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Can i carve pickup cavities without a router?
- Thread starter JJ08
- Start date
Those are some good points, and some great advice. However, i am going to completely ignore it because I'd rather lose a finger trying to do it with a blunt chisel than leave my house /s
Fast and clean is not how i do things (I'm gonna make a great luthier lol)No woodworker in here, but I feel that having a router will get you there faster and cleaner. Good luck in any way
What do you think of spending 4 to 8 hours chipping and shaping a pickup hole into a body with chisles and drill bits with a probabilty of about 80% of a butcher job?
I think the only non-router way would be a drill press with a router blade and still a very risky and time consuming attempt.
I think the only non-router way would be a drill press with a router blade and still a very risky and time consuming attempt.
At least from what I've heard, this is the best advice I've read so far. Thank you
For pickups, I'm planning on buying a 5 string stingray and adding a precision and jazz bridge pickup (don't judge me). The precision pickup cavity would be covered by the custom stingray pickguard, but the jazz wouldn't (although the jazz is probably easier to carve/route)Doing a pickup cavity with a router is done in no time (assuming you buy or make a template). Surely your neighbor won't go nuts from 2-3 minutes of router noise? Because that really all it takes, although if you've never used a router before it might be a good idea to do a couple of practice runs on a piece of scrap wood.
If you don't use a template... Well, that need a lot more skill, and a good quality router. Freehand routing isn't something you should do on a bass unless you know 100% that you have the skills and experience to pull it off. For a pickup cavity I STRONGLY recommend buying or making a template. Routing a pickup cavity using a template is so easy that someone who has never, ever used a router before should be able to get a good result (although I still strongly recommend practicing on a piece of scrap, to get the "feel" of it).
Of course you can also do it with a combination of drilling out most of the cavity and using a chisel for the fine work, but getting a good result with a chisel takes a lot practice. The fact that you need to ask these questions tells me that you do not have the necessary skills to get a good result using a chisel. You will also need a good quality, sharp chisel and ideally learn how to sharpen the chisel yourself, which is also a skill that needs to be learned.
My advice?
Router+template. You will be most likely be finished before the neighbours even have the time to complain.
And of course, whatever you end up doing, make sure you get all measurements right. THAT's the most critical part.
Also, I don't think you've mentioned whether there's a pickguard involved. A pickguard can hide a less-than-perfect cavity, although then the pickguard would have to look nice and be a perfect fit of course.
Do you have any specific pickup(s) in mind? If not, it might be worth considering that some pickups (like mudbuckers or Thundertrons with pickup rings) can hide a poorly made cavity. The only person who will know about the mess below is YOU.
(Make sure the pickup you use is suitable for your string spacing though, the two examples above are NOT suitable for Fender string spacing, but I've seen reports from other Talkbass users saying ThunderBLADES work ok).
Based on the advice of many others here, I'm gonna get LOTS of practice with chiselling before i even think about trying this. I don't have the time to build it until summer, and I'll probably wait until at the very least winter to try it, so i should have a good amount of practice by then
Thank you. That's pretty much my plan. My strategy with most things is to replace skill or knowledge with a lot of time and patiencei've converted several J-basses to PJs by altering the neck pickup route with forstner bits on a hand drill + a sharp chisel for the finishing. works like a charm! think it through, mark accurately, go slow...easy peasy! good luck!
If you mean a place that's visible on the bass, I'm adding a precision and jazz pickup to a 5 string stingray (as i said in other replies, plz don't judge me), so the jazz will be visible. I'm hoping patience and sandpaper can get it to look somewhat pretty
It'll be literally the cheapest 5 string stingray i can find, and I'll be installing a precision pickup above the stingray pickup, plus a jazz bridge pickup. My plan is to remove the paint and finish, carve the cavities (making sure the electronics could all connect properly), repaint it blue and refinish it, then install the new pickups (including replacing the stingray pickup with a higher quality one) and put on a custom pickguard. I'm also modding the neck, but that's not relevant.
You'll also have to cut paths for the pickup wires, or drill a hole from pickup to control cavity for any paths that won't be covered by a pick guard.
Or -- and I'm just throwing this out there -- you could develop even more skills by making a new pickguard too!
I just did mine using this jewel. I did predrill using a tabletop drill press and Forster bits.
It was an exercise in patience. And I learned how to sharpen the router plane blade.
If I had another to do, I'd likely buy a router and do it in the driveway on a nice day.
It was an exercise in patience. And I learned how to sharpen the router plane blade.
If I had another to do, I'd likely buy a router and do it in the driveway on a nice day.
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Jazzdogg
Less barking, more wagging!
Yes, it can be done. I learned these skills back in the stone age when virtually everything of this kind was done by hand unless you had l enough money to invest in the kinds of power tools needed for professional quality work.
My recommendation is to try it on a practice piece before you try it for real; you'll learn a lot in the process, even if you decide it's not an experience you'd rather not repeat.
The most important lessons are to make safety your first priority, and that using exceptionally sharp tools us much safer than using dull tools, and takes considerably less effort.
Good luck!
My recommendation is to try it on a practice piece before you try it for real; you'll learn a lot in the process, even if you decide it's not an experience you'd rather not repeat.
The most important lessons are to make safety your first priority, and that using exceptionally sharp tools us much safer than using dull tools, and takes considerably less effort.
Good luck!
I'm really curious about the OP stating using a power tool or two outside would be an issue with the neighbor. Around us we all do lots of projects so saws, drills, mowers, snowblowers, leafblowers, routers, chain saws and any other variable can often be heard coming from someone's yard. But everyone is considerate enough to not fire those things up at ungodly hours.
I'll probably get flamed a ton for this but I I have enlarged pickup cavities with my multitool. There are a bunch of different size blades to accommodate cutting at different angles and have done a good job. And the tool itself had variable speed and is small enough to hold with both hands for good control. Some small pilot holes at the corners to have some good starting points and it should work.
I'm far from an expert in any of this and my cavities are under the guard so I just used what I had and it worked for me. With some practice on scrap wood seems it's workable. YMMV
I'll probably get flamed a ton for this but I I have enlarged pickup cavities with my multitool. There are a bunch of different size blades to accommodate cutting at different angles and have done a good job. And the tool itself had variable speed and is small enough to hold with both hands for good control. Some small pilot holes at the corners to have some good starting points and it should work.
I'm far from an expert in any of this and my cavities are under the guard so I just used what I had and it worked for me. With some practice on scrap wood seems it's workable. YMMV
You can get by with a not so perfect pickup cavity if the pickup you are installing has a surround, or is going in a pickguard. If the edges of the cavity are going to be visible and the body is currently painted, a router & template is the way to go. Chiseling a pickup cavity into raw wood or stained wood is a little more forgiving than working on painted wood, especially if the paint is fairly thick.
It really depends on how you want the bass to look; perfect or a beater. A very rough looking bass can play great and sound great. A perfectly flawless bass can play poorly and sound terrible, but that might possibly be curable. A poorly cut out pickup cavity is hard to cure…
It really depends on how you want the bass to look; perfect or a beater. A very rough looking bass can play great and sound great. A perfectly flawless bass can play poorly and sound terrible, but that might possibly be curable. A poorly cut out pickup cavity is hard to cure…
"Technically, it can be done" ??????Technically, it can be done. You'd need to be extremely meticulous and measure angles and widths very, very carefully for it not to look janky. Plenty of builders have done it. If you do it right, it'll be a very slow process. Sanding could potentially give it a nice finished look. And if you don't like the look inside the cavity, throw in some copper tape for shielding. That could cover a few mistakes.
All that being said, take it to a luthier.
Any reasonably competent carpenter can do this job. How do you think the millions of hinge mortises on doors were made in the years between, say, 1700 and 1980?
Days? Are you serious? for a little cavity that's what, 3" long and 1 1/2" wide and an inch deep? Pony up for a drill stop, drill a multitude of holes with the drill stop, break out the waste, smooth the bottom with a sharp chisel (minimal use of a mallet is even needed, mostly just push it by hand). Done. The perfect tool for that smoothing is the OWT (Old Woman's Tooth) but those aren't easy to find and not worth it for a one off job.
