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| Theft |
Never let it be said that a DIY blog about building guitars can't be socially relevant.
Yeah, I can't believe I typed that sentence either...
So what are we looking at? It's a neck plate, dummy. No really, it's used for screwing the neck onto a guitar body. And speaking of screwing - it is also a bit of Welsh culture and Druid mythology that I'm taking without asking. So, for all you Welsh Druids out there - I'm gonna steal your culture. Look out!
What you are actually looking at is the Druid symbol of the Welsh word - Awen. Awen means "inspiration" - usually of a poetic nature. I guess the Druids liked the word and decided it needed a symbol to go with it. And who are we to judge?
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| Great Expectations |
I thought it would make an interesting image on a neck plate and back in 2015 planned for it to go on the first guitar I finished that year - hence the 2015-001.
(Editor's note - no guitars were finished in 2015).
It just so happened to be a gold neck plate - so it's perfect for this build. Better late than never!
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| I like the cut of his jib |
Speaking of necks - we're gonna need a place to put that thing. I routed out the neck pocket on this body blank using the process I have used on the last couple of builds that I've worked on: Trace the outline of the neck shape on a piece of particle-board (or plywood) and cut out that shape with a jigsaw. Then use that shape as a tracing template for my router. What you can't see in the above picture is that everything to the left of that last fret is the overhang. The thickness of the whole neck minus the thickness of the overhang is how deep the neck pocket needs to be routed - so that the overhang sits flush to the body.
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| Flush |
As is quite typical at this point - things fit pretty well. The neck fits in the pocket nice and tight and the neck is straight and level. It's only later - when I start monkeying with things - that I'll mess it up!
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| "Aren't you a little short for a StormTrooper?" |
As you can see - this is a short-scale thing we're building here. A normal guitar has a scale length (the distance from the bridge to the nut) - or total string length of 24.75 to 25.5 inches. This puppy will be about 20.5 inches. Also, the width and depth of the neck are much smaller than a normal neck. Hopefully, this will make it easier for little hands to hold it.
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| Diggin' Holes |
In addition to the neck pocket, I also routed out the hole for the pickup. I'm going to go with a Humbucker for this build for two reasons: I already have one left-over from another build and humbuckers are quieter than single-coil pickups (as in they don't hum as much - hence hum-bucker).
I already have a humbucker routing template so this went fairly quick.
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| Diggin' More Holes |
I also drilled the hole for the input jack (where the guitar cable plugs into the body). If you look at the center of the hole you'll see a little light. That's the pickup cavity in the previous picture.
The below picture is a detail shot of this. I chose to go really primitive with the electronics for this build as I didn't want to overwhelm my Son with switches and knobs and I didn't want to overwhelm myself with soldering headaches.
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| Holes inside holes. |
When I'm done with this build it will have one pickup, one volume knob, and an input jack. Low-tech but just enough to do some damage.
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