Swisher Guitars

Swisher Guitars Luthier Michael Swisher
Handcrafted quality instruments
San Tan Valley, AZ USA
(2)

06/04/2026

Routing Pickup Cavities

With the bridge in place, I position the pickup cavities and hog out some of the material with a forstner bit in an effort to ease some of the wear and tear on my router bits. Then I attach the templates and route the pickup cavities to depth. As mentioned in many past videos I’m attaching these templates using masking tape and CA glue, it gives me a few seconds to get the template positioned just right before the glue sets.

06/03/2026

Placing the Bridge

Next step here is to place the bridge and drill the through holes and anchor screws. I mark off the intonation line at 25.5” and attach my paper template to mark the holes. I almost exclusively use Hipshot Products bridges and tuners, and one of the nice things that they provide on their website is drawings with dimensions. I make these paper templates using Inkscape and just mark the position of each hole, and then toss the template.

Next I drill the holes for the string through and flip the body over and drill the ferrule holes. There are lots of ways to do this, but I use another template and just attach it over the holes and drill them to depth. Then I can drill the anchor holes and test fit the bridge.

05/28/2026

Cutting out the Body Shape

After getting the neck pocket routed in, I’m rough cutting the body shape on the band saw. Since I drew the shape from my template I’m just cutting close to the line and clearing out the areas around the upper and lower bouts.

I know the lower part of the neck pocket is still in place, in the next step I’ll attach the neck and clear that area out by routing that area against the side of the neck for a clean look.

05/27/2026

Adding the Truss Rod Window

I almost exclusively make necks that have the spoke wheel type truss rods at the heel end of the neck. I position the same template I used to make the window at the end of the fretboard, to the end of the neck pocket.

As mentioned in the previous video I am using the masking tape and CA glue method to hold down template as it gives me 7-10 seconds to position the template before it sets and ensures the positioning is perfect.

I do go over this area with two different bits. I use a ½” bit to hog out the majority of the material, but switch to a ¼” bit that shapes the inside corners of the window for a tighter look. The ¼” bit was loaded in my smaller palm router when I filmed this.

Lastly I remove the template and test fit the neck. It fits just right leaving room for the finish that will be on the neck.

05/23/2026

Alder Body Blank Prep and Glue Up

This alder board is about 7” wide, so I’ll have to cut it and create a two piece body. I run the boards along the jointer to create a flat edge and glue the two pieces together using Titebond glue (red lable).

I let this sit overnight to make sure it’s set and then pull off the clamps and remove any excess glue from the seams.

05/21/2026

Adding Abalone Position Markers

I like positioning these along one edge of the fretboard, So I draw a line and mark each one using an awl. I just do this by eye to mark them in the middle of the frets.

I use a ¼” forstner bit and drill the holes fairly shallow as the the pre-cut abalone dots are really thin. Then I drop a little CA glue into the hole and position the marker. The fit is quite tight so I give them a little tap to make sure they are seated. I then go over them with very thin CA glue to make sure all crevasses are filled and level sand everything flat.

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