Hi I’m starting to build an Ibanez JS1000 guitar from scratch and I know from other sources I’ve gone about it the wrong way so far but it’s all about learning. It’s going to have a fixed Gotoh bridge and have a Dimarzio humbucker at the bridge and a rails Dimarzio single humbucker at the neck.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B6yCGB1FVIy/?igshid=12fc2rb25g9odI’ve already bought myself a Triton JOF1010 router but for what I’ve already done I’ve just been using a belt sander a mouse sander a jigsaw and a friend of my sons small palm router (which I used to make a mess of a neck pocket, hopefully not as bad as it looks. I’ve got some proper templates on their way from the states which should be here sometime in the next 2 weeks.
My question is I was advised to get a drill press with an 8 inch gap between the chuck and column to be able to drill the body holes that I can’t do with the router.
Comments
Pete
I haven't used mine for drilling ferrules yet ( like on string through Teles ) and I'm note sure what depth you need for a JS1000.
I'll measure the Fobco and then at least you can judge whether its going to do it.
cheers
Pete
It’s also helpful if the table rotates to vertical, or at least can be moved out of the way. Then you can drill the long holes for cables: bridge pickup cavity to control cavity, and neck cavity through neck pickup cavity to bridge pickup cavity if you’re building a guitar which doesn’t have a scratch plate.
Another option for thru-body holes for the strings is to use something like this;
Drill the outer 2 holes from top through to bottom, all the way through.
Drill the inner 4 holes from top, half way through.
On the back side of the body, you've got the outer 2 holes drilled through. Now mark where the inner 4 holes should be so that they're all evenly spaced and in a straight line. Drill half way through.
Unless your drilling is particularly inaccurate, the from-the-top and from-the-back inner 4 holes will meet up somewhere in the middle of the body. You've got string-thru holes, lined up perfectly on top and back of the body.
(Credit to WezV for that suggestion when I was doing one of my early builds, without a big drill press, many years ago).
I’m going to be using a Gotoh GTC101 bridge on this guitar and it has a 10.5mm string spacing and 74mm for the post spacing.
I can get nearly all the way to the 'far end' with a 7" throat, on a Tele - no idea about the Ibanez though, 8" would be room to breathe.
That aside I'd do the 2-sides method, the chances of drilling 6 perfectly aligned holes all the way through in one go are a bit slim. The slightest bit off shows loud & clear.
Or dodge the accuracy issue altogether by using a ferrule block instead. Bonus points - claim it's for sustain and strident upper mids etc ; ) Grainger ones are quite a bit cheaper than most and look very neat.