Strat: Best Way To Route Wire Channel For Top Horn Of Strat (No Cap) LP-Like

[post toastie]

. body is finished

i need to [cut a wire tunnel running from the pickup cavity to the top horn of a finished alder Classic Vibe 50's body] so that the LP like toggle can be mounted without a pickguard in the standard LP type position.

what is the best way to achieve this ?

right now i am equipped only with Dremel and hand drill. i do not have a workshop but i may be able to acquire the necessary items. for example, i do not have any type of clamps, but may be able to get the items to create an inexpensive rig that would get the job accomplished.

thanks.

i'm all ears.

 

[CTN]

Re: Strat: Best Way To Route Wire Channel For Top Horn Of Strat (No Cap) LP-Like

you might be able to do the actual route for the switch with a couple of big forstner bits and a drill bit for the switch mounting hole, but you`re gonna need a drill press to do it right.

The channel, you might have to use a long aircraft drill bit and drill towards one of the pickup cavities or between them. hand drill would be fine for that as long as you have a steady hand and a drill bit that's long and thin enough.

 

[Agileguy_101]

Re: Strat: Best Way To Route Wire Channel For Top Horn Of Strat (No Cap) LP-Like

you might be able to do the actual route for the switch with a couple of big forstner bits and a drill bit for the switch mounting hole, but you`re gonna need a drill press to do it right.

The channel, you might have to use a long aircraft drill bit and drill towards one of the pickup cavities or between them. hand drill would be fine for that as long as you have a steady hand and a drill bit that's long and thin enough.

+1

I'd love to see the finished project.

 

[post toastie]

Re: Strat: Best Way To Route Wire Channel For Top Horn Of Strat (No Cap) LP-Like

thanks Gents. and you will definitely see the finished project.

as many know, i have been working on this project for 7 years ...i know...more on that later. in fact many forum members have helped me with my first ever neck painting / decal / finishing project and the good news is that the neck is finally attached to the body, but nut has to be arched.

for the those still following this one, i ran into a problem last fall with not being able to upload photos anymore for some reason. still have that problem, but the neck is (mostly) done and we are on to the body work and electronics. it's a fairly unique design, while still fairly conventional. more on that later too.

back to today:

how should the drill press be utilized ? i don't know how to use one and i'm not sure where to find one.

i'm more comfortable with Dremel - within it's limitations. i have shaped pickguards and routed cavities and doors with them very well. i'm not at all worried about routing the toggle cavity, but the wire tunnel has me perplexed.

 

[vinta9e]

Re: Strat: Best Way To Route Wire Channel For Top Horn Of Strat (No Cap) LP-Like

I'd drill the channel from the pickup cavities towards the switch hole.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Strat: Best Way To Route Wire Channel For Top Horn Of Strat (No Cap) LP-Like

First, rout the cavity for the switch. Then, using the shortest path possible, drill from the switch cavity toward the neck pickup cavity (NOT the other way around). You can use your hand drill, and you will need to buy or rent an extra-long bit to do it. You also might find it easier to rout the switch wires through the pickup cavity if you rout a little channel through the bottom of the pickup cavity to the main control cavity, and then tape the wires down into that channel. Basically, an extension of the wire rout that was found underneath the bridge pickups on old Strats.

You could also go into the spring cavity, and then into the control cavity through an enlarged ground wire hole.

 

[post toastie]

Re: Strat: Best Way To Route Wire Channel For Top Horn Of Strat (No Cap) LP-Like

First, rout the cavity for the switch. Then, using the shortest path possible, drill from the switch cavity toward the neck pickup cavity (NOT the other way around). You can use your hand drill, and you will need to buy or rent an extra-long bit to do it. You also might find it easier to rout the switch wires through the pickup cavity if you rout a little channel through the bottom of the pickup cavity to the main control cavity, and then tape the wires down into that channel. Basically, an extension of the wire rout that was found underneath the bridge pickups on old Strats.

You could also go into the spring cavity, and then into the control cavity through an enlarged ground wire hole.

very interesting, Itsa....my plan was indeed to do the opposite...drill from the body outwards....why do you suggest "drill from the switch cavity toward the neck pickup cavity (NOT the other way around)."

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Strat: Best Way To Route Wire Channel For Top Horn Of Strat (No Cap) LP-Like

very interesting, Itsa....my plan was indeed to do the opposite...drill from the body outwards....why do you suggest "drill from the switch cavity toward the neck pickup cavity (NOT the other way around)."

Just common sense, in the craftsman's sense. Drilling from switch to pickup cavity, you're aiming for a much larger target, with less accuracy being required to get a result that is not disastrous.

 

[CTN]

Re: Strat: Best Way To Route Wire Channel For Top Horn Of Strat (No Cap) LP-Like

It's pretty simple really.

If you drill from the pickups towards the switch route, you're going towards a fairly small region. You could totally miss the route and end up with a ghastly looking hole in the back of the body where you didn't intend it to go.

Drilling from the switch route towards the pickup cavities, you're drilling from a small region to a much larger region, reducing the likelihood that you "miss the target" so to speak, because the target is much, much larger.

Whatever you do, since the drill bit you need to use has to be a long one, make sure that the guitar's body is protected from the drill itself and the sides of the drill bit.

 

[CTN]

Re: Strat: Best Way To Route Wire Channel For Top Horn Of Strat (No Cap) LP-Like

lol beat me to the punch

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Strat: Best Way To Route Wire Channel For Top Horn Of Strat (No Cap) LP-Like

Yeesh ... just thinking about doing this makes me uncomfortable. I'd never try putting a switch up there. Too much can go wrong.

Good luck.

 

[post toastie]

Re: Strat: Best Way To Route Wire Channel For Top Horn Of Strat (No Cap) LP-Like

Yeesh ... just thinking about doing this makes me uncomfortable. I'd never try putting a switch up there. Too much can go wrong.

Good luck.

believe me, i'm very apprehensive, but i think it can be done. i don't think i can do it by hand though.

i've never used a drill press (unless you count 40 years ago in 8th grade shop) so i'm not sure how that would work.

my research continues.

 

[post toastie]

Re: Strat: Best Way To Route Wire Channel For Top Horn Of Strat (No Cap) LP-Like

Just common sense, in the craftsman's sense. Drilling from switch to pickup cavity, you're aiming for a much larger target, with less accuracy being required to get a result that is not disastrous.

gotcha.

any ideas on how to best utilize the drill press ? what kind of clamping would be needed ?

 

[CTN]

Re: Strat: Best Way To Route Wire Channel For Top Horn Of Strat (No Cap) LP-Like

however much (or little) clamping is required to keep the body from moving around.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Strat: Best Way To Route Wire Channel For Top Horn Of Strat (No Cap) LP-Like

Yeesh ... just thinking about doing this makes me uncomfortable. I'd never try putting a switch up there. Too much can go wrong.

Good luck.

I agree. Especially with as little woodworking experience and as few tools as the OP seems to have.

I wouldn't do it.

Heck - I'm a professional (owned Boulder Furniture Arts for 30 years) and I still wouldn't do it.

 

[J E C]

Re: Strat: Best Way To Route Wire Channel For Top Horn Of Strat (No Cap) LP-Like

I would not do it with a hand drill and a Dremel. I would have no qualms about doing it to a finished body, but I have dun these sorts of things before and have the tools to do it. If you were in the Portland Or. area I could do it for you.

 

[jon the art guy]

Re: Strat: Best Way To Route Wire Channel For Top Horn Of Strat (No Cap) LP-Like

i'm gonna disagree with the drill press thing, as well as drilling from the switch to the pocket.

A lot of hand drills have bubble levels on the back, or he can buy a cheap one and make sure he's at 90 of the body. Get a good wood clamp and clamp a thin piece of wood to both the front and back to prevent splintering, then drill a hole with a standard bit as a pilot hole at 90 to the body. Follow it up with larger bits and then a hole saw/chisel out material for an LP-sized hole and an LP-sized switch. Forstner bits at that size are a butt.

Drilling from the switch hole to the electronics pocket will not allow you to feed the long bit in except at a very deep angle which won't get you all the way to where you need to go. Drilling from the cavity, there's a chance that you can lay the bit down very close to the body and go in nice and almost parallel.

Since you're already "ruining" a strat by putting a crazy-@ss switch all up in LP country, a real fast means to an end would be a shallow route from the cavity to the switch hole, then just get an old plastic small trash bin of your favorite color and cut a cover out of the wall of it.

this is my .02, with a little bit of experience to boot. For the record, I was drilling a hole from the electronics to the far end of the horn on the lower bout for a whacky effects switch I was putting into a random strat I bought for 10 bucks. It went in the garbage.

 

[CTN]

Re: Strat: Best Way To Route Wire Channel For Top Horn Of Strat (No Cap) LP-Like

meh. cojones makes most things possible. I've done something very similar with a longass drill bit and a hand drill and had no problems at all.

ditto for major routing operations using forstner bits and a drill press. Lots of care and attention to detail was required, but it's totally doable if you don't have a router.

 

[post toastie]

Re: Strat: Best Way To Route Wire Channel For Top Horn Of Strat (No Cap) LP-Like

well...i'm not going to the top of the horn....i'm going about 3-4 inches from the edge of the pickup cavity just past where the horn meets the body.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Strat: Best Way To Route Wire Channel For Top Horn Of Strat (No Cap) LP-Like

I'm a bit confused. Is this going to be like a Les Paul toggle, where the switch is mounted to the wood, and there's a back plate for access to the switch?

If so, I'm not really seeing where you'll have room for that back plate. There's about a square inch of flat wood on the back of the top horn between the edges of the body and the tummy cut, and it's almost at the end of the horn. You'll be very close to the tip of the strap button screw up there.