DaLefty's 2015 Harley Benton Guitar Challenge - It is photo intensive

Dalefty

Andyjr1515 said:

No one's asked about the 'piece of equipment' hiding under the insulation in the new chamber...lots of wires coming out of it.....on board effects unit?

No, you're the first to ask about the wires.

Fortheloveofguitar said:

@dalefty

This is a great thread buddy. The most intense we've had. It's great to see all the minute deals

Can't wait to see the finished article with all the toys added.

Branshen said:

I'm really enjoying this build thread. Nice work. Keep the updates coming

axisus said:

Interesting thread! Hmmn ...... I went off the boil on doing the challenge, but I'm kind of interested again after going through all this!

Glad you guys are enjoying it and it's not boring you to death or self harm.

DaLefty

Dalefty

GuitarMonkey said:

Good to see you have some plasters nearby, handy for reattaching severed digits.

With the amount of medication I'm on, I need them, safety first and all that crap.

DaLefty

Dalefty

The crap I got up to yesterday in my  Laboratory of Mayhem that I couldn't be bothered to update last night because I was so buggered.

So yesterday marked the beginning of what I consider to be the most boring and tedious part of this project, namely applying the finish.  The first thing that needed to be done was to apply some primer to all the cavities so that the graphite conductive paint has a decent surface to adhere to, for primer I just used some left over white Ronseal exterior wood primer I had kicking about the house.

Cavities on the back of the guitar body after first coat of primer:



Here is the cavities after one coat of white Ronseal exterior wood primer, after seeing what one coat of primer looked like I decided it was better to put at leat two coats on just to make sure that the graphite conducyive paint had a decent surface to adhere to.


Cavities on the back of the guitar body after second coat of primer:



Here is the back of the body after two coats fo white Ronseal exterior wood primer, the coverage is a lot better than it was after just one coat, and the surface looks like it will hold the graphit conductive paint a lot better after two coats than it did after one coat.

The front of the guitars cavities was treated the same way as the cavities on the back of the guitars body.

Cavities on the front of the guitar body after first coat of primer:



Here is the front after the cavities have been given one coat of primer, I used a pipe cleaner to paint the hole that connects the cavity for the jack to the main cavity.

Cavities on the front of the guitar body after second coat of primer:



Here is the front after the cavities have been given their final coats of primer.


Tools Used;

Paint brush
Pipe cleaners
White Ronseal exterior wood primer

Total Cost So Far;

£0.00

Number Of Fingers Lost; 0

DaLefty

Dalefty

Next up was the neck, since I have two necks to play around with I decided to do something different, drastic and perhaps a bit radical with one of them.

The first thing that needed to be done was to remove the nut, this was easy to do, and I planned on replacing the nut on both necks from the beginning of this project anyway.

Here the nut has been removed:



To remove the nut I simply took a piece of dowel that I had sharpened in a pencil sharpener, not to a point, but till it's end was fin enough to match the thickness of the nut I wanted to remove, placed it at the side of the nut, and tapped it gengly with a rubber mallet, the nut came away easily and left a nice and neat channel for the new nut to slot into once I make one.

The piece of dowel I used to remove the nut with:



Here is a close up of the piece of dowel that I sharpened till almost a point to remove the nut from thr neck.

I then decided to get really creative and turn this into a fretless neck, this will mean that the new nut that I make for this neck will have to be the height of the frets I remove shorter than the nut I have just removed, and that I will have to lower the sadles on the bridge by at least the height of the frets I remove, and if I decide to use the other neck with frets on it I will have to raise the string height, so swapping between the two necks I have won't just be a five minute job, it will mean adjusting string height at the bridge everytime I decide to swap necks.

Removing the first fret wire:



Removing frets is relatively straightforward, you heat up the fret wire causing any glue holding it in place to loosen it's grip on the wire, as well as cause the fret wire itself to expand a little and raise up a little from the fretboard, water is used to stop the wood from being burnt by the soldering iron, as well as to give you an indicator as to when the fret wire is ready to be removed from the fretboard.

Almost off:



Here the fret wire is almost off, and as you can see there is very little to no chipping done to the fretboard, if there is any chipping this can easily be tidied up by a quick light sand with a radiused sanding block with some fine sandpaper, and then hidden under new frets if you are refretting, or not if you are going fretless like I am here.

One down twenty one to go:



Here is the first fret wire removed, only twenty one to go, and as you can see it came off very cleanly.

Here we are halfway through removing all the fret wire:



Here the neck is with half of the frets removed.

How I remove frets and know when the fret wire is ready to be removed:



I remove frets by first getting my soldering station up to temperature, I like to get my station up to at least 450 degrees celsius, once it's up to temperature, I literally squeere a rag that has been soahed in water over the fret wire I'm removing, soaking it and the wood that surrounds it.  I then run the tip of the iron along the length of the fret wire heating it up evenly, when the water at either side of the fret wire starts to sizzle and evaporate like in the green circles in the photo above, the fret wire is ready to be removed, by this stage the fretwire has generally raised itself from the fretboard enough for me to simply slip the teeth of end pliers, or a knife under the fret wire and walk it off, as in gradually work whatever tool you prefer to use be it a knife or end pliers from the side you started at to the other side of the fretboard, the fret wire will have come off the fretboard before you reach the otherside of the fretboard.

Here is the fretboard all naked and defretted:



Here is the fretboard with all frets removed, all that was left to do now was use a fret saw to make sure that all the fret where cut to the same depth and tidy things up a bit.

After a few minutes with a fret saw:



Here is after a couple of minutes with a fret saw, just to make sure all the frets where cut to the same depth and nice and tidy.

All the removed fret wire:



And here is all the fret wire I removed.

So I now have a fretless neck for this project as well as a fretted one.  As for filling in the gaps in the fretboard left by removing the fret wire, I might fill them with thin strips of maple, or make some wood filler from a rosewood acoustic guitar bridge I have in with my collection of spare parts, I haven't decided on that yet, they will be filled I just haven't decided with what yet.

Tools Used;

Soldering Station
Cup of water
Rag
End pliers / fret pliers
Fret saw

Total Cost So Far;

£0.00

Number Of Fingers Lost; 0

DaLefty

WezV

Dalefty said:

And I'll edit this post after I wak the dog

what did he do to deserve that?

Dalefty

WezV said:

what did he do to deserve that?

Do you want the full list? Or will the Cliff notes do?  For a start the little shit stole my Full On Fudge Brownie flavoured Frijj milkshake that I'd been saving for at work today when I went for a piss at work, I have a strong suspicion that the intern I didn't fire heped him, so he had a partner in crime, and they ganged up on me.

DaLefty

Dalefty

Easter Monday in The Laboratory of Mayhem:

While deciding on how I was going to fill in the gaps left in the freatboard by removing the fret wire I decided to concentrate on the guitars body, specificity applying the graphite conductive shielding paint to the guitars body cavities, and applying the tattoo ink I plan to use to colour the guitars body with.

Shielding the guitar part one:



I plan on shielding this guitar twice, once with graphite conductive shielding paint, and a second time with copper conductive shielding tape, I won't be applying the copper conductive shielding tape until I've actually completely finished the body with a few coats of nitrocellulose lacquer, but for the first shielding I will be using graphite conductive shielding paint - the small bottle in the above photo which is 30ml but for this project two very heavy thick coates in every cavity will use roughly 10ml, pipe cleaners so I can paint the inside of the hole between the main electronic cavity and the cavity for the jack, and also a badger hair brush - so if you see any bald badgers running about the country side you know it's my fault and you can piss and moan to Brian May about it.

The front cavities painted with first coat of graphite conductive shielding paint:



This is after the first coat of graphite conductive shielding paint, graphite conductive shielding paint works just like copper shielding tape, it's just not as good and requires multiple thick coates for it to be effective, not to mention that it is very very messy to work with, but on the plus side it does dry very very fast, and provided you give it a decent surface to stick to is very very easy to apply.

The front cavities painted with second coat of graphite conductive shielding paint:



This is the front cavities after the second coat of graphite conductive shielding paint.

The back cavities painted with first coat of graphite conductive shielding paint:



The back cavities where given the same treatment is the cavities in the front of the guitars body, here it is after the first coat of graphite conductive shielding paint.

The back cavities painted with second coat of graphite conductive shielding paint:



Here is the back of the guitar body after the second and finale coat of graphite conductive shielding paint.

Now that the graphite conductive shielding paint was completed it was time to try out the tattoo ink on the guitar body to see if it would give the sort of finish I'm looking for.

Applying the tattoo ink to the guitar body:



Here is the tattoo ink being applied, I'm using a sponge to apply it to the body, it looks really shiney as if a high gloss, but when it dries I'm hoping it will be a matt finish that allows you to see the wood grain.  Tattoo ink is basically Indian ink but in a cooler bottle, so there is no reason why this should not work.

The front of the body after ther first coat:



This is the front of the guitar body after one coat of tattoo ink.

The front of the body after ther second coat:



Here is the front of the body after the second and perhaps final coat of tattoo ink, I don't know just know if I'm going to add any more coates of ink to the body, I'll have another look at it in the next day or so and decide whether or not it needs a third or more coates of tattoo ink.

The back of the body after ther second coat:



Here is the back of the guitar body after the second coat of tattoo ink, the ink is not yet dry here so it looks like a high gloss finish almost.

The hook hole that I filled in:



Here is a close up of the hook hole that I filled in with a piece of 15mm dowel, you can just make it out after it has been stained with the tattoo ink, so that has turned out pretty well.

How the wood grain comes through once the tattoo ink has dried:



Here is what the tattoo ink finish looks like after it has dried before the nitrocellulose lacquer has been applied, you can see the wood grain through the tattoo ink, and it is a nice matt black finish.

Here is a mock up of what the body will look like with a white scratchplate in place now that it has been stained with tattoo ink:



So far so good, I'm still undecided whether or not to give the body one or two more coats of tattoo ink before I start applying the nitrocellulose lacquer, I'll decide that tomorrow at some point, I'll either give it one or two more coates with tattoo ink, or start applying the nitrocellulose lacquer.

And the best news is, not only do I have more than enough tattoo ink left to give the guitar body more coates of it if I decide that it needs them, but I also have more than enough of it left for my next tattoo.


Tools Used;

Badger hair paint brush
Pipe cleaners
Graphite conductive shielding paint
Tattoo ink
Sponge

Total Cost So Far;

£0.00

Number Of Fingers Lost; 0

DaLefty

breakstuff

Great thread @DaLefty

Some great skills on display,especially the free hand routing.Inspiring stuff.And loving all the pictures.

WezV

This is the tool I use to help fret removal. 

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/fretremovaltool.jpg

 

The fret becomes part of the circuit so you get better heat transfer, only takes a few seconds to get it warm enough to pull.  Never used water either, but if it works then i don't see much of an issue with it

 

with the fretlines  I much prefer veneer to wood filler as its so much easier to get sharp lines with veneer.   but thats usually because I want the fretline visible.  Sometimes I do them a bit differently and use a similar wood to the fretboard for ghost lines

 

visible to the player, but not obvious from more than a few feet

 

this bass got a mix of both.   Pearwood fretlines for most of it, with a walnut section for the final 10mm of the bass side of each slot

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/complete%20guitars/wv24.jpg

Dalefty

WezV said:

This is the tool I use to help fret removal. 

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/fretremovaltool.jpg

 

The fret becomes part of the circuit so you get better heat transfer, only takes a few seconds to get it warm enough to pull.  Never used water either, but if it works then i don't see much of an issue with it

 

with the fretlines  I much prefer veneer to wood filler as its so much easier to get sharp lines with veneer.   but thats usually because I want the fretline visible.  Sometimes I do them a bit differently and use a similar wood to the fretboard for ghost lines

 

visible to the player, but not obvious from more than a few feet

 

this bass got a mix of both.   Pearwood fretlines for most of it, with a walnut section for the final 10mm of the bass side of each slot

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/complete%20guitars/wv24.jpg

I'm leaning towards cutting thin strips, about 0.6mm thick of maple, to fill in the frets with, mainly for two reason, firstly to see if I can still do it, and secondly because I have maple left over from the reverse headstock neck I made, so I already have the materials to hand and won't have to order anything in.  Sanding down a rosewood acoustic bridge in order to make wood filler, is really a last resort that I really don't want to do as it will destroy a bridge, and I like to have spare parts and not destroy them.  You're idea about ghost frets is interesting, however it would mean if I wanted to do it properly I would need to change the fret markers on the front face of the fretboard to either black plastic ones, or ebony ones, which like using ebony or rosewood veneer would mean ordering in supplies.  Something I'm trying not to do for some reason, for some silly reason I've been tryng to build this using nothing but spare parts I have in my collection, I don't know why, but that seems to be the case, I may have to get the pry bar out one of these days though to pry open my wallet and order stuff though.

I will think about it though, you have given me food for thought, especially as work is going to be extremely busy for the next few weeks at least, so I won't be able to get much, if anything done to this project over the next two to three weeks.

Or I could always send the neck down to you for finishing?  How does that idea strike you?


Cheers
DaLefty

Dalefty

So here is the latest going ons from my Laboratory of Mayhem, work has been really hectic so I've accomplished close to sweet fuck all since Easter Monday, and for at least the next two weeks things are going to be getting even busier leaving me with even less time to devote to this project.

So since Easter Monday I've been concentrating on making the new scratch plate, the blank three ply piece I ordered in arrived on Tuesday, so I got started on that, this is something I couldn't do free hand so I had to build a template for it and plan things out before I cut it to size and shape.

Finally the new exercise bike is put to some good use:




So I finally found a good use for that new exercise bike I bought, well the box it came in anyway, what I did here was to tape down the original scratch plate down to a piece of the box my exercise bike came in, and traced around it's outline, I also traced around the outline of things I wanted to keep, like the middle and neck single coil pickups, the volume and tone controls, as well as the five way selector switch.

Almost finished the stencils:



I actually cut out two stencils incase I screwed one up, like I mentioned above I plan to keep the middle and neck single coils, but change the bridge pickup to a humbucker, so I'll use one of the humbuckers I have in my collection of pickups to get the size and position right, then trace around it before cutting out the shape of the humbucker.

The completed template:



Here is one of the completed templates, I'll now tick this down to the three ply scratch plate blank and cut out the shape using a bandsaw, coping saw, and dremel with several different attachments.

Old and new scratch plates:



Here is the new scratch plate - on the left, compared to the old scratch plate - on the right.

Some mock ups using the new scratch plate:

One:



This is version one of the mock up with the new scratch plate I have just cut - these are not the pickups I plan on using they are just in there to make sure everything fits, if you look closely you will notice that I have installed the input jack upside down, I'm kind of leaning towards this as I like to tuck my cable into my guitar strap to keep it out of the way, and having the input jack upside down will place less strain on the cable because it will not be forced to bend so much as it is fed though my guitar strap.

Two:



In this mock up version I've got the input jack the right way up, I'm leaning towards installing it upside down because I like to feed my cable through my guitar strap to keep them out of the way and that wat there is less stress placed on the cable.

It was finally good to get some use out of that exercise bike, even if it was just using the cardboard box it came in to make up some templates, it now doesn't feel like it has been a complete waste of money.



Tools Used;

Cardboard
Bandsaw
Coping Saw
Dremel
Masking Tape
Double Sided tape
Scratch plate blank
Scissors
Stanley knife
Drill
Drill bits
Countersink drill bit
Henry the vacuum for clean up

Total Cost So Far;

£3.00 for three ply scratch plate blank
 
Number Of Fingers Lost; 0

DaLefty

NPP

neat work on the pickguard. I've never been able to to this so at various points my Strat has sported the original pickguard, then one made out of cardboard and covered in teddy bear fur, cut for a Humbucker, then the original butchered to take up a fourth pickup, and finally the original butchered even more for a Tele pickup in the bridge and patched up with black electrical tape to cover up previous butchering. 

What tools would I need to cut out a standard pickguard for a Tele bridge PU? 

capo4th

Really enjoyed reading this thread thank you

GuitarMonkey

Seeing you make that pickguard reminds me of that time when I took some fine old growth timber... 

...made some accurate blueprints... 

...and built myself a Les Paul using only old cutlery for tools 

dindude

^ genuine LOL. A great thread, but come on, you made that pickguard, REALLY?

Dalefty

The latest from the Laboratory of Mayhem.

Yesterday I started finishing the neck, well I decided to follow @WezV sugestion and make 'ghost' frets instead of filling in the gapes left from removing the fret wires with strips of maple or home made wood filler making the fret lines visible from some distance, so I got the pry bar out on Wednesday and forced open my wallet again and ordered some wood veneer, I couldn't find rosewood veneer anywhere so I had to settle for what I considered to be the next best thing which was some ebony veneer, a 10mm wide strip 1550mm long and 0.6mm thick, just incase anybody is interested in the amount they will need in order to do this themselves, and I think I have over 300mm left over, and that's after fucking up a few frets and having to re do them.  I also ordered some 6mm and 8mm diameter ebony fret markers and 6mm and 8mm diameter black acrylic fret markers to complete the 'ghost' fret look, but these haven't arrived yet, I don't know which ones I will use, probably whichever ones arrive first.

Step one:



This is actually extremely simple to do, it's just time consuming and a bit on the messy side, the first thing you need to do is cover the gap left in the fretboard from where you removed the fret wire with white wood glue, I use a brand called 'Titebond III', you want it to cover the entire length of the gap.

Step two:



Then with a pair of scissors cut a piece of veneer about 10 to 15mm longet than what you need, place it snugly in the gap that has been left by the fret wire you have removed - don't forget these gaps where all leveled to the same depth when I removed the fret wire with a fret saw, and wipe away the excess white wood glue with a damp cloth or damp paper towel.  You then want to leave it for about thirty minutes or so for the glue to settle.

Step three:



Once the glue has settled enough that it is holding the strip of veneer in place tightly you will need to take a radius sanding block - in my case that is 12 inches as my fretboard has a 12 inch radius and your sanding block needs to have the same radius as your fretboard, some relatively fine sandpaper, I used 600 grit sandpaper, you wouldn't want to use something too coarse as it will tear and rip apart the veneer, and gently sand away the excess veneer, once you have the top of the veneer matching the front of your fretboard, you will need to use a regular sanding block to sand away the excess veneer that is sticking out from the edges of your fret board, again using a relatively fine sandpaper, I used 600 grit sandpaper for this as well.  And if all goes according to plan, you should be left with a 'ghost' fret line like in the photo above, all you need to do next is to repeat this process another twenty one times.

Nearly there:



Just over half way finished, just need to trim the excess off of a few more frets, tidy her up, and she'll be done.

All finished:



Here is the neck all finish, with all the gaps filled in with ebony veneer, al that's left to do to it now is to replace the white fret markers with either ebony or black acrylic ones and the 'fret ghosting' will be complete, then I can start on the nut.

Photo of the neck before the frets where filled in with ebony veneer:



Here is what the neck looked like before I started.


Photo of the neck after the frets where filled in with ebony veneer and given a wipe with linseed oil:




Here is the neck after the frets where filled in with ebony veneer and given a wipe with linseed oil, there was no point really in giving the neck a wipe down with linseed oil at this stage as I still have to drill out the white fret markers and replace them with either
6mm or 8mm diameter ebony fret markers or black acrylic fret markers.

The body has also been given three coats of nitrocellulose lacquer with a spray gun and is currently hanging up to dry in a heated room.  So the next things to do before I begin the final assembly of the guitar is to change the white fret markers on the fretboard, once the body has fully dried apply the copper shielding tape to all of the cavities, install the bridge and other hardware, and install and wire up all the pickups and electronics, I'm still undecided whether or not I'm going to mount the jack the right way up, or upside down, I'm leaning towards upside down at the moment, but that may change.  Then there are still a few modifications that need to be done to the scratch plate I have just made, I still haven't decided what toggle switches I'm using yet, or how many, or where they will be placed, so I have that to sort out as well.  There are also the nuts to sort out, I still haven't decided what material I'm going to use for them yet, I'm even considering using a Gibson style nut instead of the traditional Stratocaster nut that I have removed from the neck that I have just turned into a fretless neck.  I also have to make a decision on machine heads, and order them.  The only thing that I have really decided on at the moment really is the pickups and bridge that I will be using.  So there is still quite a bit of work to do still before she is finished.  I'm even trying to figure out a way to have two bridges with some form of quick release mechanism so that I can quickly swap between a bridge set up for a fretted neck, and a bridge set up for a fretless neck quickly whenever I decide to swap between necks.


Tools Used;

White wood glue
Ebony veneer strip, 1550 mm long, 10 mm tall, and 0.6 mm thick
Cloth
Water
600 grit sandpaper
Scissors
Radius sanding block
Regulas sanding block
Linseed oil
Cloth for applying the linseed oil
Henry the vacuum for clean up

Total Cost So Far;

£3.00 for three ply scratch plate blank
£1.50 for the 1550 mm by 10 mm by 0,6 mm strip of ebony veneer
 
Number Of Fingers Lost; 0

DaLefty

speshul91

Loving how that neck looks @dalefty can't wait to see the finished product

Dalefty

NPP said:

neat work on the pickguard. I've never been able to to this so at various points my Strat has sported the original pickguard, then one made out of cardboard and covered in teddy bear fur, cut for a Humbucker, then the original butchered to take up a fourth pickup, and finally the original butchered even more for a Tele pickup in the bridge and patched up with black electrical tape to cover up previous butchering. 

What tools would I need to cut out a standard pickguard for a Tele bridge PU? 

@NPP

Sorry I didn't get round to replying to you last night but I figured it would be easier and make more sense if I actually took photos of the tools and attachments that I used and explained how and where I used each tool, well most of the tools, I'm going to assume that you know what a bandsaw is, as well as know what a fine tooth saw blade is. Anyway here is a photo of most of the tools and the Dremel attachments that I used - not including a bandaw with a very fine tooth blade on it, nor the Dremel.

Most of the tools used:



Ok from left to right we have a coping saw with a very fine tooth blade circled in red, a 15 mm brad tip drill bit circled in pink - I also used a 10 mm brad tip drill bit but forgot to get it out to photograph, a cutting disc circled in blue, a 3mm drill bit circled in green, a solid carbide up-cut spiral ball nose router bit for plastic for a rotary tool such as a Dremel circled in yellow, a 45 degree Chamfer bit for a rotary tool such as a Dremel circled in orange, a 13 mm countersink drill bit circled in black, 2 inch masking tape circled in white, and double sided tape not circled.

Here is a close up of the harder to see attachments for a rotary tool such as a Dremel:



Here is a close up of the attachments for a rotary tool such as a Dremel that I used, using the same colous codes as above frome left to right we have, a cutting disc circled in blue, a 3mm drill bit circled in green, a solid carbide up-cut spiral ball nose router bit for plastic for a rotary tool such as a Dremel circled in yellow, a 45 degree Chamfer bit for a rotary tool such as a Dremel circled in orange, a 13 mm countersink drill bit circled in black.

Here is the original scratch plate that the kit came with:



Here is the original scratch plate that came with the Harley Benton guitar kit, the parts circled in red like the potentiometers position indicators I didn't really need or want so didn't bother to mark them out on the template I made, the same thing applied for the single coil bridge pickup I have circled in red as I wanted to change that to a humbucker so I also didn't bother to mark it out on the template I made.  The slot for the five way switch that I have circled in blue was a little too short and too thin for the one I planed to use - an Oak Grigsby five way selector switch, so I did mark that out, because surprisingly  even though the slot was too short and thin for the switch, the screw holes where the correct spacing and size.  The two screw holes that I have circled in green I decided to move as they where a little to close to the walls ort edge of the cavity I created in the front of the guitars body for comfort, I was worried about the one on the left actually breaking through the cavities wall, these I markes on the template in the original position to be changed once I had cut out the new scratch plate.

So this will give you a template that looks like this - these are photos I used in my post about the scratch plate the two templates where destroyed while making the scratch plate one was destroyed finding the right position for the humbucker the other was destroyed actually making the scratch plate:




To position the humbucker it is a simple matter of 'joining up the dots', simply joining up the screw holes of the two single coil pickups and continuing the line to the edge of the scratch plate, like in this photo, with a pencil will give you an idea of where to place the humbucker, or what ever pickup you want and to keep it lined up with the other two that are already on the scratch plate:




Now here is where it is going to get really long winded and boring where I explain how and where I used each of the tools in the above two photos of tools to shape the new scratch plate, It's actually going to take me far longer to explain the process than it did to actually do it.

So once you have your template, you need to stick it down to the piece of plastic, when you buy a blank for a scratch plate it usually has cling film on one side of it, and brown paper on the other, I like to use double sided tape and stick my template down onto the side with the brown paper on it, that way I can trace around it so I also have visual indicators on the piece I'm working on as well as my template, a bit like wearing suspenders and a belt at the same time.  I then used a bandsaw witha fine blade on it, but you could also use a jigsaw with a fine blade or a blade for plastic or even a hand saw with a fine blade or a blade for plastic to cut to within 1 mm or 2 mm of your template - I actually first started making my own scratch plates with a jigsaw, this will give you this shape but with straight edges, not 45 degree agnled ones like you would want and will get with the finished product:



To neaten up the edges and get the final dimensions of your scratch plate you would then use either fine sandpaper to sand off the final 1mm or 2mm, or use a Dremel with a solid carbide up-cut spiral ball nose router bit for plastic - the attachment circled in orange, to 'file down' the final 1mm or 2mm, this will give you a straight edge, which is what you want for both the neck and bridge pockets, to get a 45 degree bevel edge like in the photo below, you would go around the edge of you new scratch plate, everywhere except the neck and bridge pockets with a 45 degree Chamfer bit - the attachment circled in orange.

After using a 45 degree Chamfer bit:



This is what the edge of the new scratch plate will look like after using a 45 degree Chamfer bit - the attachment circled in orange, you don't need a Dremel and a 45 degree Chamfer bit, it will be a lot faster to use one, but you can use a sanding block with fine sandpaper to do the same thing, or a razor blade - I learned to do this with a razor blade with a piece of metal folded over one of the blades on one side.

DaLefty

NPP

thanks @DaLefty, please don't feel pressured into writing tutorials you don't want to write! 

I think you already answered my question - these are all tools I do not have. I'll have to think whether it's worthwhile buying them (I always needed a pretext for buying a Dremel anyway), or whether I'll do the sensible thing and pay someone to do the job.

Dalefty

For the pickup holes:

To shape the single coil pickup holes is a lot simpler than you would think or it looks, all you need is a piece of sacrificial wood to drill into, you don't want to cut or drill into thin air, you want the plastic to be firnly supported from behing otherwise it will crack and break, a , a brad tip drill bit that matches the width of the pickup, which in the case of single coil pickups is a 15 mm brad tip drill bit - the attachment circled in pink, you then want to drill two holes in the new scratch plate that correspond with the outer edges of the pickholes.

First hole drilled:



Second hole drilled:



To comple the pickup cut out all you need to do from here is use the cutting disc - the attachment circled in blue, and 'connect' the two new holes as shown with the red lines in the photo below:



This will give you this:



For the second single coil pickup you just need to repeat the same process that has just been outlined for the first pick up.
For the hole for the humbucker cavity you are going to first want to drill out the four corners using the 3mm drill bit the attachment circled in green, where the blue dots are in the below photograph, then using the cutting disc - the attachment circled in blue, connect the four corner holes by cutting where the red lines are in the below photograph, this will give you a hole for a humbucker pickup with rounded corners instead of sharp corners.



DaLefty