I've already got some old chunks to practicate on, but assuming I manage to get anywhere near competent, I've gone for a one piece body blank made of Poplar or American Tulip Wood, whatever that is. I'm hoping that will be quite light as I'm planning to use it for the Teardrop body, which I want to have a bit of depth, dontchaknow.. As in it will be a bit thick, I think you can probably see it will be self-referential in concept.
That is a new piece of wood, which I figured for a first attempt might be a good idea. I'm thinking of this as a prototype, which in my IS days was what you called things you knew wouldn't work, but were hoping were more likely than the concept was. Iterations, was another excuse well used and the 80:20 rule covered a multitude of cock-ups quite nicely too.
I've also got some old wood in the shape of mahogany shelves coming from a reclamation place. These are from an old factory, and looked lovely, battered and clearly be-aged. They should be delivered next week I think. These are a bit shallower, but I think will be OK in a Gordon Smith kinda way. Or maybe I'll put something on top, like a maple cap or a couple of mm of paint or something, who knows.
Either way, the idea with these is to maybe do a couple of bodies, hopefully something Ricky shaped and maybe an offset type of thing too, we'll have to see. Even by my standards that is vapour-ware-in-excelsis and as likely to happen as something that is never going to happen, like ever. No way Jose. etc.
Which should all be good fun, with a bit of luck.
(I do have a slight concern that I'll have a forklift truck with a couple of pallets knocking on my front door as it wouldn't be the first time I've over ordered accidentally-like.)
Next on my list is to find some router bits, and this is proving a bit of a pain. There seem to be millions of types and I confuse easy - I get kinda snow blind if there are too many options. I know I need some with ball bearings to do the spacing/follow the template, but apart from getting them from StewMac I can't seem to find anywhere that does what I want.
Or more probably I'm asking the wrong questions. I know what I don't know, which is half the battle, whereas I only think I don't know what I don't know, which has a high probability but is more of a concerny thing.
And as it happens I asked over at MR and got some triffic advice, geezer, clicked on a few magic buttons and beholden and lo, they should be here next week too.
By way of a praccy, I remembered that I had an old Strat body lay around, and using a Jazzmaster scratchplate, I had a go at routing a pickup hole at the neck. It was a nice surprise to see that the bit I was using had a ballbearingly equippled collar, and I think I got the hang of it.
In fact other than a couple of slips which damaged the 'plate rather than the body, and the moment where I forgot that the off switch doesn't actually turn the router off and ended-up juggling the spinny bladed thing, badly, I was quite pleased with it.
I ran out of time and so haven't finished it, but come Monday I think I will. I'd forgotten I had the body stashed way, might prove useful at some point. Especially next week if I am as bored as I was this week. I have a kind of yearning for a reversed BDSM One in that it could have the other Gretsch pup and a Jazzmaster pickup at the neck. So I could do that with some bronze. Hmm...I shouldn't think such things, I digress for England, me.
But the routing, and in fact the only thing that shocked me was how long it takes. It seems to go on forever. I mean, OK it is hopefully going to prove neater than my chisel, but Jeez. I see now why all those YouBaToob videos talk about drilling out a lot of the wood upfront with a funny drill bit that looks like a flag. You wouldn't be doing much else otherwise.
(I may have to dip my toe in the waters of the patient. I'm sure I have that right.)
So there we are, next week should see some more messing around with wood, with a potentially be-bronzed Strat body in search of meaning in it's life.
La la laaa
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