Building my first guitar #2: Test fitting the parts

Got to work on my pine practice block this week. Did a test cut on the neck pocket and the pickup recesses to make sure my templates where up to snuff. I was going to use a template guide in my router but realized part way in that I couldn’t get the bit low enough to make a deep enough cut because the guide got in the way so off to Lee Valley to get a template cutter with the bearing on the base and I was off to the races.

The neck fit pretty well but was a tiny bit loose near the heel so I added a little tape to the inside of the template and that seems to have fixed it. I routed the neck pocket with a 2 degree angle as the plans called for but once I got the bridge on I realized that it wasn’t steep enough and the strings where way above the neck even with the lowest setting on the bridge. I adjusted my template for 3 degrees and now it’s all good. The pickup recesses weren’t a problem as you have a it of play for sizing. My final decisions are knob placement. I will deviate a bit from the plans which call for the jack to be on the front of the guitar and put it on the side which I prefer. This will affect the way I carve the top a bit but not by much. It will also make a bit of room to adjust where I put the pots.

Next job is to make a template for the electronics recess and test that out and then I’ll get to work on the body itself.

Test body with the neck attached:

Test body with pickups and bridge: