Hotrock Posted September 7, 2004 Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 When you are all drilling for your control cavity, heres a warning: To do my control cavity I drilled holes from the front of the axe to the back. I then I flipped over the guitar and drilled down these holes with a spade bit to make the holes big enough for the pots. What I did next was stupid so don't do it. To hollow out the bits inbetween the pot holes I decided to ue my pillar drill to drill loads of holes and swiss cheese it. Unfortunately I decided to use a spade bit (which have a point on the end). To measure the depth I put the bit in one of the pot holes and set the stop on the drill. Can any one tell whats about to happen? I started drilling and by the time I got to the third hole a feeling of dread came over me. As I was drilling down the very tip of the spade bit had made a hole in my nice 4A quilted maple top. Several swear words later, I went for a beer. I know have 3 tiny holes in my top (about 0.5mm) but the top needs to be sanded and have about 1.5mm removed so these holes will be bigger. Therefore I have decided to get some scrap maple from some off cuts. Cut a bit off and sharpen it with a pencil sharpner, then glue it into my holes (as they are conical due to the shape of the bit). So a word of warning: Only hollow out the cavity with a flat ended bit and think about what you are doing before you do it. But at least it gives me practice at fixing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
litchfield Posted September 7, 2004 Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 (edited) feel like having some coul tap switches? That sucks man. If ya gotta, get a new top. Edited September 7, 2004 by litchfield Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotrock Posted September 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 I'm thinking that I wont have to. It's just going to have to be a botch job of the gods Should be OK, never know until you try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
litchfield Posted September 7, 2004 Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 Buy some forsner bits to pre vent it from happening again tho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddler68 Posted September 7, 2004 Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 One remedy might be to drill out the holes bigger and insert some contrasting wood. I think that's what they did on this Schecter: That's what I plan to do on my guitar. I am going to have a maple top with circular Paduak inserts recessed for the knob locations. Just a thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
litchfield Posted September 7, 2004 Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 On that guitar, the insets are simply through the veneer. The mahagony is what I see. Never seen a C-1+ in natural. Mine is dark red, and I can find cracks in the veneer in good light, and the insets are black. Anyway, on topic....make sure that you match the grain up if you plug. Otherwise it'll look like crap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotrock Posted September 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 Yeah no worries I will do. I'm going to wait until I've had the top leveled and smooth so that I can see the grain properly. See if you can see it when I finally finish the guitar, body is nearly done, neck roughed out (just a bit of smoothing off to go). Still got to stick on a bit to the headstock and do my fretboard, but I ordered my African Walnut today (for the inlays and extra bit on the headstock) The guitar came to a grinding halt when I run out of money but things are back on track now that I've had my bonus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddler68 Posted September 7, 2004 Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 On that guitar, the insets are simply through the veneer. The mahagony is what I see. Never seen a C-1+ in natural. Mine is dark red, and I can find cracks in the veneer in good light, and the insets are black. Anyway, on topic....make sure that you match the grain up if you plug. Otherwise it'll look like crap Yeah, this is the guitar that made me want to build one. I wanted a C-1EX in natural maple but they don't make a production version. Of course, I could spend big $$$ and get a custom but I thought I'd save the money and sink it into building my own. So, that's just a veneer on there? I've never seen the natural up close (nobody carries them) and I haven't really scrutinized the black cherry and tobacco ones I've seen at Guitar Center. I always assumed it was a solid top. I still think they are righteous guitars, tho! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted September 7, 2004 Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 i always mark my drill bits to include the tip or point of the bit just have to think about things logically Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skibum5545 Posted September 7, 2004 Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 I've always had best luck hogging out the wood with a forstner bit to almost all the way, and then getting the last 1/8" (1/4" including the forstner tip) with a router. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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