That is my plan. I have my MIM that I plan on replacing the pups with vintage noiseless, then with the ones I remove from the MIM I will put those in my Squire. Plus I have an old Les Paul copy that I tore apart the other day. I will replace the entire electronics in that one. They were "Jerry rigged" in that Les Paul. I don't know how that thing still played with how badly that thing was wired. Some conections were not even soldered. Just wrapped around the conector in hopes that it wouldn't shake loose.

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2009 Fender Strat MIM
2002 Squire 20th Aniv. Strat
30 year old Les Paul copy which is currently in the process of being rebuilt.

My Ibanez was like that when I got it. some wires just twisted together, not even taped, some taped but not twisted. When the neck pickup started cutting out, I had my first look in the control cavity, and was astounded.

i was a poor broke teen, so i had to figure out how to fix it myself.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

any tips on getting started soldering Twelvebar? I have soldered a fair amount in the past. (I re-wiered my entire boat, stripped every wire out and started from scratch) But that was all done with a soldering gun, not an iron.

What wattage do I need to look at? and should I get a variable wattage unti or just a fixed?

what I was planning on doing was getting 10 feet or so of appropriate gauged wire and cutting it into 3 inch lengths then just practicing soldering until it was gone.

Then once I get proficient with it I'll work on the Les Paul and get her up and running again.

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2009 Fender Strat MIM
2002 Squire 20th Aniv. Strat
30 year old Les Paul copy which is currently in the process of being rebuilt.

I have a question about using a Dremel tool for routing out the pup cavities. I've seen them used in a couple of books and and online for a few builds now. Is this something that is normally used for home builders to route the pup cavities or is it a better idea to just use the router as I had planned?

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2009 Fender Strat MIM
2002 Squire 20th Aniv. Strat
30 year old Les Paul copy which is currently in the process of being rebuilt.

read this. Your plan seems sound. i did sort of the same thing, though I would be surprised if you need that much wire. I had a couple already bad pots, I practiced soldering to those.

Here is a good site for a musician starting out on this type of project:

http://www.kingbass.com/soldering101.html

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Great Scott... er... Scot! Have you - which books?

We're bouncing around a bit here, aren't we? One moment you want to spend thousands on a huge workshop, the next you are contemplating doing the deed with doll's tools.

OK, let's do router bits. Here's some - but not all - of mine that I might use when building a guitar (some with their protective rubber sleeves on):



See those two fifth and sixth from the right with multiple bearings and collars? Those two are for routing the neck pocket - the little yellow one is 3/8ths of an inch and is only for cutting the tight corner curves of the pocket. I use the one with three collars for pickup and control cavities.

The big yellow mother third from left has a half inch shaft and is 3/4" x 2", which means you can use the bearing to follow a template and shape the whole of a body's sides without needing to adjust the router height for a second pass (as you will have seen Ron Kirn having to do on his website that I linked for you). That is one sexy router bit!

The two cutesy little jobbies third and fourth from the right are Dremel router bits. Laughable, aren't they? Apart from anything else you can't put bearings and collars on them, so you can't use them to follow a template. Like my cavity templates, here:



The point of the bearings is that they run along the side of the template and guide the cutting head. Without the bearing the cutter will just drive on into the template, destroying it and your work below.

Bits with the bearing on the other end are also useful too, like the two on the far left. You can see how the bearing on the roundover bit, furthermost left, will follow the side of a guitar body while the cutting head produces your edge contour for you. You ain't gonna get that bit into a Dremel!

Scot, you asked earlier whether anyone would ever create a neck pocket with just hand tools? In truth, no: but we do have on the Forum at least two proper professional carpenters and they would scoff at the idea that you can't make a guitar without power tools. Any kid in high school could do the whole job with chisels and such.

On the other hand, I have excavated pickup cavities by hand and, as Melvyn Hiscock observes in his book, after you have done it once you seriously appreciate the worth of a good router.

If you really want to build guitars then you need a decent router and at least a press for your drill. If you have a pillar drill, so much the better. The rest are luxuries.

Long post. Any help?

Cheers - C

I'm not necessarily saying that I want to do things one way or the other yet. I'm researching all the different ways to do each step so I can figure out what I absolutely need, what I have already, and tools or equipment I can afford to add to my shop. (or I should where I do and don't need to spend my money to get set up for this project)

I am all over right now unfortunately. Just trying to ask as many questions as I can. I see all these different ways of doing things with different tools so I ask about them and see which works, and which way is the best way to do the job. I'm trying to narrow down some of the tools I will need to purchase in the distant future and which ones I already own that I "might" be able to get away with for the time being. Now that I know the Dremel is not advised and more importantly that I can not get the type of bits with the bearing guides that I would need to do perform the task properly I know to cross that option off my list.

The book I'm reading now (mentioned above) talks about using one for the pup cavities. More along the lines of "it can be done with a dremel". Just like he talks about cutting out the body with a jigsaw. I'm not really impressed with this book so far. It's lacking a good bit of description on most steps of the process. I get that the book is designed for the first time builder (that is why I bought it after all) in mind. But most of the steps are described to vaguely, kinda like this....

Use a band saw or a jigsaw to cut out the body, next use a router, or a dremel with base attached, or a chisel if you do not have either of those tools to cut out the holes for the pick ups. Next solder the pickups, then install the pick guard.

Its all described very simply and briefly with out the detail I would expect considering this a supposed to be a book written for people who have never attempted building a guitar before. He explains what tools he uses, but doesn't go in to why he uses one over the other. Or which one would be best for the job.

Thank you Ceri, that post is very helpfull. It answered a couple questions that I have been wanting to ask. So it is extremely helpful to me. Thank you for all the help so far. It is much appreciated. As is all the help offered by Twelvebar and everyone else. I value your guys input and advice and look forward to learning more in the future!

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2009 Fender Strat MIM
2002 Squire 20th Aniv. Strat
30 year old Les Paul copy which is currently in the process of being rebuilt.

Sweet! Thanks Twelvebar, that's the kind of info I am looking for.

_________________
2009 Fender Strat MIM
2002 Squire 20th Aniv. Strat
30 year old Les Paul copy which is currently in the process of being rebuilt.