Control Plate Covers

[humbuckr]

I've seen some great examples in the in progress area where the control plate appears to be cut out exactly from the back piece of wood. like a puzzle piece.

Question: Are these guys real good with a jig saw or is there a way to do this with some type of jig and a very thin blade?

Thanks

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humbuckr

[Jon]

I use a scroll saw and a belt sander to get mine to shape. The belt sander is mounted on it's side while I slowly run the cavity cover against it until I get the right shape. This method works best for me with shaping just about anything that is small.

[Supernova9]

Two main methods - either they use a scroll saw and are very careful, or they resaw a small slice the thickness of the cavity cover off the piece for the back and cut the cover from that, then rout the cavity into the back as normal.

[humbuckr]

Two main methods - either they use a scroll saw and are very careful, or they resaw a small slice the thickness of the cavity cover off the piece for the back and cut the cover from that, then rout the cavity into the back as normal.

Thanks for that idea. there is no way that I am brave enough on my first project to try to nail a perfect cut-out from the back piece so I am going to try the thin slice idea. brilliant !

[Supernova9]

Two main methods - either they use a scroll saw and are very careful, or they resaw a small slice the thickness of the cavity cover off the piece for the back and cut the cover from that, then rout the cavity into the back as normal.

Thanks for that idea. there is no way that I am brave enough on my first project to try to nail a perfect cut-out from the back piece so I am going to try the thin slice idea. brilliant !

If you're going with that route, you might want to look at this - it's how Setch did matching covers on one of his guitars - rout the general shape of the covers higher than the rest of a thick back, then slice them off with a thin kerf saw. The picture will give you a better idea of what I mean:

[Vinny]

Wow!, thats a great idea. I hafta remember this one for future use. The pic explains it perfectly& Setch you are the man. Thanks, -Vinny

[MCH]

If you're going with that route, you might want to look at this - it's how Setch did matching covers on one of his guitars - rout the general shape of the covers higher than the rest of a thick back, then slice them off with a thin kerf saw. The picture will give you a better idea of what I mean:

That there is the difference between a $1000 guitar and a $3000 guitar!

Being a back cover plate I usually just try to match up the grain with some extra wood; works pretty good if it the piece comes from the same board.

Either way is a heck of a lot better than a piece of plastic that is usually an ivory colour or black. LOL

[davee5]

Well if you're unsure of your abilities with a scroll saw, like I was, you can use my hack too.

I used a very small bit on a dremel tool to freehand rout, like an inlay, through the back of my guitar. Then I cleaned up all the edges with needle files on both the cut--off piece and the body, then to fill the gap I bound the cavity juts like the rest of the guitar.

Here are the results, a close fit and a consistent overall appearance w. the rest of the guitar. The grain lines match just right, but it'ts not nearly as slick or ingenious as Setch's method. The Control Cover, freehanded with a dremel, then bound and put back in place:

I should note that my technique worked exclusively because I had hollowed out the whole body and could cut through the last 0.25 inches in a few dremel passes (read: like 10, it's slow work to keep accuracy, but worth it in the long run to me). If you have a solidbody this probably won't work.

Just another concept/solution.

-Dave

Edited March 9, 2007 by davee5

[thegarehanman]

I did essentially the same thing dave just described. However, I used a deep throated coping saw to do the job. I imagine the coping saw will be much easier for you to control than a dremel, freehand.

[davee5]

Yeah, I should note that freehanding it was not at all easy. It took many many passes, lots of stress, and if you can avoid using rotary tools in favor of more controllable cutters you should do so. I would have loved to use a coping saw, but I went rather backwards about it all and cut the cover out dead-last on the body, after gluing on the top. Plan ahead people! (I was hoping I would magically be able to get the pots in from the f-holes, but since they're all push-pull pots, they're way too tall for that.)

[thegarehanman]

Well for not entirely thinking ahead, you did one hell of a job, dave. I still want to see the case with the windows that lure onlookers to steal the guitar.

[Bertbart]

Dave,

Excellent execution and the binding touch makes it. I'm sure it required almost Zen concentration routing. Good work...it looks killer.

[Mattia]

I've done things the 'Dave Way' before, just add binding after routing and you have a nice accent line. The next one's getting the 'Setch Special'.

[humbuckr]

If you're going with that route, you might want to look at this - it's how Setch did matching covers on one of his guitars - rout the general shape of the covers higher than the rest of a thick back, then slice them off with a thin kerf saw. The picture will give you a better idea of what I mean:

Like the mahagony body I'm building, I'm a bit dense. I see the way that Setch (cool name btw) routed roughly around the cavities. I like this idea because I'm trying to have a slight arch to the back as well as the top.

Question: Do you shape/fine-tune the cover plate just so, then use IT to make a template of the cavity shape on the back of the guitar and route it out?

thanks for the fine thinking on this thread. when I get brave enough to bang on my wood I'll post pics. the "drawings" are on my blog. http://humbuckr.blogspot.com/

FYI: the body is a sandwich of 4 pieces of wood... thin birdseye bookmatched back piece about 3/8" thick. 1" or so of mahagony (I planed it down from 2" until it was flat...). The top is about 1/4" fiddleback maple but i don't believe it will be thick enough to do an agressive carve so I have ANOTHER piece of rock maple that I was going to put between the top and the mahagony. if this is CRAZY let me know. I'm hoping that the combo of about 1/2 maple and 1/2 mahagony will give me sustain and a little more brightness. I have no frickin clue what I'm doing, but I'm enjoying it

[Mattia]

1/4" maple is enough for no carve at all, unless you want to carve through the maple, that is. If you want a carve, use a single piece of thicker maple for the top, or just carve through, and let the join line show/use it as an accent. If you've got a thin bridseye back on it, you should've cut the cavity out before gluing it on. Option now is to route it and bind it. Honestly, sounds like you're having fun (good thing), but it also sounds like you need to stop, sit down, draw everything out full size on paper (ie, make a firm plan) and build to it. You can get away with slightly more 'seat of the pants' building as you get more familiar with a specific body design (as in: I've only got full frontal aspects of most of my guitars these days, and I sketch out a neck angle full-side view once I've done the top carve, which varies depending on my mood and what I think suits the piece of wood I get best, but it does get drawn), but you still have to plan, then do!

Personally, I think it's easier to cut the cavity hole to size, leave the cover oversize, and slowly work towards a perfect fit, unless you've got a router inlay set of some sort.

[humbuckr]

1/4" maple is enough for no carve at all, unless you want to carve through the maple, that is. If you want a carve, use a single piece of thicker maple for the top, or just carve through, and let the join line show/use it as an accent.

I have a 3/8" piece of maple under the fiddleback top. I was going to take the fiddleback top down to just before hitting the maple underneath. I won't be able to do a very deep carve. I could blast through the fiddleback and dig into the reg maple although it might look a bit weird.