{"id":9196,"date":"2016-07-07T11:13:17","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T16:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/?p=9196"},"modified":"2016-07-07T11:13:17","modified_gmt":"2016-07-07T16:13:17","slug":"how-to-build-a-bass-guitar-routing-the-pickup-opening-in-the-pick-guard-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/repair\/how-to-build-a-bass-guitar-routing-the-pickup-opening-in-the-pick-guard-part-1.html","title":{"rendered":"How to build a bass guitar – Routing the pickup opening in the pick guard part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is an old-school style of making a pick guard. Many bass builders would simply opt to have no pick guard at all, or alternatively buy a pre-fabricated, pre-shaped plastic guard blank. In the way the guard is done here, we physically take a plan, apply it to a large sheet of pick guard plastic and manually cut\/shape it.<\/p>\n

Will you ever need to do this yourself? If your bass build is a custom shape that requires a custom pick guard, then the answer is yes. <\/p>\n

Below: The tools that will be used. Drill with forstner bit, double-stick tape, scissors, 1\/4″ specialty router bit with 1\/4″ bearing and 1\/4″ shaft specifically used to cut and fit P-Bass pickup rounded corners (while this bit is not generally available, it is available by searching for it on Amazon.)<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2866\"<\/p>\n

Below: The plan for pick guard. (Actually drawing out the plan is usually the hardest step.)<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2867\"<\/p>\n

Below: Double-stick tape applied to back of the plan.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2868\"<\/p>\n

Below: Showing the plan with all the necessary tape applied.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2869\"<\/p>\n

Below: Cutting away excess paper for easier use of the plan later on.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2870\"<\/p>\n

Below: All excess paper is now cut away, resulting in one large “sticker.”<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2871\"<\/p>\n

Below: Backing is removed so the adhesive is exposed.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2872\"<\/p>\n

Below: Plan adhered to a large sheet of pick guard plastic. Note: There are large cuts in this plastic because it has been used previously for other build projects.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2873\"<\/p>\n

Below: Pick guard plastic cut to the shape of the plan. Note: A band saw was used to cut this plastic and not scissors. If you do not have a band saw available, a hand jig saw is an alternative to cut this plastic.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2874\"<\/p>\n

Below: This is the back side where where just the plastic is shown.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2875\"<\/p>\n

In the next step we will be cutting the plastic for the pickup to fit into, and performing tests to make sure everything fits correctly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is an old-school style of making a pick guard. Many bass builders would simply opt to have no pick guard at all, or alternatively buy a pre-fabricated, pre-shaped plastic guard blank. In the way the guard is done here, we physically take a plan, apply it to a large sheet of pick guard plastic … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":9185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[70],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9196"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}