Chuck’s N1R "Semi-scratch" Build: The resurrection

[Simon Barden]

But then the clear scratchplate would need some protection from scratches....

[Chuck]

I'm not quite as silent as FrankenWashie on his build, but I am somewhat obscure about where I'm heading! Initial routing done, might be more to come...

[Chuck]

Bit of work on the "pickguard". First step was to cut it to shape a bit better. Having sanded edges of the body a bit more I placed the pickguard on top, then flipped it over and traced the body shape. I then effectively freehanded a line about 2cm in from the trace line and cut to that.



Of course the neck pocket was going to be an issue and with not as much margin for error I wasn't sure what to do... until coming up with this solution: clamping the neck pocket template about 5mm above the body, eyeballing it to as close as I could for alignment accuracy, then sliding in the pickguard and tracing the inside of the template.



And it actually worked quite well. I cut a mm or two inside the lines so there will be some fine tuning in the pocket, and there's also plenty of room to make the overall outline smoother. All in all, quite happy with where it's heading...

[wokkaboy]

wow good work Chuck. So is the pickguard going to cover all of the front or are you going to cut bits off ? You could have a huge swimming pool route underneath and make it a featherweight axe !

[Chuck]

wow good work Chuck. So is the pickguard going to cover all of the front or are you going to cut bits off ? You could have a huge swimming pool route underneath and make it a featherweight axe !

I'm still thinking about some extra routing (although probably not the full swimming pool) - and indeed doing some more interesting stuff with the pickguard. This is one of those builds that's a little freeform - I'm working my way through the things that I know I want and will then make up my mind about the other stuff!! That said, I'm quickly getting to that point so better start being a bit more decisive.

[wokkaboy]

good stuff Chuck, I reckon scratch builds that you design on the fly are super cool

[Chuck]

good stuff Chuck, I reckon scratch builds that you design on the fly are super cool

And the best bit is you can't do anything "wrong" if you didn't know what you were going to do in the first place!!

[wokkaboy]

haha that's it Chuck, and as DB says there is always a workaround if anything goes wrong

[Chuck]

Some baby steps here as I try to work out what I'm doing. It's a bit back to front, but before finishing the body I decided to mark the bridge location on the scratchplate. This required some fine tuning of the alloy to get it in position, then tacked in place with a couple of the pickguard screws. Next all the measuring (with the neck in place) to establish the location then trace the hardtail bridge.



Then drill a hole in it to get the jigsaw blade in, do a rough cutout, then plenty of work with files and I now have a bridge hole!



I "think" the next step will be to do the pickup and control cutouts, and once all that is done I can get back to finishing the body... I may need to fine tune the body routing to accommodate stuff but we'll see.

[wokkaboy]

good work Chuck. Sometimes you have to work backwards with the pickguard dictating where all the hardware goes, so you got no choice. You cut a nice bridge hole, if I was on the jigsaw it would probably be a pentagon shape with lots of swearing coming out of the workshop haha
I would do that as you have planned, cut out the pickup and control holes next, then you can work out a routing plan which should be done before you start sanding the body.