Fun with the Drill Press (more project stuff)

[daan]

OK so my mother-in-law has a pretty complete wood shop. They usually watch my girls Thursdays. Well one of my coworkers called in on Monday and I covered for him, so I got today off. I went over to the inlaws with a couple guitars, and did some more mod work.
The first is my fake Roadstar.

It's actually pretty good as is, but it has really cheap electronics. Plus the control cavity is laid out to be really big, but they only routed out enough for the mini pots and the box switch. Which just started acting up, I'd have to wiggle it a lot to get it to do anything. Plus the output is getting funky, too. TIme for an upgrade!

See, there SHOULD be room in there for whatever.

Step 1: Get all the cheap stuff outta there!

Step 2, hit it a half-dozen times with the Forstner bit (after measuring and setting up the drill stop so I don't drill right thru the top!)

Step 3, dig out the Dremel router and some sand paper to clean the pocket up.

Cavity sheilding paint. I have enough copper tape to do this, but I wanted to try the paint this time. THe 2nd coat is drying now, then I can bust out the soldering iron and put in the nicer stuff (Dimarzio pots, Switchcraft right-angle 3-way and output jack)

I do have a couple Dimarzios on their way to me, a TOne Zone bridge and a 36th Anniversary neck. Oh, and a couple mini toggles for splitting, phase, etc...

Other project I worked on was my Gretsch Corvette.

I've had this thing for a couple years now, it's very similar to an SG (thin Mahog body, set neck) ANyway I got it as part of a trade, and when it arrived it had really crappy leftover junk box parts in it (and was missing a pickup and the Bigsby) I didn't care about the tremolo, but I did want nicer electronics in it. I got a set of TV-Jones "T-90" pups, a set of CTS/Switchcraft pots and switch, and a neat-0 Varitone pot. Well, the guy who made the Varitone said it would fit in anything a CTS pot would fit in, but it's a LOT deeper than the usual pot.


I measured everything about 17 times, and calculated I needed to take about 1mm out of the floor of the cavity-the whole body is only 32mm thick, and I needed like 27mm of depth for the Varitone. EEEK Anyway I set it up, sweated a lot (did I mention I really like this guitar?)



You can barely make out the "lip" of the cut I made, thru the jack hole.

Plenty of room now, the guard sits on the face of the guitar fine.

Now as long as I don't F up the wiring, it'll all be good!

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Fun with the Drill Press (more project stuff)

Huh-huh, huh-huh... You said jack hole.

Seriously though, nice work. I've never seen that Gretsch before. Sounds like both should be pretty sweet when you're finished.

 

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: Fun with the Drill Press (more project stuff)

Nice,as usual!!!



Great work,daan!

 

[DankStar]

Re: Fun with the Drill Press (more project stuff)

Nice

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Fun with the Drill Press (more project stuff)

Reminds me of the time I was standing in a luthier's shop and another customer walked in, and needed a big hole patched in his LP R7 Goldtop. He tried to do what you did and drilled all the way through. I'll bet that was an expensive lesson! Patch, plus complete refinish. LOL

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: Fun with the Drill Press (more project stuff)

Good Job.

I did something similar a few days ago. I went to install the new pickups with the special mid circuit, and the mid circuit pot wouldn't fit, so I went to the hardware store and got a forstner bit, and stuck it in my dill.
Well, I was expecting a rough go of it, however being a MIC Squire , although the body color is a cool british green, the wood- though solid wood and not ply- is total junk ( someone had said it was alder, which it isn't even close ).

It is a full size body though, with a lot of modifications.
Anyhow, the wood is so soft, like Balsa I guess, it just had zero resistance to the bit , Like a pencil in a sharpener- you can see the flakes.
My Ash USA Fender I routed for diefrent pickup legs , by contrast , was very hard to route with the drill- the wood even smoked. So that's saying a lot for different grades of wood.

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[GuitarDoc]

Re: Fun with the Drill Press (more project stuff)

Yea guys. Keep modding those guitars. Love it.

 

[BloodRose]

Re: Fun with the Drill Press (more project stuff)

Well done!!! Yeah, I have crappy luck, Id have went all the way through... Whew! Yeah, Ill bet that made for some tense moments.. taking out just an RCH..

On the first one, its odd (but good for you) that they made the cover so huge, and the cavity small

 

[kramersteen]

Re: Fun with the Drill Press (more project stuff)

Reminds me of the time I was standing in a luthier's shop and another customer walked in, and needed a big hole patched in his LP R7 Goldtop. He tried to do what you did and drilled all the way through. I'll bet that was an expensive lesson! Patch, plus complete refinish. LOL

When i modded a ibby sabre to have graphtech gear i made a new strat style jack on the back. Those bodies are really thin and hard to measure correctly as the top curves. Anyway we got so close to breaking through you could actually see some light from the finish shining through. Must have only been in the smallest area because it was still strong.

 

[daan]

Re: Fun with the Drill Press (more project stuff)

the wood- though solid wood and not ply- is total junk ( someone had said it was alder, which it isn't even close ).

It is a full size body though, with a lot of modifications.
Anyhow, the wood is so soft, like Balsa I guess, it just had zero resistance to the bit , Like a pencil in a sharpener- you can see the flakes.
My Ash USA Fender I routed for diefrent pickup legs , by contrast , was very hard to route with the drill- the wood even smoked. So that's saying a lot for different grades of wood.

Is it Palouwina? Or maybe really ...uh, not-dense Basswood? I know there's a few species of Pine that's been used for Squiers (Teles especially). When I drilled out the broken screw in my maple JBP, that smoked like a BBQ (and the extraction tool got hot and turned black) Drilling out the broken screw in my green Matsumoku was a lot easier, even though that's supposed to be maple/walnut where the screw was. I know wood density varies species to species and even between different pieces of the same species...
Cool green Strat, my favorite colors are cobalt blue and the green yours is.

And now that I think of it, I bought a body out of the GFS Factory Buyout Sale thing, the control cavity wasn't deep enough for anything, so I Forstnered that. I know this was a Palouwina body, and I could barely feel any resistance to the bit when I cut it. The Formula up at the top of the post, I had to work harder to get the drill bit thru it. Yeah.