i'm eying a body in the showcase, but realized the p-90 route from warmoth won't be deep enough for my needs. how easy would it be for somebody with minimal experience to route deeper into the guitar body? and would these http://www.amazon.com/Dremel-692-6-Piece-Router-Bit/dp/B00005LEXR/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288385675&sr=8-1 work? i'm really kind of clueless when it comes to this kind of work, but i'm careful and will be thorough. i only need to route a fraction of an inch. i want to hide a pickup underneath a pickguard, but the route warmoth offers only allows me to get the pickup about an 8th of an inch or so above where the pickguard would have to be mounted. thanks for any help!
How Do I Deepen A Pickup Route?
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Cagey
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What Justatele said. It's not really a job for a Dremel motor, although if you got the plunge router attachment for it you might pull it off. It's also not necessarily something you want to try for your first go-round with a real router. For as simple a tool as they are, it's amazing how quickly and easily you can destroy things. You might want to consider just chiseling the relief you need. For as little as you're talking about, it wouldn't take long and it's a lot tougher to screw up. Not as pretty, of course, but also not anything anybody's going to see.
You might also consider calling Warmoth and asking if they'd give you a deeper rout. Even if they charge you $30 or so, it would be well worth it, and is certainly something they can do unless the body you're looking at simply doesn't have the depth available. That way it would be nice and clean.
You might also consider calling Warmoth and asking if they'd give you a deeper rout. Even if they charge you $30 or so, it would be well worth it, and is certainly something they can do unless the body you're looking at simply doesn't have the depth available. That way it would be nice and clean.
Cagey
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Jusatele said:
You were concise, and that's cool.
I'm always apprehensive when somebody talks about their first routing job being on a guitar they'd like to turn out well. As I mentioned (and as you know), for as simple as they are routers can be some absolutely wicked tools that without any reasonable amount of experience using them, can seem to have a mind of their own. And unfortunately, it's a psychotic mind... <grin>
Not that there's anything magical about using them, but it's definitely worthwhile having at least some edge routing experience, maybe a little channel routing, things of that nature to get a feel for the thing before you start doing plunge routing or template following, etc. Even then, you might want to think twice before attacking something nice.
thanks guys! i'll definitely ask about deepening a route. if not it looks like (using my warmoth strat which also has a p-90 route) that the route IS deep enough except for the part on dimarzio p-90s where the wires come out of the bottom. my plan is to route a small notch where this wire will be. probably not enough to make it worth it to buy a $100 router and several bits. hopefully the tiny routing bits i bought for my dremel today will be all i need!
Cagey
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I hope you're not getting frightened off having a router - it's a wicked tool, but there are things that only a router can do so it's an excellent tool to have. They can be huge time-savers, since they can hog out a whole lot of wood in a hurry very accurately, and with some nice profiles. But, they do take some getting used to. I've routed a bajillion things, and I still double-check what I'm about to do before I ever hit the switch. Even then, I still screw up sometimes.
Cagey is right about Routers and guitar bodies. I use routers for almost everything I do when it comes to milling wood. I have been using them practically forever and even with much care I still sometimes have a screw up. I would recommend using the least powerful router that you own as long as it has a plunge base. I do most of my precision work with a 1 hp Bosch Colt fitted to a very expensive plunge base (Micro Fence) but I also do lots of cabinet work in addition to building guitars so I can justify spending $400 for a precision plunge base. I am a lifelong guitarist and "back in the day" I made a good living as a performer but now I keep a roof over my head by doing custom wood working which includes building guitars. I agree that unless you have much experience with routers, carefully removing the excess wood with chisels might be a better way to go unless you have Warmoth do the rout for you.
TonyFlyingSquirrel
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There is a 1/4" deeper pickup route option, which is actually necessary if you plan to install certain Rio Grande pickups.
Check with Sales as to the current upcharge as it may or may not have changed since I was there.
Check with Sales as to the current upcharge as it may or may not have changed since I was there.
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