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Old Black Neil Young Replica I start working on the last aluminum piece to complete the Old Black hardware pieces. now that the finish of the neck pickup routing is ready, and I the correct measurements of the cavity are set The neck pickup, originally comes with a plastic casing, which has been replaced by an aluminum cover, to match the rest of the hardware I cut an aluminum sheet with the appropriate measurements to do the work   For this kind of work, if i were to to many different pieces, I would build a matrix to embed the aluminum, but instead, as I will only build one, I prefer to simplify the process and cheat a little. On the original the process must´ve been pretty similar As you can see, the sheet is perfectly cut matching the internal shape. In the next pic you can see the "ram" piece Then i measure the radius of the external area (8mm) and Prepare the mill for this specific radius and at the same time I prepare the cavity that will be used to embed the aluminum sheet in and give the right shape. As you can see the original plastic part fits perfectly Once the two wood pieces are set, I cut the aluminum sheet to give it shape. If i were to do the matrix in steel, it wouldn´t be necessary to cut the corners, and If i had a 300 ton press the sheet wouldn´t even be necessary, just by sheer pressure it´d take its shape, and it´s the regular procedure in a more industrialized process. This is not the case, and I only have a 5 ton press, which is nevertheless enough for our purposes Little by little the aluminum sheet starts fitting inside the mold Finally i obtain the casing shape i was looking after. With it i have the starting point for the pickup cover Before I start working on it I make sure the pickup fits inside with no issues and I manually drill the holes for the pole pieces Cut to the appropriate height and making sure everything fits I do some polishing on the case, as I´m after a "used" look it doesn´t need to look like a mirror, still needs to be relic´d The relic´ing process Some may ask the reason why one of the side has been cut and left "open" if everything fitted perfectly, but as Í´m creating a replica I have to even recreate the mistakes, and if you look closely to the original, this side of the pickup cover is missing also. My guess is that the person working on the original didn´t do a great job and had to improvise in order for the pickup to fit inside the casing, and had to cut one of the sides and leave that side next to the pickup guard in order to hide it. This is just pure guessing as I haven´t found any proper information about it. I´ve also received questions about the hard case. Yes, it also matches the guitar, I´m on it Here it is ready to paint the lettering Previous page                                                     Next page