sure if they are supposed to be like that. I suppose I could get two that are as large as the bigger ones.

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Do you guys have any advise on drilling the neckplate holes on the body? I guess a drill press would be ideal but that's some technology I dont have!

 

Thanks for reading, I'll be reading your answers

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Hi again!

Don't worry about the slight curvature of the plywood, it's OK. When cut closer to size it will hold less weight and bend less. I would try to get the same screws, shouldn't be hard or expensive, although it is sometimes hard to find that exact head shape.

Could you post a picture from the back?

Drilling holes trough the new layer shouldn't be a problem, glue first and then drill. You could/should start with a well aligned pilot hole from inside, and drill with the actual drill bit from outside, so that any potential tear out is inside. Use an awl, or make a small plug with a hole for the pilot drill bit in the center (a piece of dowel or something) but it probably is not needed.

When starting drilling on a crackable surface, ie lacquered or in your case, plywood layers, you could start drilling with the first few turns counter-clockwise, slower but scoring the rim of the hole to be drilled.

If you decide to add one of the 3mm layers from the back, you could use it to form a recess for the electronics cover?

For drilling perpendicular holes, you can make a small angle out of wood, a square with one quarter accurately cut out. That corner is your 90 degree guide for hand drilling. I can post a drawing if needed.

Good luck!

 

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I demonstrated more or less the same thing in a pickup rout tutorial....mine was more about dialling in a tighter radius for corners than a router bit might allow (think, EMGs) however the idea stands. Just use a taller template. The masking tape was there to protect the template.

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Thanks for your answers!

On 19/10/2017 at 3:04 AM, gpcustomguitars said:

Hi again!

Don't worry about the slight curvature of the plywood, it's OK. When cut closer to size it will hold less weight and bend less. I would try to get the same screws, shouldn't be hard or expensive, although it is sometimes hard to find that exact head shape.

Could you post a picture from the back?

Drilling holes trough the new layer shouldn't be a problem, glue first and then drill. You could/should start with a well aligned pilot hole from inside, and drill with the actual drill bit from outside, so that any potential tear out is inside. Use an awl, or make a small plug with a hole for the pilot drill bit in the center (a piece of dowel or something) but it probably is not needed.

When starting drilling on a crackable surface, ie lacquered or in your case, plywood layers, you could start drilling with the first few turns counter-clockwise, slower but scoring the rim of the hole to be drilled.

If you decide to add one of the 3mm layers from the back, you could use it to form a recess for the electronics cover?

For drilling perpendicular holes, you can make a small angle out of wood, a square with one quarter accurately cut out. That corner is your 90 degree guide for hand drilling. I can post a drawing if needed.

Good luck!

 

Actually, the new layers are going on top, the drilling is to be done on the body I already have. I'll make covers for the cavities from the rest of the plywood.

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I'll glue the new layers on top so I can repair that broken thing on the top. You can see I haven't drilled the holes for the neck screws.

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On 19/10/2017 at 3:14 AM, gpcustomguitars said:

1-IMG_20171019_100700.jpg

 

On 19/10/2017 at 7:55 AM, Prostheta said:

I demonstrated more or less the same thing in a pickup rout tutorial....mine was more about dialling in a tighter radius for corners than a router bit might allow (think, EMGs) however the idea stands. Just use a taller template. The masking tape was there to protect the template.

IMG_8212.JPG

 

 

This is a magnificent idea! I'll look forward to get the thing done.

 

For now, I'll glue the plywood blanks together, then drill the holes for pickups, switches, knobs, etc. and then I'll cut out the body shape. Then I'll glue them onto the body and finally do the holes for the bridge (which scares me the most since I already did it and it was okay)

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  • 1 month later...

Wow it's been a while! This has been a busy month but I finally can update the thread.

I glued the new layer and got it to shape. Sadly... it kind of moved when using the clamps so the shape end up wrong on the top layer. Rookie mistake.

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After I finished that I just put the body away (I was tired of working on that new top layer!) and kind of wanted to try out the paint, so I used it on the headstock.

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I liked that reflective effect :)

The next day I thought about painting the guitar body, which was scary because I didn't know how would plywood react. In my country, when you ask hardware store workers for wood primer they look at you like if you had asked them if you can lick their ears. They literally don't know what that is.

 

I looked up something like homemade primer and saw something about using a mixture of wood glue and water. Tried it out but it didn't work, which I assume is because I used a lot more water than glue. Something else to have in mind for next time, would love to try it out.

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So, started painting the body even with that questionable layer of homemade primer :lol:

 

And meanwhile, working on the neck, just as Dan from Guns And Guitars taught me

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A total 8 layers of paint with no intention of covering it with lacquer, I dig the exposed paint look. It was kind of dissappointing the look it got without primer, but it wasn't like I'd ruined a great guitar body anyways :lol:

Besides, I also think that looks is part of its charm haha.

I took no photos of the wiring process as I kind of rushed it at 3am so I could finally use my guitar hahaha. But it was very rustic, and also the first wiring I've done that fully worked (thank god). A thing to mention is that I didnt know how to ground the bridge. I've seen it done with standard tremolo bridges but never on a top loading one like mine. So I just cut through the pickup's ring and pulled the cable out of there to make it get stuck between some saddles. Rustic but works. (It wouldn't solder directly to the bridge so I just put it in there)

When I put the strings on I noticed a huge fret buzz and the 9th fret wouldn't let any other fret before it make sound. I rushed to make it work without taking into account that It would be 'fixed' by the effect the strings would have on the neck. That is a thing right? I think that's what happened, because after a while I could lower the action/saddles and got no buzz.

A bad thing with this cheap bridge is that the high E saddle got stuck and it's at a ridiculously high action. I have no idea how to make that work out. I'll find a way.

The final step was installing the chinese strap locks with a little bit of glue. I'd never had a guitar with strap locks before and I really like the feeling of having them on this guitar B-)

So, I reach the end of the road.

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There you can see some cheap covers I improvised with plywood scraps.

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Welcome to the family :hyper

(I wouldnt use the bridge position for playing clean haha)

 

Thanks a lot everyone, for helping out with my first build. I feel like I'm more proud than I should be :killinme But yes, this feels like a huge accomplishment. Can't wait to get to a new project :player

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