Pick Guard, More Body Work, Putting It All Together

So, once all my holes were cut out and opened to the desired size to fit the pickups in, I drilled the holes for the screws to hold the pickups in place.  With that finished, I took the pick guard to the drill press and made the three holes I needed for the pots (potentiometers) that are the knobs that control volume and tone on the guitar.  I didn't have a small enough router bit to make the small line for the pickup selector lever so I just used a small drill bit in a hand drill.  It didn't come out perfect, but the lever fit through so it served it's purpose.  Once ALL the holes were in the face of the pick guard I put it all together with my clump of stolen electronics from the old guitar.  To my surprise it actually looked pretty good, the white knobs of the old guitar standing out quite nicely on the darker colored poplar pick guard.

With all that accomplished it was time to route out the body to accommodate the electronics.  I followed the basic shape of the holes from the old body and routed out the front for the pick guard, a rectangular hole underneath it for the bridge that holds the strings in place on the bottom and the area on the back that holds the springs that make the "whammy bar" work.  I also had to take a 1" spade bit and bore out a hole to put in the jack where you hook the amp up to the guitar and also drilled the holes for the plate that holds the jack in place and the two holes where the knobs that the strap attaches to go.  It appeared to me that I was basically finished with the guitar so I began putting it together to see how it looked.

First I reattached the neck as my frame of reference.  I then slid the bridge through the hole under where the pick guard goes.  I then put the pick guard in place.  With the front "assembled" I was able to slightly adjust where the bridge and pick guard needed to be in relation to each other and the neck to try and get everything lined up correctly.  Once I had everything where I wanted it, I drilled through the pick guard and body to make the 12 holes to attach the pick guard and then drilled the 6 holes at the top of the bridge to attach that to the body.  I actually attached the bridge but took the pick guard off to make the holes a little bigger so the screws that fastened it to the body would slide right though the pick guard.  I put the jack and jack plate together and slid it into the hole I bored out.  I realized I had no hole from this big bored out hole into the main cavity in the body to attach the jack to the rest of the electronics.  So I used a long drill bit to make a small 3/8" hole from the main cavity into the jack hole.  I then slid the jack back into its hole making sure I could get the wires into the main cavity.  I then screwed the pick guard in place.

Now that everything looked right, I took it all apart, even the pickups and pots and lever off the pick guard and spent some time sanding everything until it was nice and smooth.  I then used a crystal clear polyurethane spray and put about 3 coats on the front and back of the body and the pick guard, sanding between each coat.  Once I felt that everything was nice and dry I reassembled the pick guard.  I attached the neck and bridge.  I then attached the spring holder and springs in the back of the guitar to the bridge and pushed the other half of the wire I had snipped up into the main cavity of the body.  I slid the jack into its hole, attached the plate to the guitar and pulled the wires into the main cavity.  I used wire connectors to put the wires back together with the other halves on the pick guard where I had snipped them when I took the old guitar apart and also the wire I had pushed through from the back of the guitar.  With all that in place, I screwed the pick guard into place.  I attached the two knobs for the strap and I was finished!  I couldn't wait to get some strings and string it up.  I have since, been able to actually hear my guitar on an amp and it sounds pretty good.  Now I just have to learn how to play!!

I have already started work on another guitar and will be posting about that as I work on it and hopefully can get some pictures of it up while it is still in the building stages.