Drilling from the front (top) is best, as tear-out is more likely to occur when the bit exits through the wood than entering. A good sharp bit is always best as well.
I highly recommend using a tapered reamer to enlarge holes. Especially with a control cavity as the wood is significantly thinner there than the rest of the body.
Making the world a better place; one guitar at a time...
1. As long as the drill is sharp, there shouldn't be any issues with the side you drill from. Any tear-out almost always occurs on the side the drill head appears from.
With a thicker depth of wood, you could drill a pilot hole, then use that to drill first from one side and the once the whole width of the drill bit is in the hole it's making, swap and continue from the other side.
But as you've only got a few mm to play with, I'd just drill from the top, with a block of scrap wood pressing against the wood on the underside of the control cavity, so that the drill bit continued drilling from the body into the scrap wood. The pressure of the block should stop any tendency for tear-out. If you do get tear-out, it's better that it's inside the cavity rather than on the top where it can be seen.
2. If you've got a reamer, then widening the existing holes with that is best. Because the reamer is tapered, it's best to work from both sides alternately, widening a bit at a time.
Go carefully with the first hole, then when it's just big enough to poke the pot through, I'd mark off the depth on the reamer with a bit of tape, which means you can then work more quickly on the other holes as you know when to stop.
Thanks as always for the advice.
Holes have been taken care of and the controls mocked up. I put the 4 way switch as far over as I could given the cavity and it just barely results in a little overlap of the knob and switch plate.
The knobs in the picture are just the kit ones, not sure on what I will do for the final product.
Last edited by SGHunter; 23-01-2022 at 12:59 AM.
I took care of the nut situation. PB is going to refund me and I got a blank and I am fitting a new nut. At this point I have it mostly shaped and slotted but I wanted to find out if I should do or don’t do anything before gluing the nut in. I still need to file in the actual grooves and some final shaping to match the radius.
Last edited by SGHunter; 09-02-2022 at 02:01 AM.
I am looking for some advice. I shaped the nut similar to the plastic one that is included, but I think its going to end up being far too tall.
- Should I take more off the nut now or should I wait and do the final fitting until I am ready to do the setup?
Also looking for some thoughts on what point to glue in the neck. I am planning on a gloss black finish including the back of the neck. I am currently working on sanding the body.
- Any tips on things to do before getting the neck on permanently?
I wouldn't worry about the nut until you're ready to do a setup. Having said that, I haven't shaped a nut from a blank before ;-) Anyway, you can't really get it close until you've got strings on, so you may as well leave it until then.
If the body and neck are going to be the same finish, my preference is to set the neck before applying any finish. I prep the surfaces before hand - it's much easier to sand body and neck separately.
Before you set the neck, it's worth doing a mock build with the neck and bridge in place, and using string / fishing line for the low and high strings, to make sure that the strings will run nicely down the neck, i.e. evenly spaced from the edges of the fretboard. Also, check that your scale length is correct. Also, put a straight edge on the fretboard and make sure that it clears the bridge, so that your neck break angle is sufficient to allow a good action.
@johnwhitear the scale length and spacing check out. The neck has a convex bow to it but according to the PB instruction guide that is normal and I was going to wait to straighten and level the frets until I was further along.
what kind of sanding treatment should the neck and headstock get, same as the body?
Is grain filler necessary for the neck as well? I noticed in some other builds that others had used it.
OK, no need to really get the neck bow solved now - having said that, I'd try to resolve the bow a little, if just to give myself confidence that the truss rod is working. You don't want to set the neck and then find you've got a dodgy truss rod.
From your photos, it looks like your body's mahogany, and your neck's maple. Maple doesn't need grain filling, as it doesn't have open pores like mahogany does. As you're doing a (painted?) gloss black finish, I'd sand it to 240 grit (I think your grits are different in the US - I'm talking Australian here.)
That's correct- maple neck / mahogany body.Originally Posted by jonwhitear
I am not 100% on this, but I was considering the Stew Mac Aerosol finishing set in gloss black. I'm also contemplating an air brush set up as I do have a large compressor.
I will give the truss rod a bit of a test, thanks.
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