Official Luthiers Forum!

Can I give u some advise?
I will anyway.
If you take a piece of 1/4" mdf, or something,
and make a template for the size you want to rout into the body,
then get a router bit,
with a top bearing,
called a pattern bit.
It's easy to shape the 1/4" template,
then clamp it on where you want it,
then rout out to perfection.
1 to 1.
Way to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@ledbthand Oh wow, I never thought of doing the dowels. I was thinking about how at the top there it would come extremely close when we did the lip (I was just gonna use a dremel and make a small one). We have a lot of extra wood. I'll just do that! Though since it's curved, would it be better to maybe put like 4-5 going from the bottom to the top and just use them to drill into (to keep on the cover)?

@alan I'll take all the advice I can lol. That's for the cavities, right? 'Cause yeah, they've been taking the most time since we've been getting close and finishing with a weak dremel (battery life wise). But won't the router rout into the MDF board? I'm pretty sure we're using pattern bits right now (got a whole set of 'um).

I'm thinking with this help, and the experience from this Duckitar, my BS Shoetar should be a pretty good guitar (planning what to do with my other piece of Limba. And, as you can tell, it'll most likely be a shoe shape).

DAY THIRTEEN:

So this is so far today. I was thinking (when I realized I drilled in the wrong side. All that means is the front got chipped instead of the back where it wouldn't be visible. Always drill from the front . . . ), though, of having my dad help rout the pickup cavities more, and maybe just make a custom "pick guard" out of wood to help cover the chips and stuff (instead of just having the edge being covered). I took the camera inside today. What I've done today (so far) is drill the 3-way selector hole and do some sanding. I don't want to drill the tunnels connecting everything yet until I get the pickup cavities 100% done. Also don't want to drill the output jack hole until I figure out how the whole cavity configuration will be (since I realized in order to get it attached to the rest, I have to have everything come back around through the pickup cavities and to the output jack, unless I want it up top and really uncomfortable to play).

Anyways, here it is:


Here's all my gear, too, that I got for this Duckitar:


I'll do a photoshop mockup of what the finished product will look like too.

MOCKUP:

If you make a template like this out of ply or mdf,
then use a router bit with a bearing on the top of the cutter,
it will follow the template.
Just keep stepping the depth of the router down, down, down.
Dig?

Since we got a big piece of Limba, we had enough for two guitars. So while I'm painting this Duckitar, I'm gonna make a humbucker template. It's too late now to use it on this guitar, but I just need it so bad . . . I just get worried it'll cut the template with it even when it's low =\

Just be careful.
Once you are cutting below the template,
your bearing is riding on the cavity sides.
Bring the router to the center,
and turn it off,
wait for it to stop,
then pull it out.
Take small passes,
otherwise, it could grab too much wood,
and jump.
The bigger the router, the better for this application, imo.
Good luck on your next routing experience.
Alan.

We've definitely learned our lesson with the router- twice, on the guitar body, it's kicked up way too much and almost ruined the wood to the point where I don't know what I'd do (luckily both we can cover easily and make it look like the cover was meant). We're a lot more cautious now lol.

We haven't forgotten about this . . . just the 4th of July combined with rainy weather, among other things, have made it difficult to work on (we work outside so we can clean up easier). Though I'm hoping by August 20th it'll be done . . . so I can bring it to Jazz class at school ^_^

DAY FOURTEEN:

No pics. Just routed the cavities more. Now the pickups fit snuggly in their cavities, and the pickup selector pokes through the top. Next up we need to get a long drill (the main cavity is up top so we need to connect the output to it) and a right angle one to connect everything, then we sand and paint!

just drill through the neck pocket to the bridge cavity an it'll be easy.

What do you mean by that (since the output jack is on the other side of the guitar, aka the beak)?

Also, no updates for a while. We've been having "record rainfall", and by that I mean it's pouring every day and we've been getting, I'd say, record lightning to go along with it (apparently there was 346 huge strikes by my house two nights ago within a few hours. Definitely scary being outside by yourself with the sky lighting up), making it impossible to work since we have to work outside due to space, and I'm going out of town next week . . . LUCKILY before I get to painting it's just connecting all the cavities . . . which should just take a day.

I just prefer to connect the bridge and neck pickup cavity and only run one wire to the control cavity, it's a little tidier IMO. Either way is fine though.

I was gonna connect the two cavities in the middle with a little tunnel and connect only one to the back cavity.

Also don't think this is gonna be done by school =(. Still raining, but not as hard, but I'm going out of town this week, and I might be doing some recording during like, my only free day this week. I'm kinda really sad about how far it isn't . . . But you can't control the weather unfortunately.

Just drilled the output "tunnel". Next instrument I make, I'M gonna make it. I'm NOT going to have my dad try and help me. I was going to drill at an angle that would allow the drill to penetrate the wall of the back cavity until he stops me and says, "you're gonna go through the top". So he takes over, and we BARELY make it into the back cavity, literally coming in through the floor instead of the wall, AND going through a pickup cavity in the process. So instead of a nice, clean, cut, we have this botched cut that's gonna make it one hell of a time to go into the tunnel to the output jack, and possibly maybe not make it depending on if there's room in the pickup cavity or not (I'm using the solderless setups so I don't know how much room they'll take). It also, instead of going through the middle of the cavity, went through the VERY back. Yeah, we almost missed it completely on two counts.

Oh, and it's not the first time he's told me what I was doing was wrong, and then ended up almost completely screwing over the project doing it his way (at first, I just said things like "we'll just put a pickguard over it" or "I can cover that up"), which is why now I'm more than a little angry at him.

Hey don't sweat it, no build ever goes perfect, I dropped my acoustic neck I'm making Tuesday and busted off the heel. I also drilled through the top of my first electric trying to connect the control cavity to the bridge post for a ground wire after I had already wet sanded and buffed it. Those things happen buddy, but figuring out how to fix it is what teaches you to be a better luthier.

Also, your dad's worse nightmare is probably for you to slice off a finger, I cut my thumb pretty bad once with a hand saw when I was pretty young and my dad flipped out, he still barely lets me use anything more than a screwdriver or wrench at his house and I'm a grown man now lol.

I hate to Necromancer a post over 2 year old but I was wondering what became of your Duck guitar? Did you ever finish it or did it wind up as a pile of parts in a box in the closet?