guitarded

ok, thanks for the advice about keeping the routes depth as shallow as possible. during my planning i have taken the trem route into consideration. also, on production guitars, i have often found myself cutting the screws to install the pups.

all good advice. i will take it all into consideration.

thanks and btw, i guess ears is an accepted term!

after searches on this site it looks as though the humbucker routes should be 3/4". so right now my pup routes are at 3/4". however, i notice that some routes go deeper on the "ears" (heck, i don't know what else to call them). do i need to do the same and if so, how much deeper. btw, this is for a dual humbucker tele that i am building.

oh and of course, if you put a cap on it, then 1.68" works great too!

thanks! i went to the site and the prices for the blanks are reasonable. however, the blanks may only be 1.68" thick. i guess that would be alright if your not building a trem axe.

i always use the forstner bit first. the one and only time i didn't, the router caught the edge of the "island" in the middle and proceeded to chatter and rip up my template and, fortunately, the PRACTICE wood that i was using. another upside as was previously mentioned is that it will save wear and tear on your router bits. in this hobby, it is really important to use sharp cutting tools to avoid rips and tear outs.

btw, the best advice i got from this forum is go slow and don't cut corners (especially if your a beginner... like me). everything has been going great with my build with the exception of the one time i decided to cut corners (as stated above).

i have found that getting the parts ahead of time is sound advice. after i cut and routed my first body, i wondered about the size of the neck pocket, size of switch holes, cavity cover sizes, bridge holes, etc. i actually began taking apart my other guitars to size up my routes and holes. i quickly ordered the parts i needed. at that point it made life easier. it would be a bummer to make your neck pocket the wrong size. also, pickup, tremolo and cavity template prices are pretty reasonable. you can get them at stewmac. as for the body template, i have bought templates from both ron kirn and guitarbuildingtemplates.com. the ones from gbt.com are head and shoulders above kirns (the ebay dude). the materials gbt.com uses are much better, plus you get neck templates. with ron kirn, you will not get the neck templates. they are both approx. the same price... so you do the math. also, when i got the templates from kirn, the edges were dinged up. not a good thing if you want to follow it with a router.

hey blakeish... i just read my reply and it may have seemed like i was giving you "the business". no, please don't take it that way. i saw a previous post where you were asking about neck angles and i saw the "search" replies you got. so i understand where you are coming from.

some people just lurk and wait to fire those type of replies. although, it is good advice and i always try to do a search first. i even get tempted to give the "search" reply, however, if i was going to take the effort to make a reply, heck, i figure i may as well try to answer the question (or just not reply at all).

thanks for your replies. all good suggestions. i will go ahead and draw it out and see if i can determine the best approach.

oh, btw, blakeish, come close... i did use the search and i found a lot of neck pocket threads, however, i did not find a clear answer to my particular question. that was probably because there are a couple of ways to solving the neck angle question as presented by those who responded to this thread.

when routing an angle in the neck pocket, where does the angle begin? do i begin routing downward from the heel? in other words, if a non-angled pocket depth is 5/8", will the heel on a corresponding angled pocket begin a 5/8" and then go deeper as i approach the body end or do i keep the depth of the body end at 5/8" and go shallower as i approach the heel?

man, i hope i made myself understandable!

bump - just thought i would give it another try.

i have a prs trem that i am interested in using for my project. i was just wondering if the route is the same as a strat. has anyone had any experience routing for one of these?

do you find that the bits wear faster on this material than on hardwood?

can the router bits i use to route my guitars be used on plexiglass/lexan?

ryanb, good question about the warmoth neck being too small or the template being too big, however, according to the stewmac site, the template is intentially made wider.

go here and scroll down a bit to see about why the template is a bit oversized...

Click Here

well, the stewmac site says its .040 wider to allow for the finish applied to the neck.

yeah, i will go ahead and make my own templates.

drak, even with the finish, the neck pockets is too big?

i think they are 9" and about 1/3hp. i probably should, as fryovanni mentioned, try to use my jigsaw and hold out for a 14".

to get ready to try my hand at building a guitar, i have taken stock of the tools i have. well, about the last power tool that i need is a bandsaw. i've got a drill press, couple routers (including a router table), table saw, assorted clamps and hand tools. i even have a fairly good planer (albeit tabletop - dewalt dw735). however, even though i have a high-end jigsaw (laser guided), i would really like a bandsaw.

so anyway, i go to home depot and sears and i see bandsaws going for around $100-$150. i can't afford a floor model, so these catch my eye. ok, finally the question... are these bandsaw good enough for cutting out a body?

ok, i guess no one has has used the stewmac neck template.

i searched the forum, but i didn't come across what i was looking for... i just got a stewmac neck template? on their site it says that it is about .040 wider than standard to compensate for the finish. has anyone used this template with a finished warmoth neck and, if so, how was the fit?

ok, so for those that route the neck pocket prior to cutting the blank, do you sand the blank down first so that the depth will be accurate? btw, sorry for the stupid questions, it is just part of my research before building.

i have decided to join you folks and try my hand at building an electric guitar. i have been doing online research and reading books on the subject for the last two months. i have come across many techniques when it comes to "when" the neck pocket should be routed. i have read that many like to do it before the blank is cut so that the router has more support. i have also noticed that many prefer to route it after the blank has be cut so that they can dry fit the neck and ensure a good fit. so this is kind of a poll... when do you like to route out your neck pocket and why?