Drill
The body sculpting process was nearing its end. With all pockets in place, the only thing left to do was digging some tunnels to connect them. This would include both a socket for the input jack as well as the channels to run pickup cables, all of which would be directed towards the control cavity.
What you need
drill
forstner bit
extra long wood drill bit
table clamp
So, I found this awesome video, that provides very practical advice on how all of this can be done:
The whole atmosphere is so funny. Could be a random scene out of The Office. Take the dude in the back, who is probably thinking of all the Slayer riffs he could lay down on a custom, rather than listening to sergeant guitar with his gun range goggles. Maybe its just me, but I think the main dude in the video above even looks and talks a bit like Michael Scott. But I have to admit, he’s a great drill instructor.
Worst Pun.
1. Input Jack
Following the aforementioned video, I used a Forstner bit to produce the hole of the input jack.
It really does take patience to get all the way through. Unfortunately, the input jack was a too wide to fit in. I knew that beforehand, but my next bigger Forstner bit would have been too large for the jack cover to sit tight in the hole. As you can see in the image, I also repositioned the bit once before drilling all the way through. That left some minor damage on the wood.
As a result, I simply decided to apply a mixture of dremel treatment to widen the tunnel, along with a decent amount of sanding for a nice transition. All the while, I kept pushing in and out the parts, until I was happy with the way they fit.
2. Cable channels
I considered following the advice of sergeant guitar about connecting the channels of my pickup pockets in one go. But was hesitant about being able to apply the right angle. Fucking things up this late in the game was not an option. Consequently, I would run a short tunnel from the bridge pickup towards the control space.
Then, I decided to drill another channel from the neck pocket and connect the two pickup cavities from there. So far so good, but what would be a day at the build without messing up.
Guard Wood
Carefully, I attached a piece of junk wood to the surface of my guitar body - just above the P90 bridge pickup. This should protect the surface from taking damage by the drill bit.
As you can see in the image, at some point the guard piece obstructed the motion of the drill, because the mount of the bit was touching it. Instead of switching to my longer drill bit, I was brilliant enough to remove the guard. So it goes.
To protect the neck pocket from taking damage and to set the right height for the longer tunnel, I added a piece of junk wood to guide the bit along. This time I would not remove it prematurely. All went well and I came out just slightly sunk into both pickup pockets. To be honest, I did not intend to, but it turned out to be a neat little addon, since it gave me some extra space to place and lead the wires.
