Angling controls on a carved top ?

PeteC · December 2020

Most build videos I have seen on YouTube etc recommend drilling straight through from the top with a pillar drill to establish the positions of the controls - so that its easy to locate the control cavity and routing template on the rear of the guitar. Makes perfect sense.

I've been taking a lot of measurements from my 94 McCarty whilst doing the first of my carved top DCs recently, and I have noticed a couple of things...
1) the PRS has its controls angled slightly to match the contour of the carved top, rather than mounted "vertically" and recessed.
2) the control cavity rout - which appears flat, is actually deeper at the front ( neck end ) than it is at the body end - by almost 4mm.

I am assuming this could be done by shimming up the cavity template and routing accordingly.

But the slightly angled controls are puzzling me. Would these have been drilled vertically , or drilled at a slight angle to accommodate the carve ?

At the moment I am planning on drilling vertically ( i.e. to use the pillar drill ) , locate my cavity routing template, and then adjust the angle of the pots by carefully shaping the eventual control recess in the carved top so that the pots sit at a slight angle.

Any thoughts ?