How are various types of flatwork for Fender style pickups made?
The fabricated pieces of flatwork as the name states are normally flat and held together by either a glued spacer or friction fit rod pole pieces. Flatwork used on Fender style pickups are usually stamped out in a variety of shapes with a material called vulcanized fibre. The vulcanized fibre can be made in a variety of colors such as black, natural, red, gray etc. The vulcanized can be in rod or sheet form with numerous diameters and thickness. Flatwork can be made in several different ways as I will explain below. Blanking: Blanking is usually done with a punch press and a die shoe that is inserted into the press. Inside the die shoe can be the shape of the blank being needed and is precisely aligned inside the shoe and when the press cycles, the part is blanked out. Usually the blanked parts don’t have the pole, eyelet or tap holes punched and that’s done in another process. Usually the top portion of the die is the male and the bottom portion is the female. Blanking will give you m
