Does anyone have an easy method or a useful trick for making a neck pocket? I am worried that I'll make a little mistake and my body piece will be shot. 
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Neck pocket tricks?
- Thread starter Alex
- Start date
Luke Sheridan
Commercial User
- Dec 30, 2004
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- I build guitars and sell them. Strings, too
Lots of the questions you've had over the past few days have recently been discussed. The search function on this site is great. You should try it...
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/search.php?searchid=1593159
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/search.php?searchid=1593159
I have some excellent tips:
use a good neck pocket jig, use a good, stable router, and a nice sharp bit.
seriously tho, beyond the obvious, Take away the wood in 1/4" increments, working down. Don't rush, be patient, be thorough, and clear dust as not to obscure your view often.
best of luck.
use a good neck pocket jig, use a good, stable router, and a nice sharp bit.
seriously tho, beyond the obvious, Take away the wood in 1/4" increments, working down. Don't rush, be patient, be thorough, and clear dust as not to obscure your view often.
best of luck.
Geoff St. Germaine
Commercial User
- Aug 31, 2001
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- Owner - St. Germaine Guitars
If you scan through David Myka's progress pics for a Dragonfly Deluxe you can see a nice looking way to route neck pockets.
http://mykaguitars.com/instruments/015/process.htm
http://mykaguitars.com/instruments/015/process.htm
If you plan your order-of-operations right, you can rout the neck pocket before cutting the body outline. That way, you have a lot more flat area to support your router base, instead of trying to balance it out in the middle of nowhere.
Or you can use a template that gives you that support, like in the Myka link above. I like the trick of taping the template to make it slightly small at first, and then adjusting to fit.
Or you can use a template that gives you that support, like in the Myka link above. I like the trick of taping the template to make it slightly small at first, and then adjusting to fit.
- Jun 6, 2004
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"Route the neck pocket before cutting the body outline. That way, you have a lot more flat area to support your router base"
Yup
Yup
Luke Sheridan said:
I've been searching all over. search "neck pocket" in this forum in every thread from the beginning and you will find NOTHING
You just mean a jigsaw, right? is there a special tool for making neck pockets?Mon Rominee said:
Luke Sheridan
Commercial User
- Dec 30, 2004
- 637
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- I build guitars and sell them. Strings, too
BassManolukas said:
Try again. You'll come across this in several posts.
http://www.buildyourguitar.com/resources/pocket/index.htm
Geoff St. Germaine
Commercial User
- Aug 31, 2001
- 6,267
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- Owner - St. Germaine Guitars
BassManolukas said:You just mean a jigsaw, right? is there a special tool for making neck pockets?
No, by jig he means a pattern to follow with another tool.
The special tool for making neck pockets is a router, but I like to use a forstner bit in a drill press to remove the bulk of the wood first.
I have actually been there before. I guess I was wondering what specific tools you need to make the neck pocket. (first bass)Luke Sheridan said:
That's what I was lookin forGeoff St. Germaine said:
I was looking at routers and I saw that they only do like 1/8" cuts. How do make a neck pocket like this? Am I missing something? 
if you try to rout the whole pocket depth in one go your router will get angry and do something you dont want it to. If you do it 1/8" then its easy to control the router cause its not trying to pull into the wood as much. Then you do another pass, then another and carry on till you have reached the depth you want. Its just easier and safer if you take your time with this job
- Dec 20, 2004
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- Player-Builder-Founder: Honey Badger Pickups & Regenerate Guitar Works
http://www.woodmagazine.com/wood/st...platedata/wood/story/data/359.xml&catref=wd44
Invalid Link Removed
a couple links to get you started, and there's a ton more router references available via simple searches on the internet. you can try http://www.dogpile.com and type in woodworking router techniques
All the best,
R
Invalid Link Removed
a couple links to get you started, and there's a ton more router references available via simple searches on the internet. you can try http://www.dogpile.com and type in woodworking router techniques
All the best,
R
BassManolukas said:
like anything...using tools takes practice...
you'll want to read about the techniques and try them on scraps first before you "take the plunge".
- Dec 20, 2004
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yep, if you don't practice first you could get a 'bit' carried away, and then be tempted to take a shortcut which would lead you down the wrong 'route', and then the 'jig' would be up for your bass making dreams.
R
R
Rodent said:yep, if you don't practice first you could get a 'bit' carried away, and then be tempted to take a shortcut which would lead you down the wrong 'route', and then the 'jig' would be up for your bass making dreams.
R
yikes!
...And I thought Mr. Wilbur had bad jokes...Rodent said:yep, if you don't practice first you could get a 'bit' carried away, and then be tempted to take a shortcut which would lead you down the wrong 'route', and then the 'jig' would be up for your bass making dreams.
R
