Routing The Body

The Neck Pocket

Today I finally got around to starting the routing of the body. There have been some lingering questions about how to carve the top that have had me at a stand still for a week or so. I think I have a handle on that part of it now so it's time to move forward.

I started by routing the neck pocket. I used 2 different templates to accomplish this. The first is profiled the same as the body but has the neck pocket route as well. This helps me assure that I have lined things up properly. I placed a neck from a previous project into the neck pocket route and used a straight edge to line it up and draw lines off of each edge of the neck down the length of the template. I then measured from each corner of the neck to the opposite line at the edge of the body... equal measurements here tell me the neck is square to the body. I made the first pass with the router using this template.

I then switched to the second template to complete the routing. One screw into the top where the neck pickup route will be and a bar clamp hold the template in place.

The finished pocket...though I may need to adjust it's depth after the top is carved.

This neck is a bit undersized for this route and it's end is profiled for a Strat style guitar but it serves as a good substitute.

The Pickup Cavities

I didn't stop to take many pics because I was on a roll. But you can see that it was done much the same as the neck pocket...using shallow cuts and several passes to get them to the right depth...3/4". Again, I may have to adjust their depth after the carve...the neck pickup for sure.

After I reached the max depth of the thin template, I used the body itself as a template, but the opening from the pocket route had to be blocked so the pickup cavity could go to 3/4" without affecting the pocket's 5/8" depth. A simple block did the trick. The left image is before final depth and the right is at final depth. I didn't use the control cavity route because I have decided to backload the electronics to give me more room for the top carve. See the new render here...it shows the backloaded electronics.

New Carve Profile

The Control Cavity

I started by block sanding the back to remove a couple of nicks that happened during routing...no probels there but I do have a stubborn low spot that I'm going to have to deal with at some point. I also put the slightest of roundover on the back.

Next it was time for the control cavity. I bought some cool templates that work for the deep cut, seen here, the shallow cover cut anf the profile of the cover itself. I don't have the material for the cover yet so I'll do those later.