Templates, templates, and more templates

First one who says, "I heart this" gets beaten with a bag of nickels

By this point you should get the gist.  Guitar building takes a lot of templates if you want to make things look decent and make the steps repeatable.  I'll try not to go into excruciating detail on this but here's what's cookin'.  

Almost looks like a film noir Jabba

That black piece of plastic is the control cover for a Paul Reed Smith guitar.  It covers (as you would imagine) the control cavity in the back of the guitar.  That's where all the volume, tone, and switching controls are located.  The cover makes it easy for repair persons to get at everything but also protects the delicate bits from abuse. Remember we're talking about guitarists here - this is the same group of knuckleheads that think it's 'artistic' to smash a headstock through a speaker cab.

Pictured: Close enough!

There are two control covers for the Les Paul and one for the PRS.  I'm planning on making templates for all of them.  Here's the kicker - the control covers are supposed to be flush with the back of the guitar - not sit on top.  Which means I have a decision to make - build two sets of templates for each control cover - or do some creative routing.  I'm undecided right now.

If I decide to make two templates for each control cavity one is slightly smaller than the other.  In essence you dig one big hole for the electronics and a smaller ledge or lip at the edge of the first hole that is slightly larger and only about 1/16 of an inch deep for the cover to sit on.

Which reminds me - at some point I'm going to have to get some plastic and make those covers...

Forstner Bit (aka The Hog)

One note about the above template:  I didn't make 'relief' cuts in this for the jig saw to follow.  I made relief holes at each of the corners.  I used a 1 inch forstner bit for the two rounded areas at the top and a 1/4 inch bit for the point at the bottom.  I was then able to cut from hole to hole using the jig saw and clean everything up by hand with sandpaper and a small file/rasp.  I then repeated the process for one of the Les Paul control covesr (see below).

Ever feel like you're just digging frickin' holes?

If you have slightly more money than time (and you don't have a Les Paul or PRS handy to trace the parts) you can just buy some of these templates instead of making them.  I usually buy them here.
For whatever reason (read laziness) I decided to buy the template I'll be using to route the pickup cavities.

Pictured: impulse buy!

I'll probably use this template to route a thicker template at some point - as this is both thin and small but for now it's one less template that I have to make.  Which is making me happy.

For those playing the home game - this is template #7 for these builds.
If I ever want to do this again - I'm gonna be all set!