Little hole in body?

[Micahbell]

This is something that has been bothering me for a long time.
Looking through the showcase, whats with the hole in the middle of a lot of the bodies? It looks like all the bodies that don't have any pickup routing done have it....

 

[Wana_make_a_guitar]

I'm wondering about that too.

 

[rahimiiii]

This is something that has been bothering me for a long time.
Looking through the showcase, whats with the hole in the middle of a lot of the bodies? It looks like all the bodies that don't have any pickup routing done have it....

I think that's an index hole for the CNC so the machine knows where to start. I think they get routed away during machining so that's why you only see it on bodies with no pickup route.

 

[Uff-Da]

I am sure that it is for the CNC.  My Variax body has the hole under the bridge (they are genius!).

 

[Nick Ellingworth]

It probably is an index hole for the CNC machine as all CNC machines need a reference point around which to base all their work pattern, actually if you were routing it by hand a known reference point around which all measurements are taken would be very useful too.

Unless of course it's the hole for the ground wire that goes to a hard tail bridge. 

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

It is indeed an index hole for the CNC machine.

On most bodies, there are two: 1 of them is usually located where a bridge pickup will be, the other is located where the neck pocket will be.

 

[bwbass]

Yup.  There's one where the neck pocket is (or was), too, but you never see that one, except at the factory.  They're used to locate the body face-down when it's getting routs on the back (tummy cut, control cavity, trem spring cavity, etc.)  There's special tooling for the Variax bodies which allow the bridge pickup index hole to be moved under the bridge itself, since thesee bodies often don't have pickup routs.

Edit: Aw snap!  Tony posted while I was typing.  Well, there's some Variax trivia for ya anyways.

 

[Micahbell]

Ahh, Okay.
It looked like it would be where the middle pickup would be, which I found veeeery confusing.

Thanks for the answers.

 

[OzziePete]

Stupid question, I know, but.....
What happens if you don't want a bridge pickup rout on a body? What if  you don't intend putting a bridge pickup on the guitar at all?

Would they relocate the CNC reference dot so it is less obvious?

(I'm thinking of a project where you build a jazz guitar (L5S body shape hollowed) with a "Johnny Smith"- style suspended pickup from the neck, no bridge pickup, and some piezo system  in the bridge itself. If the CNC reference point must be left in the bridge pickup position, that Jazz Guitar idea would be a lame duck. Mind you, the falling Aussie dollar exchange rate and mounting medical bills seem to be putting that project down as we speak anyways.... :sad

Thanx for any clarifying information that can be provided.

 

[DangerousR6]

We machinists refer to it as a "tooling" hole or a "zero" point..

 

[Wyliee]

Stupid question, I know, but.....
What happens if you don't want a bridge pickup rout on a body? What if  you don't intend putting a bridge pickup on the guitar at all?

Would they relocate the CNC reference dot so it is less obvious?

(I'm thinking of a project where you build a jazz guitar (L5S body shape hollowed) with a "Johnny Smith"- style suspended pickup from the neck, no bridge pickup, and some piezo system  in the bridge itself. If the CNC reference point must be left in the bridge pickup position, that Jazz Guitar idea would be a lame duck. Mind you, the falling Aussie dollar exchange rate and mounting medical bills seem to be putting that project down as we speak anyways.... :sad

Thanx for any clarifying information that can be provided.

No way to omit it.  Warmoth can dowel the hole or use an inlay dot, which can look nice.

 

[OzziePete]

Thanx for the quick replies.

The project I mentioned - just a dream at this stage I must add - involves a spruce top finished in a vintage style sunburst by Warmoth. If a dowel was put over hole, could it become almost invisible when that sort of finish is applied over the top? I think an abalone dot smack bang in the middle of a top would attract more attention than not, IMHO.