Making the thing that helps me make the thing - Part 2

That's a funny looking comb.

I ended my last post with two body blanks shaped and ready for what's next.

So, what's next?

There are many different answers to this question.  I've seen people carve the arch into the guitar tops next, or route the channel for installing the binding, or attach the neck to the body.  My thought process (if we are going to call it that) is that digging holes is probably what should be next.  And there's a good reason for that - the body blanks are currently flat - so the router will sit nice and level on them.

You try routing a square hole on a rounded surface - tears will be shed, vulgarities shouted, tools cast down, and alcoholic beverages consumed.

What kind of holes are we talking?

Exhibit A: holes

The biggie is the neck pocket.  Then comes the holes for the pickups, control cavities, bridge posts control knobs, and on and on.  There are, in fact, a massive number of holes in a 'solid' body guitar.
It only gets worse if you build a guitar with a tremolo system like a Stratocaster.

The smaller holes (like for the bridge posts and control knobs) can be made with a drill bit but the bigger holes need to be dug with a router - especially the neck pocket.  And if we're talking routers - then we're also talking templates.

So, it's a comb template?

I have three guitar necks - so that's why this template has three holes.  Just like underwear - one size does not fit all.   Each neck is just different enough that I can't use one generic neck-pocket template.  They have to be unique.

The thing about the neck pocket is that it has to be so many things: the neck needs to fit snug but not too snug, it has to have the correct angle (this will be a whole post in itself), it has to be the correct depth, and it needs to be perfectly in-line with the bridge or the strings will hang off of the fret board.  The neck pocket is pretty crucial to get right.  But, why?  In short, if the neck doesn't sit in the pocket correctly the guitar will never play correctly.

Add to this one other crucial element: wood shrinks and swells with humidity changes.
If you have to force the neck into the neck pocket when you are assembling the guitar - what's going to happen five years from now when we have a month of 95% humidity?  Yo guitar is gonna do the banana splits!

So, that was the long explanation for why I built the above template.  As for how I built this template...

Not pictured: power tools 

I started out the same way as all the other templates: tracing the necks and cutting the rough shape with a jig saw.  Then I just went very slowly with sandpaper wrapped around a stick (or a sharpie for the corners).  It took about 20 - 30 minutes per neck but now the templates fit those necks almost perfectly.

Not pictured: excitement

Not pictured: adventure

You literally make 20 passes at a time on one side of the template and then 20 passes on the other with the sandpaper.  Then you stop and check the fit.  It is just the kind of precision work that I was not made for.  But it is what it is.  This is one step that wood glue and sawdust won't cover up. This is my fourth (and fifth) time doing this - and I'm just now learning this lesson.

Not pictured: my forte 

Pictured: almost perfect.

So the templates are ready to be used.  Now I just have to figure out how deep to dig and at what angle.  Those will be the subjects of my next post.

You may have noticed I glossed over a couple of things:

1)  I only worked on two of the neck pockets on this template.
No sense working on neck #3 until there is a body #3!

2) How is it I just happen to have three necks kicking around?
Um... I'll cover that in another post.