# Have you ever made a strat template?



## NtR Studios (Feb 28, 2008)

I have a few strats, and I want to build my own, and I was looking at templates online. I can only seem to find you basic route and bridge templates however. I was wondering if anyone has ever made their own templates by copying one of their own guitars, and if so, what steps did you take and how did it work out?

I just ordered some tele templates, and I plan to make a copy of those with my router. I am thinking the reverse could be done by stripping down one of my strat bodies, laying some mdf over it, and carefully locating the the routes. 

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. I have an old beat up squier to beta test on, if I can find the right router bit.


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## scoltx (Mar 31, 2013)

NtR Studios said:


> I have a few strats, and I want to build my own, and I was looking at templates online. I can only seem to find you basic route and bridge templates however. I was wondering if anyone has ever made their own templates by copying one of their own guitars, and if so, what steps did you take and how did it work out?



Not really answering your question, as I've never built an electric guitar, but Canadian builder Potvin Guitars has some strat style templates.

http://store.potvinguitars.com/s-style-template-set-62-style/

Or you can roll your own using your squire as you suggested.


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## NtR Studios (Feb 28, 2008)

Thanks, thats a good option, as I see a custom option there. 



scoltx said:


> Not really answering your question, as I've never built an electric guitar, but Canadian builder Potvin Guitars has some strat style templates.
> 
> http://store.potvinguitars.com/s-style-template-set-62-style/
> 
> Or you can roll your own using your squire as you suggested.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

I made several templates using older beat up guitars as a guide. it works. But......
No matter how careful you are, you always end up touching the body with the cutter at least once. I don't recommend using a good body to make a template from. Not on a strat, but on other guitars with the jack hole on the side of the body, watch out for the router guide bearing falling into the jack hole. Not only makes a dip in the template, it also takes a good bite out of the body you're using. On a strat, problems are the tummy cut/arm cut area. Your guide bearing runs into one of cut areas and it's the same as falling into the jack hole.

Mike Potvin makes fantastic templates btw.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

the biggest problem is transferring things like the holes for the placement of the bridge. With your MDF on top of the body, you can't tell where the holes need to be. You can lay paper over the body, mark the holes on the paper, then transfer the paper to your MDF. Pretty touchy though.

I have also put a stripped down guitar body into a photocopier, made a copy (usually takes 2 sheets to get it all, sometimes 4 sheets). Joined the sheets together so all the pieces the overlap just right and glue it onto a piece of MDF. Cut out the template, sand to make it just perfect. Kinda tedious but it works.


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## Jim DaddyO (Mar 20, 2009)

I traced my squier to get the template for my build. I used a half a pencil (split the long way) so the lead was right up against the body for better accuracy. I then used the belt sander to tune it up a bit. It didn't turn out perfect, but I wasn't looking for an exact copy anyway as I did not want any of the contours either.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

You can also make one by simply tracing out the body on a piece of mdf and then measuring very carefully all the holes, routes, etc and adding them to the mdf. Using calipers, compass and a measuring tape will give you a very good template if you are careful.


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## Jim DaddyO (Mar 20, 2009)

Oh, I forgot, sorry...check these out. You can print out paper templates of guitars and glue them to the wood. 

https://sites.google.com/site/guitarplanscollection/pdf-files/fender-ish

http://www.gitarrebassbau.de/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6

The second one is German, so you will have to let chrome (or what every you are using) translate it.

I don't think there are too many guitars not covered between the 2. Some of them will print over several pages, tape the pages together and you have a full size paper template. Bodies, necks, head stocks, pickguards, I think almost everything is somewhere in there.


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## NtR Studios (Feb 28, 2008)

Thanks for the info everyone. Jim, there are a lot of useful templates there. I should be able to make use of that thanks.

Vaughn


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## Jimmy_D (Jul 4, 2009)

The original Fender drawing is all over the net and exact measurements are no issue if you google it. 

If you're going to copy an actual body and want Fender's 1950's spec but can't get your hands on one to work with, your best bet is copying a 1979 to 1984 Tokai, they put a lot of effort into making an exact copy of the body.


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