 Once
you are confident that all of your knobs will fit, you need to scoop
out the areas at the knobs on the face of the guitar. This does two
things. First, the face of the guitar at the knobs needs to be flat
so that the knobs will install and seat properly. And second, it
looks pretty damn cool. Chuck up a 1/2" cove bit (with the bearing
removed) in your drill press. Bring the non-spinning bit down to the
face of the guitar so that the nipple on the end (where the bearing
was removed) is just at the face. Fine tune and center the nipple in
the middle of the hole. Look at it from several angles to make sure
you’re dead center. Since the areas you’ll be scooping out are on
the side slope, it is imperative that you clamp the body panel down
tightly so it doesn’t shift when you start cutting. Set the depth
stop on the drill press to remove about 2mm. Fire up the drill press
and slowly plunge in. After making the cut, don’t unclamp yet. Check
to see how much meat you still have at the hole. Some controls only
have about 3mm of threads on the post; some have more. You want your
scoops to generate some visual impact, but you don’t want the knobs
sitting too low either. It’s a little bit of a balancing act, but we
fine tuned our depth stop so that we were left with about a 1" wide
scoop at each knob.
  Using
some 60 grit sandpaper, gently shape and rollover the edge of each
dish so they blend and flow with the face of the guitar. Follow that
up with some 100 grit to smooth things out. Then place the guitar in
some low-angled, grazing light and fondle yourself. |
Once
you are confident that all of your knobs will fit, you need to scoop
out the areas at the knobs on the face of the guitar. This does two
things. First, the face of the guitar at the knobs needs to be flat
so that the knobs will install and seat properly. And second, it
looks pretty damn cool. Chuck up a 1/2" cove bit (with the bearing
removed) in your drill press. Bring the non-spinning bit down to the
face of the guitar so that the nipple on the end (where the bearing
was removed) is just at the face. Fine tune and center the nipple in
the middle of the hole. Look at it from several angles to make sure
you’re dead center. Since the areas you’ll be scooping out are on
the side slope, it is imperative that you clamp the body panel down
tightly so it doesn’t shift when you start cutting. Set the depth
stop on the drill press to remove about 2mm. Fire up the drill press
and slowly plunge in. After making the cut, don’t unclamp yet. Check
to see how much meat you still have at the hole. Some controls only
have about 3mm of threads on the post; some have more. You want your
scoops to generate some visual impact, but you don’t want the knobs
sitting too low either. It’s a little bit of a balancing act, but we
fine tuned our depth stop so that we were left with about a 1" wide
scoop at each knob.
Using
some 60 grit sandpaper, gently shape and rollover the edge of each
dish so they blend and flow with the face of the guitar. Follow that
up with some 100 grit to smooth things out. Then place the guitar in
some low-angled, grazing light and fondle yourself.
