scott from _actual time_ Posted March 18, 2005 Report Share Posted March 18, 2005 (edited) i'm planning to build a clone of the Ibanez S-series body, but i'm not sure how to do the angled, recessed top-mount jack. i've got a 3/4" flat-bottom collar i can use to drill the recess, using a standard drill bit as the pilot. after that, i'm not sure exactly how to finish it. Ibanez seems to use a piece of black plastic tubing to line the recess. has anyone scratch-built a jack mount like this? if so, what sort of tubing did you use? and how did you glue it in? the tubing on my S guitars is perfectly flush with the guitar top, so they must have inserted it before the final shaping and sanding of the body. the only reason i can think to use the tubing is to hide the woodgrain, if the body has a different wood underneath a cap. but Ibanez has used that plastic tubing on all their S guitars, even ones with opaque finishes. is that tubing hiding some sort of extra cavity, left by however they rout for this jack? is there a better way to rout it than just drilling? does anyone know if their black plastic tubing has a cap on the end, that the jack is inserted through? that could be hiding another extra cavity? or do they just mount the jack against the wood at the bottom of the hole. any ideas or speculation are welcome. thanks. Edited March 18, 2005 by scott from _actual time_ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Rosenberger Posted March 19, 2005 Report Share Posted March 19, 2005 I'm just speculating but I thin the hole is drilled BEFORE the top of the body is radiused. The the black tubing is inserted in the hole. then the hole is drilled through for the input jack and finally the top of the body is radiused Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank falbo Posted March 19, 2005 Report Share Posted March 19, 2005 Some Corts and Jacksons that copied that jack hole didn't use the plastic. There's no real reason you have to use it. I assume Ibanez chose to use it as a factory decision. In other words, without it, they felt perhaps the top section would be too brittle. Maybe if they left it open grained it would absorb too much finish. I stripped a Saber once to find that there was a bunch of filler on one side of the plastic insert, from a blowout that must've happened during drilling or something. Now that I think about it, the other guitars that didn't use an insert were basswood or had maple tops. Mahogany has a tendency to fall apart when shaving it thin. I've done the angled Jem jack a couple different ways. I've clamped it in a press and just let the forstner bit do all the work. That's okay if it's really well clamped and you take extreme care during that "angled entry" phase where it's just clipping the one side of the hole. Before I got brave enough to try that, I just used a Dremel to carve the "crescent moon" shaped beginnings of the cavity. Then when I had a flat surface, and a relatively fully shaped cup, I drilled the jack hole. From there you can choose to complete the recess either way. You can continue with the Dremel, and just go deeper, or you can switch to a forstner bit once you've Dremelled the main shape. On a Saber, I would do it that way. I have a drill press where everything can be angled and adjusted. So I'd get 90% of it done with the dremel and then clamp the body down so I could angle drill the through hole, and the final recess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitarmonky55 Posted March 20, 2005 Report Share Posted March 20, 2005 theres no plastic tubing-i have an s1620fb and i chipped the paint right by the jack, its just black paint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott from _actual time_ Posted March 20, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2005 thanks for the input, guys. theres no plastic tubing-i have an s1620fb and i chipped the paint right by the jack, its just black paint. every S i've ever seen has had black plastic tubing lining the recess. check out the pic of my LACS S7 above -- that black has a beveled edge a 16th of an inch thick. it's definately not paint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfsd Posted March 20, 2005 Report Share Posted March 20, 2005 sorry to go off topic....but how's it going scott? everyone should check out actual time, good luck with the guitar build. steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott from _actual time_ Posted March 20, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2005 sorry to go off topic....but how's it going scott? everyone should check out actual time, thanks man -- i'm doing great. the third _actual time_ EP is just about done and we're writing songs for the fourth. keep an eye on www.actual-time.com for updates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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