Creating quality guitar templates

[taylornutt]

I recently have been trying to confirm and update my guitar templates for accuracy. I have been trying to use original instruments to to confirm my templates are good. All my guitar templates are made from 1/2" MDF board. I usually have one template with the routes and one for the neck pocket.

What is your process for making guitar templates and what materials do you use for templates? I am curious what your process is.

[Joey]

I prefer to trace an actual guitar body with a flush trim router bit. I don't trust em blue prints 100%.

I use MDF, if I got plywood even better. Problem I noticed with the plywood is it's layered, so as you cut it, you may lose chunks of some layers... while other layers are perfectly fine. Nothing that Bondo & Epoxy can't fix though. I trust plywood more then MDF which is probably more prone to wear/tear/shrinkage/swelling. Andrewdoeshair recommended some crafts plywood to me, made up of 16 tiny layers of plywood... get it at the crafts store, it's expensive though. Supposed to not tear out as bad as normal plywood.

I'd love to see the day when we could buy Flow Jet / Water Jet metal templates. I hear the CNC machines don't transition from curves to curves well though... dunno if it's true. StewMac sells metal pickup template.

[taylornutt]

I love being able to share the templates, but I find that somewhere in the digital process or printing the dimensions are lost. I love being able to print off the templates but it's had when you can't trust what you are looking at.

For example, I think the plans for the Super-sonic body are printed properly, but the body was drawn too small by the owner

i am finding a good body trace and a pick guard are extremely helpful at get everything spaced right.

[DGNR8]

I have put together templates in Illustrator. I should try adding ruler marks and printing them out.