Doing Things Wrong

Today's Lootherization

I'm making the clear pickguard for the guitar. It is a near copy of the bass, so this is easy. I traced the old one onto the masking tape and roughed it out on the scroll saw with a very coarse blade and a light touch. You don't want to melt the blade into the plastic - that is a do-over!

Then I did the rest of the rough shaping on both benchtop sanders. Tight corners and stuff were done with files. Just to see what happens, I broke out my wheel-polishing rig, and now both pickguards really shine.

After thinking about it, I could probably have done the whole piece on just my handheld belt sander, using the flat for the straights and the roller for the curves. I built a whole bass with nothing but the handheld belt sander.

Notice that the one tool I did not use is the one every noob gets told to use - the router. Especially with brittle clear plastic, a high-speed router is just going to shoot shards of plastic all over the workshop, and then you can start over. I make all my pickguards by hand like this. Even a 45-degree bevel is remarkably easy to do with a file.

I noticed that the logo layer on the bass had become a little cloudy, or maybe it always was but it really shows with the new body finish. So I decided not to use it. I could print a decal instead, and apply it to the now-slick body under the clear plastic. I think I'll just leave it this way, it's not needed - the burst adds some visual appeal that was lacking before.

The pickguard is installed with Danelectro-style truss-head screws - no countersinking, doesn't get any easier. This entire guitar ( and the bass ) is entirely Home Depot wood - Radiata body, maple neck, oak fretboard. The pickguard is an old windowpane, and the finish is oil-based poly, so pretty much the entire build is from the hardware store.

All it needs now is strings.


I once got to thinking about this, and it seems to me there are two important measures that will let you compare "reach" between different guitars. The first is the distance from the upper strap button to the first fret, along the neck. This you could call "standing reach". The other is the distance between the first fret and the middle of the lower curve. This would be "sitting reach".

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