Hi everyone,
I have this old 'rubbish' Encore strat copy. I bought from my brother in law to give him beer money one night many years ago when he was going out! But enough of that.
Recently I decided to mod it a little. Oh and by the way. It plays lovely normally.
I bought some Entwistle ASN57's for the N and M positions and an Entwistle Dark Star for Humbucker for the Bridge. Problem is the pickups are a bit on the deep side compared to the original ones. I've marked their rough positions with marker in the cavity and I reckon I need to remove about 3mm of the remaining 1 cm of wood. Is this doable and with what? I don't have a router, but I can get my hand on some very sharp chisels. I'm not worried what the inside of the cavity looks like as I doubt I'll ever take it apart again, unless for maintenance.
The wood is super-crap and so I decided (I hear groans of disapproval already) with stickers and then cover with Mod Podge and Lacquer.
There are lots of very talented people on the Making and Modding forum here who achieve wonderful results with inks, stains, varnishes etc and I aim to do the same with another project Andyjr1515 has been advising me on. But I'm a child of the 90's and grew up on Grunge and Alternative stuff. I'm 39 now and know I'm not really ruining any already unamazing tone it had. Please don't frown on me!
Here are some picks and the black pen shows where I need to remove the 3mm.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Kind regards and Happy, rockin' 2015 to everyone.
Comments
If you can get that under a drill press you can make a good job of the wood chomping with an end mill.
I had a 1/2 horse rig and a keyslotting mill that would have made short work of that job.
Dave.
Use a slot drill rather than an end mill. Slot drills look like end mills but are designed for plunge cutting, which end mills aren't. Bigger diameters will remove material more quickly, but the corners of the cavities won't be as sharp. For example a 10mm cutter would get it done quickly and leave rounded corners with a radius of 5mm (which may well be fine).
Something like these...
http://chronos.ltd.uk/acatalog/Metric_HSS_Slot_Drills.html
The idea is to plunge it into the material and then work the piece sideways to cut out the cavity. (That means spinning the cuter fast and keeping a good grip on the piece.) There may be woodworking cutters that will do it as well, and cost less. Forstner bits wouldn't cut sideways, but would make the clearance with a series of plunge cuts, albeit with a dimple in the middle of each plunge...
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=forstner+bit&biw=1222&bih=916&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=n5aoVMiwA4KyUYSmhLAL&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ
Nomad
Nobody loves me but my mother... and she could be jivin' too...
Nomad
Nobody loves me but my mother... and she could be jivin' too...
For heavier jobs like humbucker covers, etc just get a powerful (50W +) cheapie iron.
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