Mounting Controls On Carved Top

[Galaga_Mike]

I'm working on my first carved top guitar, and I can't figure out how I want to mount the pots.

I know that some people keep the pots perpendicular to the guitar by drilling holes before carving and routing little "pockets" in the top for the knobs to sit in.

I think I've seen on the forum somewhere that someone uses a router bit stuck into a drill to route the back side of the hole so that the pot sits at the same angle of the carved top. Does anyone know where this was or who did it? I've searched for a while with no luck.

Any opinions on the best way to do this?

Thanks,

Mike

[djhollowman]

If you want to keep the knobs "straight" (ie. not mounted at an angle to match the carved top) you could also cut the recessed holes AFTER carving the top by using an appropriately-sized forstner bit mounted in a pillar drill.

DJ

[doug]

Unless your top is real thick and you're using the 3/4" long pots, there should be enough play in the control hole for the control shaft to lean some. You then have to make a 'tilted' surface in the control cavity for the pot. This can be done in a multitude of ways depending on what tools you have handy.

Forstner bits have their own drawbacks, yet can do a perfect job if the setup is right. I think the hardest part is figuring out the tilt, so you might have a bunch of test fitting to do until it works out right.

A Dremel tool is useful for these sort of things too. There is a flat disk sander attachment that I find pretty handy in a lot of ways.

In my opinion either recessed or tilted controls look good. Some may think tiled controls look odd. It's your guitar though...

-Doug