What is involved in making this?

[the great waldo]

Finally a question related to my job. As a guitar maker I would recommend that you cut that out of a piece of steel 1.5 mm should be thick enough with a fine tooth piercing saw. For a one off it is overkill to do it on a cnc. It would take about 30 mins to cut that out. I would make sure that the edges especially underneath are rounded over as screwing the neck down can put enough bend in the plate to crush the laquer. Most of those basses were ash which was quite hard but if you have an alder one it's a lot softer. I checked out the prices on the web and the parts dealers are taking the piss with the prices they are asking. Good luck.
Cheers
Andrew

[RDochert]

Thanks, but the original plate is 94.5mm. i.e. The one you have pointed towards is too short. I have some other musicman 6-bolt plates that are also too short - very frustrating.

[Lee Roberts]

RDochert,

Welcome to the forum, have you got the plate in the pic to hand or is it off the web?

Do you think you could take a paper rubbing of the holes well enough and send it to someone and/or could get the hole centre distances worked out?

I'd be happy to make the CAD drawings for you as it wouldn't take long, if you've got a plate like what is in the pic you could scan it and send that for the shape and so on, there is a decent pic here: https://reverb.com/uk/item/2271296-m...plate-musicman

and some really good pics here: http://www.realvintage.it/archivio/stingray79eng.html

[RDochert]

Lee, Yes - I have a plate. I was originally just enquiring to see if this was the sort of work someone think was worth taking on. But now that I have had some many offers of help, I have taken the plate off its existing bass and I will attempt to scan it tomorrow, at work.

[the great waldo]

Hi
If you have an original plate don't bother scanning it just draw around it with a fine drawing pen /fineliner. I wasted a lot of time scanning pickguards to image trace when a simple outline would have done the job.
Cheers
Andrew

[RDochert]

Andrew, By the time I had read your response, I had already scanned it. I think it scanned ok (see attached) or do you still think a outline drawing would be better? When I then print off the PDF file and compare it with the actual plate, it is a perfect match (to the level I can measure it).

The additional picture file is my attempt to add dimensions, but it is not to scale.

Let me know what you think. This is all new, but very interesting, to me. (Hopefully it is to others, and I am not just annoying everyone?)

[the great waldo]

Hi Raymond
The pdf + the dimensions should be enough for someone to make cutting file. A line drawing makes it easy to image trace and saves some time with the software (i'm a bit slow learning these programs as I was brought up pre computers and tend to forget how i've done things with software) This might be a daft question but do you have a cnc machine or are you after someone machining the part for you ?
cheers
Andrew

[Wal]

Hi,

I've just finished making something similar-ish - a control plate for a telecaster, but to accommodate Hofner style switches/pots etc.

Pretty straightforward process - client sent me the original Hofner control plate to scan/trace - fag packet sketch with good measurements would have sufficed, he wanted it pretty exact so sent through the original. Once that was traced, the over-sized outline profile to cover the body cavity was created and approved.

Sketch below shows original Hofner style plate (blue), body cavity to cover up (red), outer profile (black).

After that it was a case of cutting it out of 2mm 6082 aluminium and giving it a polish - the latter probably took the longest time...

It's one of those easy jobs that's a bit of a double-edged sword... will still take you three or four hours to do properly, but you'll be lucky to get £25 for doing it..!

Wal.

[RDochert]

Wal, Thanks for the info. Looks good. You have confirmed one of my fears - that it might be too small a job for it to be worth anyone's while taking on.

[Lee Roberts]

Its funny Wal because i was getting ready to send you a msg about this thread as it looked right up your street lol.

Wow, I don't think I've seen 6082 polished as good as that before, would love to know your workflow for those results!

Raymond have you found someone to make this for you or will you be making it yourself by hand?

It would be pretty easy to make if you've got a bench belt/disk sander, lots of people use this method of printing 1 to 1 on sticky back paper and using the print as a template to make the part, or I can draw it up for you if you have no other offers...