I had to put the guitar on hold while I've been waiting for some Neodymium (Rare Earth) magnets to arrive from China. Took way longer than it should, but they were probably stuck to the side of an Aust Post delivery van somewhere on-route lol.
So it was time to see if I could work out how to hold the cover on with magnets!! Actually holding it on is no problem. Its how to get it off that was the difficult part as I didn't want to leave any "grab" holes or indents on the back of the guitar.
I was not too sure what size to get so made the gamble and went for some 8mm x 3mm disk magnets. My original plan was to mount the magnets in both the control cover and the body of the guitar, but as soon as I tried to pull them apart I knew that was a bad idea. As small as they are if you are not careful they can certainly pinch when they fly together. The easiest way to get them apart is to slide them apart. But that wasn't going to work on the guitar.
I then had the idea of only mounting them on the cover and recessing some screws into the body of the guitar. It turned out to be a stroke of genius (very rare, no, make that EXTREMELY rare) for me, as by varying the depth of the screw I can vary the magnetic pull on the cover. With 2 magnets in the body and 2 in the cover I doubt there would be any way to easily remove the cover.
So now with the aid of a stronger Neodymium magnet I can now take the cover off quite easily.
I was concerned that the magnetic force (whatever its called) may interfere or even de-magnetize the pickups but quite a few custom guitar builders are using them so I should be good. I did d/l a couple of Magnetometer Apps for my iphone and tested inside the bridge pickup cavity and there was no more magnetic "stuff" happening in there than the ambient readings I was getting outside the guitar. And this is before I shield the control cavity with shielding tape.
Time will tell and as this whole project has been a test bed for me, so I might as well give it a go.
Piccies
1. The magnets super-glued in place on the cover and the screws recessed into the body
2. The cover in place
3. This is the larger magnet that I can use to lift it.
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