Building a guitar

[Kyle.Kimber]

I want to build an electric guitar. The only thing I actually want to custom fabricate is the body. I am thinking of just fabricating it out of a big peice of wood. I just recently got into woodworking I am not sure what tools I'd need for this project. I kinda want to use manual tools for the main shaping, but I will use power tools and stuff when I want to make holes for the components. I'm gonna draw up some designs on AutoCad and post them.

Questions.

Should I get a big chunk of wood or glue smaller pieces together?

WHAT WOOD SHOULD I USE? For electric guitar I don't think the wood's acoustic characteristics matter too much? Just looking for something durable and cheap, not too cheap.

Any books or websites which can help me out in the basics of woodworking that you could point me in the direction of?

What tools should I borrow/ purchase?

What is a good website for the Neck, pickups, headboard, knobs, etc.

What's a good durable finish, or opt for automotive paint?

Note: I want to do basically a big circle, like a banjo for the guitar's body.

Thanks all

EDIT: Build Your Own Guitar is a good book I hear.

[Tunaman]

http://www.grizzly.com

[kruger]

Well, I am sorta into the wood thing. And, in my searches for suitable material for the grips, I have a few resources that you may be interested in. One suprising place that you may find support is from the Grizzly company. They sell high quality tools, wood and metal working, at a naffordable price. And, it seems that the president of the company is a guitar nut. He makes them as a hobby and he has a special section of his extensive catalog devoted to gutar specific tools. Also has examples of some of his work, and if I remember correctly, offers plans and specs of them as well.

And, as far a wood goes, Ebay is a great place to get a variety of wood specifically for guitar makers. PM me and I will hook you up with some links.

[Russ]

Warmoth.com bodies, necks, etc.

Carvin.com

It's very important to get the neck pocket right, and the bridge spacing from the nut must be "dead nuts" This is a daunting task, Grasshopper.

[kruger]

Tuna posted while I was typing

[Mind'sEye]

Stewart-Macdonald for tools, hardware, finishes etc.: http://www.stewmac.com/. Seymour Duncan for good reasonably priced pickups. Warmoth for necks. Nitrocellulose Lacquer clear coating will give more resonance than polyurethane. Do a google on guitar finishing before proceeding. It's a rewarding but somewhat lengthy process.

[Kyle.Kimber]

Thw whole grizzley thing is great, but I'm looking more at the planes and spokeshaves level. The ebay for wood thing is cool. Thanks for that.

[FARMER00]

i made one, a damn fine one i might add, but it was stolen at school, i had over $300 of electronics(custom stuff made by jacksonusa) in it, not to mention the cost of the hardwear.

i made the neck and body and pick guard I used alder and maple. (alder strip down the center of the maple. i used maple for the neck.
you can basically do it all with a router and some different bit, a drill (various bit sizes) and , lots of differnt grit sand papers, a good handsaw for the frets but you have to make sure the kerf is right size for the frets, a table saw will help with the finger board, but router will do fine if you dont have anytools and need some just buy a router and all the different cutting bits you want

if you are just starting out in woodworking then i recomend buying a bolt on neck pre made, you have to be very skilled to make one

for the hardware i got it from stewmac.com (frets, nut, tuning keys, torsion rod, for the neck, input jack)
for my pickups i had some custom made from JacksonUSA they were about $300

its expencive but very fun

[Kyle.Kimber]

I'm thinking of a koa or mahogany. I want something with good midrange. I was also wondering if the shape and size of the body will affect the acoustics. I'm going for the circl banjo thing, which will measure about 14''-16'' in diameter.

Also, I forgot all about a pick guard. What should I do for that?

I think I'm going to use a router for the holes for the components, but I'll need to make templates.

SHOULD I STAIN IT, or get it painted?'

Edit: I really want koa, but on ebay they only have "blanks" for pens. So they are really small. The big pieces are expensive, Can I buy 6 or 7 or the small pieces and glue and clamp them together? I can find piece long enough for the cheap and depth is ok as well, but the width is 2'' or something. Can someone help me out PLEASE? Thanks

[FARMER00]

yes you can glue it togeather, wood glue is as stong as the wood itself test it (glue 2 peices of wood togeater and break it when its dry, it probably will break somewhere else not where it was glued)

anyways the shape doesnt really matter for acoustics on a electric, but when you routering it out make sure you only take out what is absolutly needed, a heavy guitar is a good guitar.

u dont even really need a pick guard, i made one for mine just for looks, but i know you can get a kit from fender with the pickups already mounted into a strat pickguard for about $50

not a big fan of a round body mine was a mix between a strat and a flying v (designed by me) but good luck anyways


again if you starting out new i would say stain or paint (stain imo) both will be about the same difficulty

if you had more experience there are ways to get the sunburst effect (what i did) but you need practice and balls of steel knowing that there is a 10 to 1 chance of runing all you work that you just did

also if you screw up staining you can always paint over it but it doesnt work backwards like that

[Russ]

Kyle, your getting all hung up on the finish...

bottom line is it ain't gonna be cheap, and it ain't gonna be easy to build a guitar. you're stressing over the cost of the wood blanks. wait untill you price out necks, hardware and pup's! you know, there are lot of nice axes for cheap money out there. just sayin'

Go here, and buy a descent, inexpensive guitar. spend more time playing and less time building

[kruger]

I wasnt really posting the Grizzly thing for you to buy several thou$ of tools. I posted cuz the owner of grizzly makes guitar and readily shares info and help to those that ask for it. He has made enough money off of his company that he can devote his time to building and collecting them. The guitar is the important thing to him, or so it seems. Anyway, good luck

[Jaan]

I've made 2 electric guitars. Most of the components I've gotten from sites mentioned earlier, mostly Warmoth and Stewart MacDonald.

Warmoth has some nice wood available. One of the guitars I made (actually the first was more of a test to see if I could actually make it) was from a solid piece of Mahogany that I got from a local shop, but the neck I got from Warmoth and was in their clearance section. The next one I got the body wood from Warmoth and is African Limba...also known as Korina. That's the yellow wood that Gibson used in the early Flying V's. Warmoth did a spectacular job bookmatching the wood, and the wood itself was beautifully figured as well. Bookmatching, if you don't know, is when you take a piece of wood and cut it right down the middle, and then gluing them together...imagine opening up a book. That way the wood has an almost mirror grain.

My biggest piece of advice is to measure everything 4 times. No kidding. It's the little details that will bite you in the butt. Things you never thought about measuring, like the height of the neck as compared to the height of the bridge, or drilling the holes for the wire routing.

I did both guitars on a milling machine. If you have any access to one I would highly recommend it. That way, all the holes will be perfectly square to everything else. I've seen guitars made at home with a router that were off by just a few thousands of an inch and you can tell by looking at the string running along the neck. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have Warmoth go ahead and do all the grunge work for you, and you just have fun shaping the body.

Anyway, good luck!

[FARMER00]

all my stuff i did was custom, no patterns or layouts i did it from general knowlage. i used a band saw to cut the shape and did all the plaining and shaving and sanding by hand (same with the neck), then i made the whole thing regular steps and did a sunburst stain then had a guy at the local long & mquade fine tune the whole thing

[Raven001]

Not sure if this is what your looking for but you can at least check them out to see if they have anything you need.

http://www.allparts.com/

http://www.edromanguitars.com/parts/necksforsale.htm

something from him on neck tenons as well

http://www.edromanguitars.com/tech/neck_tenon.htm

I've also heard that hide glue is better than them newfangled synthetics....

Good luck.