HSS Project progress
Enjoying the holiday at the moment. The meniere's disease has almost totally behaved itself the last two days so I got some more progress made on the HSS build.
First - I said that the standard scratchplate I bought didn't fit so I'm making one from scratch using the standard one as a bit of a template. I thought therefore about some from of jig to help when cutting it out. I'm a Youtube addict for certain guitar channels, one being Crimson Guitars and the other Susan Gardener's. Both of these have shown use of the Crimson Guitars Jewellers / Inlay Cutting Bench Jig. Now I could just have bought one, but it's £20 for essentially a couple of bits of wood. No doubt expertly made and finished by Ben and the team at Crimson but I rifled through some old bits of wood in the shed and in an hour or so had made one of my own.
Yes more rough and ready than the Crimson one but it does the job. And so to that job...
I spent a good hour and a half figuring out the fit of of the scratchplate on paper. I had 2 attempts - the first didn't fit at the bottom well. The 2nd was my pick.
Now I promised something different ... hmm... you may see a line cutting off the bottom "horn". I contemplated something closer to a Tyler guitar style scratchplate but in the end after consultations with and aesthetics guru (Mrs F) went traditional. It differs from a standard in that it is stretched top to bottom - exp the inside of the cutaway which seems very much more swooping than standard - bit like the brand new Silver Sky from PRS.
So with this marked out and outline cut out I doublesided taped it to the scratchplate blank you can see underneath - yes Black Pearloid is my choice for this one.
Then to use my new Jig.
Before and after shots. After a long time with the coping saw and a file it was ready for a test fit.
Not bad. Ran out of time today but next will be to cut out the pickup holes then drill holes for the controls and mounting screws.
First - I said that the standard scratchplate I bought didn't fit so I'm making one from scratch using the standard one as a bit of a template. I thought therefore about some from of jig to help when cutting it out. I'm a Youtube addict for certain guitar channels, one being Crimson Guitars and the other Susan Gardener's. Both of these have shown use of the Crimson Guitars Jewellers / Inlay Cutting Bench Jig. Now I could just have bought one, but it's £20 for essentially a couple of bits of wood. No doubt expertly made and finished by Ben and the team at Crimson but I rifled through some old bits of wood in the shed and in an hour or so had made one of my own.
Yes more rough and ready than the Crimson one but it does the job. And so to that job...
I spent a good hour and a half figuring out the fit of of the scratchplate on paper. I had 2 attempts - the first didn't fit at the bottom well. The 2nd was my pick.
Now I promised something different ... hmm... you may see a line cutting off the bottom "horn". I contemplated something closer to a Tyler guitar style scratchplate but in the end after consultations with and aesthetics guru (Mrs F) went traditional. It differs from a standard in that it is stretched top to bottom - exp the inside of the cutaway which seems very much more swooping than standard - bit like the brand new Silver Sky from PRS.
So with this marked out and outline cut out I doublesided taped it to the scratchplate blank you can see underneath - yes Black Pearloid is my choice for this one.
Then to use my new Jig.
Before and after shots. After a long time with the coping saw and a file it was ready for a test fit.
Not bad. Ran out of time today but next will be to cut out the pickup holes then drill holes for the controls and mounting screws.
Just so you know...I do enjoy these. That you can actually MAKE a guitar never crossed my mind. I was at a friend's house for dinner once. He ran out of mayonnaise to he actually MADE some! Egg whites and some other stuff. I was astounded! I thought mayonnaise came from the store. Just like guitars. You people are so talented.
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