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People route for pickups all the time without necessarily having the piece in hand...that's the beauty of interchangeable parts and premade templates. If I made a unique template for every guitar humbucker I've routed instead of using a standard template I would have pulled my hair out by now. For this project though, I'd like to get my template up and running and make some progress on the body while I'm waiting on my pickups. I don't build all that many basses so that's why I need a few specs.

I have the image of the route in Melvyn Hiscok's book, but I was wondering if I could get a few quick measurements. What size radius is the route in the corners, and what size are the semicircular sections for the mounting holes? Thanks!

Hey guys. Presently I've been doing all my work with a 1 3/4 HP fixed base Milwaukee router (which I love BTW) but I was looking for something a bit more powerful to use in a table. I was going to get a Milwaukee set with interchangeable bases but I ran across this at Home Depot by accident when I went to look at what they had for router tables. It's a Dewalt 3 base kit with edge guide for $150 when they sell for $270ish elsewhere. I guess it's a closeout there so that's why it's so cheap. I snagged one and I wanted to let you guys know in case any of you were in the market. Here's the same kit on Amazon...Dewalt 3 base kit They had one left at my local depot in CT, so it may be worth a look if you're in the market.

My old drill press is a royal pain so I've been thinking about replacing it. I ran across this Shop Fox Oscillating Drill Press at Grizzly and it caught my interest It's reasonably priced, it's got enough swing for most guitar stuff I'd be doing (8.5") and it's even rated for the same HP as my old free standing 15" press. The oscillating option seems interesting because I could use it as a spindle sander and it's even got a dust port. What do you think? Is Shop Fox a decent brand? (it's just repainted Grizzly stuff, right?) Anyone have any experience with an oscillating drill press? Thanks for the help folks

Hey all...my shop vac really isn't up to the task anymore now that I've acquired some real tools so I was thinking of picking up a dust collector. This Rikon 1HP collector seems like a good deal, and Woodcraft is having 15% off if you get there first thing in the morning March 1 so it'd be about $170.. It's rated for 650 CFM and 78 dB with seems relatively quiet for a dust collector. From what I've seen, it's about as cheap as you can spend for a real dust collector. Comparable units run $200-$350. Do you think I'd be OK with Rikon? I don't have any experience with their tools but they seem to be all over the place at Woodcraft and in magazines. Any other advice you can give me? I'm really looking forward to 650 CFM though .... that's 4 times my shop vac!

Looks pretty cool! How well does it work?

Mike was using these for drop tops, not acoustic backs. You really want stable wood for backs and tops on acoustics, building in tension(unwanted tension) is a bad idea. If a top or back is mildly bending, you can heat it up and work it back to shape. If it is radically twisting it would take several sessions with a fair bit of heat to get the wood retrained and stable. Each time you heat wood it will lose a bit of strength (not bad if it is one or two sessions), but many with high heat and you may lose a lot of strength. So use good judgement when doing this for acoustics, and absolutely flex the wood at the end of the process and see if it is still going to perform as you want it to. Peace,Rich Thanks to Rich's help the walnut came out beautifully!

What router do you have that spins that slow??? Variable speed routers don't really go below 10,000 RPMs. I would NOT attempt to use your drill press for routing!

How was the blade out of the box Rich? Did you need to sharpen or hone it?

I have a Fender-style hardtail bridge that I'm going to use on my current project. It's got a string spacing of 2 3/16" and I need that width to match my wide neck. I was thinking of using some FerraGlide saddles in the bridge because they should perform better than the bent steel saddles (and I like the look better ). You can get the saddles that perfectly match my bridge spacing, with each saddle 0.440 in wide, from Graphtech directly but they're close to $80. Alternatively, you can get them from StewMac for $50 but they'll be slighty undersized at 0.410 in each. If I use the StewMac ones, I'll have tiny gaps. My question then is do you think these gaps are going to be a problem or am I being too picky? Thanks guys!

What's the best way to trim the binding in the neck pocket once it's applied? Just file it? This will be my first stab at binding and I don't want to mess it up!

What's the best way to get binding to look nice and clean around a bolt on neck pocket? Should you bind the body first then route the neck pocket so you go through the binding? Or should you route the pocket first? Any tips you can give me would be appreciated!

I'm so glad Rich could save this wood! Real good info too :D

Most neck pockets (like Fenders for example) seem to be 5/8" deep. Is this just because that's a convenient depth for 4/4 stock? Would there be any harm do you think in having a deeper neck pocket, say half the body thickness, such as 7/8" on a standard 1 3/4" body? I'm planning on bolt-on build where I'll use neck ferrules for mounting a maple neck to a mahogany body and I was thinking of doing a deeper pocket. Thanks guys!

Hey all! I need a new template bit for my router but all the ones I seem to find in the stores have a cutting length of 1" or more. I liked the StewMac bit with a 1/2" CL, but it's bit the dust so to speak. Where can you find similar bits? Thanks for the help!