Machine Your Own Guitar

Step 8: Placing Hardware

Its time to place the other hardware. 

Mark where the bridge should go as per the 1:1 drawing. Mark drill points so that the center of the bridge will be on top of the center line when complete.

One of your pickups will probably have a longer chord than the other. This one is the neck pickup. Remove the actual pickup coils (chrome) from the mounting frame (black.) Place the bridge pickup on the center line so theres about half an inch of space between it and the neck pocket. Trace around the chrome pickup so we can see an outline where we need to mill the pickup pocket. Repeat for the bridge pickup, placing it about half an inch before the bridge.

The tail piece can go 1.5" behind the bridge.

The electronics plate can be placed arbitrarily on the back, so long as it doesn't interfere with the pickups or other hardware.  Figure out how you want to place your potentiometers, then decide where to put the plate.  Trace the plate outline onto the wood.  Mark the holes for the plate too, so you don't remove too much wood in the next step.