Harley Benton SC Guitar Kit - MOD Ep 1

Welcome to the Next Project!
This is the first installment of a rather large modification project. In this episode, I'll be starting the modification process of the Thomann/Harley Benton SC Guitar Kit.

00:05 - project intro
02:26 - teardown
03:15 - planing the back “Armstrong CNC” (that’s a joke)
05:12 - freehand routing the body cavities (foolishly skipping a step)
05:30 - acknowledging the skipped step
06:49 - routing template prep
09:40 - continued cavity routing
12:45 - closing
13:10 - end notes

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Since I purchased this kit with the intention of completely gutting it and experimenting, we might as well start by putting the SK kit on a diet. The project starts by disassembling the guitar, stripping it down to the bare body.
At that point the body was mounted face down on a “cradle” template. This is a 3/4” slab of MDF board, with a cutout just a bit smaller than the body shape. The cradle supports the body around the edge and allows the carved top to extend down without touching anything. Additionally, this offers the back of the guitar as a level plane.
I screw the body down at two points, one at the 3-way switch cavity, and the other at one of the control knob holes. I use typical drywall screws and a large flat “fender” washer. These are snugged up just enough to keep things from moving.
Another piece is then added, it is a wall the creates box when added. This piece is uniform height, and offers a parallel surface to the back of the guitar.

To plane the thickness of the guitar down, I used a plane sled which fits my router base, allowing the router to slide freely but controlled.
I started the thickness planing at one end, remove about 1/8” of depth per pass, then repeat until I reach the total depth of cut I’m seeking.

The thicknessing went well and resulted in 1/2” of depth removed from the back of the body.
It was looking really good and the process went very well.

I had planned to make a template to plunge route the weight relief cavities from the back.
But, for some reason I chose to do some freehand routing. I knew this was not a good idea, not only will it be less than beautiful, it is also dangerous. Dangerous is the real important part.
Also, I had planned to use a Forstner bit to remove a large amount of the waste wood, but - I didn’t.

Anyway, I did some freehand routing, and it went rather well. But I finally gave in to the realization that I would be happier using a template, the quality of work would be better, and it would be less dangerous.

I used a scrap piece of 1/4” MDF board, traced the body shape on the board and marked it up to be cut. Using a jigsaw “saber saw” I removed the waste areas, then quickly cleaned up the edges with some 100grit paper. I could have spent time making the template really smooth, but this was for internal cuts, so I just made it “nice” not “great”. It turned out very well, and I kick myself for not making it at the beginning.

I finished the cavity cuts with using the template - a world of improvement.
With the template, I mounted my router base to a 1/4” thick piece of plexiglass, I was able to see what I was doing - to some degree.

Just a little more freehand routing to do, but this was to remove some of the concave area near the center of the back.
These stepped routes are followed by some sharp chisel work to remove and smooth the steps.
More smoothing to follow.

Next, I will start plugging the pickup cavities, the tail piece post holes, and some of the control holes…

I hope you enjoy the video, and stay tuned for SC Kit mod videos - Coming Soon!

NOTE: This is for entertainment, this is not a training video in any way, unless you are looking for the wrong way to do most things.
Enjoy at your own risk. Cheers!

#diykitchallenge22 #diykitchallenge #harleybenton