Learning how to build an electric guitar

[lumberjim]

I did some shaping of the body today. I cut to within 1/16 to1/4" around the perimeter of the body with the band saw. Then I set the drill press up as an oscillating spindle sander. That's the feature that made that the one I asked Santa for.



At 44 seconds, I show you a sand paper de-clogger. It's just a huge eraser, but it works a treat.

Next job was routing out the back cavity. That's where I'll mount a claw that gets hooked to 3 springs. The springs attach to the bottom of the tremolo block. This provides tension on the strings, as the strings go up through the block and over the bridge via the saddles then on to the tuning pegs. The idea is to balance the tension to where the back of the bridge plate floats 1/8" or so above the face of the guitar, so you can pull on the tremolo bar and bend the note upwards.

I've been resisting drilling holes in my template and guitar body, preferring the super glue trick. So to get the back lined up to match the front, I had to shape the body first so the template was easier to mount.



This pocket is 3/4" deep. The ones I did on the front are too. That's 1 1/2". The body is 1 3/4" thick, and they overlap, so you can't go too deep.

The right side has that elongated section. That's where I have to cut all the way through the body so the bridge can fit through.