Templates finished

I finished the last master templates. Number 6 and 7 are a pickup cavity & neck pocket template and a template for the pickguard:

Also did some other small things, like practicing how to cut veneer. Not very interesting, but I got this tip to put tape where you want to cut and it really works out, so I thought I’d share:

Without the tape my knife got pulled from its path by the rough grain of wenge (like rutting), and if I cut in a specific angle to the grain, it tends to split. The tape solves all of those issues very well.

Last thing today was drilling the alignment holes through the maple top, which I found to be very scary. I checked and checked, a dozen times.. wouldn’t want to drill through the top in the wrong place… but those holes come in handy when glueing the top and veneer to the body. Since I used the same holes for attaching the body shape template to the body core, they’re already in there and a perfect way to fixate the top in the exact right spot while applying pressure when glueing.