Cutting Out An Envirocaster DC Body

Today, I made a couple of Envirocaster bodies. Here are some photos of how one came to life:

I used a template made for me by Ronny at guitarbuildingtemplates.com.

The body is Alder with a flamed Maple top.

I used a Wagner Safety Planer to thin the body from 2" down to 1-3/4" thick.

To round over the edges, I used a 3/4" round over bit in my router.

Tomorrow, I will rout the control cavity and drill the jack and wiring holes.

A Great Guitar Is Only As Good As The Templates Used To Make It

I've said before that the quality of your build is directly linked to the quality of your templates. Cut corners here and you will see the results in a poorly shaped body and neck. One way to guarantee quality and save time is to have a set of templates made for you. I sent a copy of my vector plan to Guitar Building Templates and had owner Ronny cut a set for my new line of guitars. For a very reasonable price, he sent me templates for two guitars made out of a material that is much harder than the MDF boards I usually work with. Best of all, they were made on a CNC cutter, so the quality is perfect.

If you don't want to spend time making and perfecting your own templates, I encourage you to order a set from Ronny. Money well spent and precious time saved.

My Latest Electric Guitar Build Part 2

After cutting out and trimming the templates, I carefully filed and sanded the edges to make them as smooth as possible. Any uneven spots here will be transferred to the guitar if they aren't taken care of.

I use several different files to do the work.

I used a 1/8" (3mm) drill bit to mark the neck bolt locations.

I used the same bit to mark the tuner holes, the ends of the truss rod slot and the control shaft  holes.

Here is what I ended up with. For each guitar I build, I have templates for the control cavity and cover, the neck, the body and the neck pocket. This guitar will be made for P90 pickups, but for future builds, I plan to offer single coils and humbuckers, which will require a template for each scenario.

Templates aren't absolutely necessary for building a guitar, but they are nice if you plan to make more than one copy. Also, they allow you to mock-up the guitar so you can double check your design. In this photo, I'm determining the bridge placement.

My Latest Electric Guitar Build Part 1

I started this build by printing out the pages for the body and neck on my desktop inkjet printer.

After cutting out the printed parts, I traced them onto a sheet of 12mm Birch plywood, which will be used to make reusable templates.

Next, I rough cut the shapes with a jigsaw. For each guitar I build, I make a template for the neck, the body, the control cavity, the control cavity cover and the neck pocket.

After rough cutting the templates, I take them over to my band saw to trim them to the outside edge of the lines I traced from the printed cutouts.

Update: The Whisky Special Guitar Gets Routed

I used some scrap plywood to make a template for routing the
neck pocket. The bit I used in my router is a 1/2" diameter,
1" tall pattern bit with a 1/2" diameter bearing collared on the shaft.

The Whisky Special will be equipped with humbuckers, so I made a
template out of scrap MDF board to serve as a template. I used the
same bit for this task as I used for the neck pocket.

Since the body is semi-hollow, I plan to add some sound holes and
some cool looking Mahogany accents. Stay tuned!