Day 10: Finishing the Pickup Notch

I continued to work on the notch that will hold the passive pickup and bridge. The piece that came with the pickup is a crappy plastic thing that looks pretty horrible.

I decided to replace it with an African Blackwood piece of my own making. I want this to be a quality instrument for Reed, not something thrown together from cheap Chinese parts. In order to more effectively carve the notch, I decided to stop for a few minutes and make a "bench hook" suggested by a luthier friend in Holland.

I made this "hook" from scrap wood. As you can see, it's intended to hold a piece more securely as one works his luthier magic on it. In this case, I used it to hold the body while I chiseled away at the notch.

The added stability helped me make quick work of the carving using a 1/2" chisel. You can see from the photo above that I don't have all of the tiny pieces cut, yet, but I'll have them cut and glued up this week so I can move on to routing out a hole in the back for the preamp.

Until next time...

Day 9: Carving the Pickup Notch

I was able to make a little more progress over the weekend. I started carving the notch that holds the plastic retainer for the passive pickup that sits under the bridge.

When I posted the second photo on Facebook, a harpsichord builder friend pointed out that carving out the 1 cm recess using a Forstner bit (flat on the wood-facing end) would make quick work of it. He's right. During the next session, I will attack it with one of Mr. Forstner's offspring.

I also decided that I don't really want to mount the crappy plastic retainer that came with the pickup. I'm going to make one from African blackwood that will look better and last longer for Reed. Regardless, progress is progress and I'm happy where the project is headed once again - toward completion!

Until next time...