Routing a battery box in a finished guitar ??

[Securb]

Re: Routing a battery box in a finished guitar ??

Sorry if i was a tad abrasive. .

You are fine man, it is the guy telling people they "have less than half a brain" if they don't have woodworking skills.

[MikE2e]

Re: Routing a battery box in a finished guitar ??

I am with kramersteen. Patience and attention to detail are your friends. I see people trash guitars, not because of lack of skill, but lack of patience.
The first thing is if you (evh_slash) have a router then you must be familiar with how it works and how wild they can be. Hope it is a smaller size, or has a speed control
After making a pattern to make a template, I would use a scalpel and the pattern to cut through the paint surface to the wood all the way around. This will help the paint to remain where it is supposed to be and not chip and crack. Depending on thickness I might even be tempted to make the cut marginally further out.
But do a test in the area that will be removed cutting a smaller hole with scalpel and test.
Because my router is a monster 1.5kW I use for body cutting, even with the new electronic speed control I built it is unwieldy. I have a laminate trimmer and a Dremel as well however
I would use the Dremel with a down cut bit and cut around the edges into the wood.
Then move over to a laminate trimmer with 1/4" cutter to complete the cut.
Someone I know just uses down cut bit and masking tape over the cut but does not use a scalpel blade or sharp Stanley.
Oh, and also put a low tack sheet of wax paper or similar down. Light spray of adhesive contact, lie this on old towel. This makes it stick but easy to remove after.
Ensure the foot of the router is clean, with no rough edges. I have seen old routers with damage leave marks. (You don't want router scrapes in the remaining paint)

ErikH mentioned drill too deep and you go through the front. That is a symptom of lack of care and preparation or just plain Russian. "Always rushin to do this then rushin . I belong to AAMIM and see people with no experience but who ask questions produce fantastic instruments, but others who rush even after many suggestions of go slow, produce rubbish

[kramersteen]

Re: Routing a battery box in a finished guitar ??

I am with kramersteen. Patience and attention to detail are your friends. I see people trash guitars, not because of lack of skill, but lack of

Hey neighbour. I live on the sunny coast.

[MikE2e]

Re: Routing a battery box in a finished guitar ??

Hey neighbour. I live on the sunny coast.

Ha Ha. Seems there are a few of us from this island on the forum

[idsnowdog]

Re: Routing a battery box in a finished guitar ??

Here's what the wiring on the guitar end and the phantom power box looks like. On the guitar end you just remove the power clip. I just put the stereo jack, battery terminal and mono jack for the phantom power in a small plastic hobby enclosure from Radio Shack. You will need to run a stereo cord between the power box and the guitar. The sleeve acts as the common ground, the ring acts as the power terminal and the tip acts as the positive signal terminal.

[Securb]

Re: Routing a battery box in a finished guitar ??

Here's what the wiring on the guitar end and the phantom power box looks like. On the guitar end you just remove the power clip. I just put the stereo jack, battery terminal and mono jack for the phantom power in a small plastic hobby enclosure from Radio Shack. You will need to run a stereo cord between the power box and the guitar. The sleeve acts as the common ground, the ring acts as the power terminal and the tip acts as the positive signal terminal.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]57631[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]57632[/ATTACH]

That is pretty cool and easy to build. I would think using pedal board power instead of a battery would be nice. Never buy another 9 volt or worry about your axe dying on a gig.

[MikE2e]

Routing a battery box in a finished guitar ??

You don't necessarily need to route for a battery box. You can just wire for a stereo jack and then build a phantom power box to provide power via a stereo cable. I have done that with all of my actives.

This is the way to go. Solves the power issue with no Irreversible changes to the instrument and gets pesky batteries out.

I think I would mod a stereo cable by replacing one jack with mono, then cut the male plug off a power pack, solder it into the cable seal with heat shrink?

[idsnowdog]

Re: Routing a battery box in a finished guitar ??

That is pretty cool and easy to build. I would think using pedal board power instead of a battery would be nice. Never buy another 9 volt or worry about your axe dying on a gig.

With an AC adapter you might get more noise. I know sometimes pedals don't like being run from an AC adapter.

[dominus]

Re: Routing a battery box in a finished guitar ??

ErikH mentioned drill too deep and you go through the front. That is a symptom of lack of care and preparation or just plain Russian. "Always rushin to do this then rushin . I belong to AAMIM and see people with no experience but who ask questions produce fantastic instruments, but others who rush even after many suggestions of go slow, produce rubbish

What about people with vision deficiencies? I have a problem with depth perception that gives me some difficulties with fine detail work. I've used a router to remove some material from a pickup cavity on a Strat (where the pickguard would cover most mistakes and I was able to use the bottom of the cavity for a guide), but trying to gauge where to stop depth-wise would be difficult for me.

[MikE2e]

Re: Routing a battery box in a finished guitar ??

I personally would use a chisel not a router, but the bottom of the the cavity won't look as pretty. With a router, put it on the body and press it until the cutter bottoms, check the the depth gauge, move the depth no more than a few mm. The body will be about 45 mm thick or 1 3/4", standard strat pickups need 19mm vintage are 16mm (3/4" or 5/8").
Put the router on the top when set with the cutting bit over the edge and you will see how deep it is.
Usually 5mm is enough for those look alike pickups with a bar magnet under so after cutting you should still have 3/4"
I have cut a thin body to where there was 1/8 but tapping or scraping a finger nail in the cavity you could hear it was like an acoustic top

[MikE2e]

Re: Routing a battery box in a finished guitar ??

With an AC adapter you might get more noise. I know sometimes pedals don't like being run from an AC adapter.

I do know that some older pedals on a power pack whistle on cheap switch mode power packs and on transformer type give hum. I take a 12v pack, and put a regulator 7809 with caps, but often there is no space in the pack, and others are sealed. I built a power pack with 4 double output transformers, so it had 8 independent regulated 9v outputs with no noise. But new pedals all seem to use higher current and voltage, many cant run on battery.

[dominus]

Re: Routing a battery box in a finished guitar ??

I personally would use a chisel not a router, but the bottom of the the cavity won't look as pretty. With a router, put it on the body and press it until the cutter bottoms, check the the depth gauge, move the depth no more than a few mm. The body will be about 45 mm thick or 1 3/4", standard strat pickups need 19mm vintage are 16mm (3/4" or 5/8").
Put the router on the top when set with the cutting bit over the edge and you will see how deep it is.
Usually 5mm is enough for those look alike pickups with a bar magnet under so after cutting you should still have 3/4"
I have cut a thin body to where there was 1/8 but tapping or scraping a finger nail in the cavity you could hear it was like an acoustic top

I used a chisel to convert a Telecaster to take a humbucker in the bridge. (Four times, actually. Converted four guitars.) Definitely worked in that capacity but I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be putting in a cavity that way.

[john65b]

Re: Routing a battery box in a finished guitar ??

Here's what the wiring on the guitar end and the phantom power box looks like. On the guitar end you just remove the power clip. I just put the stereo jack, battery terminal and mono jack for the phantom power in a small plastic hobby enclosure from Radio Shack. You will need to run a stereo cord between the power box and the guitar. The sleeve acts as the common ground, the ring acts as the power terminal and the tip acts as the positive signal terminal.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]57631[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]57632[/ATTACH]

Such a good Idea!

Until I realized that my particular guitar setup is wireless...where is Tesla when you need him?