You Only Get One Chance

I'm sure there are dozens of sayings like the carpenter's adage: "Measure twice, cut once".

The task of drilling the holes for the controls has been making me nervous ever since I placed my order for the body. There is no drilling a second set of holes if the first set isn't in the spot I wanted. How do I get the correct arc? How do I make sure everything will fit neatly in the cavity? How do I mark out the correct drill positions for the pots? These, and many other questions, are yet to be answered. Nevertheless, I have a plan!

A practise template!

I have made a plywood pattern of the control cavity profile.  The idea is to test the layout of the pots, preamp and switch, making sure that they don't get in the way of other parts, such as the input jack, or the pickup leads.



Template of control cavity

Controls and Preamp kit

It looks to me as though the arc of the cavity along the lower edge matches, in places, the arc of the body. It also appears as though the control cavity cover has the same curve as the body To be honest, it seems pretty obvious, but I need to check (twice), to satisfy myself that this is, in fact, the case. Therefore, I should be able to use the cover for marking out the arc along which the controls are placed.

But then, there is still the alignment to work out, so that I do end up marking an arc as parallel to the body arc as possible. I'm thinking that the straight section under the battery compartment will have to be the datum.

This might take some time!