Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey guys,

I'm new to the forum and new to building. Are there any tips anyone can give me right off the bat? Any mistakes I really need to watch out for on my first build?

Thanks for any help at all!

Since I'm finally making it to the tail end of my first build, I think I can offer some timely advice...

1. Take your time and RESEARCH! - had I been more patient and done research closer to the time when I actually was performing certain tasks, I would have saved myself a bunch of headache.

2. Get some proper equipment - You can gather a few things fairly cheaply that will help you immensely, but you will need to pay a bit more for some good specialty equipment.(good straight edge, a dead flat sanding surface, good miter box and properly-sized fret saw if you plan on cutting your own fret slots)

3. If you find yourself wanting to "hurry up and just get this part done", don't do it. Put it off until you're in a more patient mind set or have more time to devote to what you're doing.

Depending on what style of guitar you're building, hit up some other forums as well. Over at TDPRI, there are a ton of builders (professional as well as hobbyists) and some fantastic tutorials. I know there a few people here as well who've done some really good tutorials (Chris Verhoeven comes to mind). Look at as many of those as you can. There's always more than one way to skin a cat, and sometimes you need to find the way that works best for you. Good luck

Guitar building is easy, just grab a piece of wood and carve off everything that is not a guitar......

I'm no expert, just a beginner myself. It's important to build in the right order. The first thing I learned, or what I will do differently on my second guitar, is when you go to building the body start by routing the neck pocket first (with a set neck or bolt on). Do that before you start cutting and carving the body shape. That way if you need to make an adjustment to the fit you won't be compromising anything else by doing it. I did that backwards. Mine came out great, but there were a few times I had to close my eyes and hold my tongue right when making a cut. I had a large investment of time already that could be lost if I messed up. I got lucky, next time I'll do it in the right order.

This is one of the best pieces of advice I could give. The other piece of advice is just like it.
Namely, draw your instrument out full size before you start. Include every bit of measurement or technical detail you need to pull it off sucessfully.
My first build was done by the seat of my pants. In other words, I saw it in my head, and built it. It turned out playable, but there were a lot of mistakes, and after the newnwss wore off, I realized I could have done a much better job with a little thing called a blueprint(you'll be amazed how many flaws simply do not matter in your first guitar until the idea that you actually built something that sounds and plays like a guitar has had time to wear off).
All of my subsequent instruments started with a fully drawn out plan. You might not believe it at first, but it makes a ton of difference. I would never again build without this step.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Read this entire forum.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

This is all great advice, but I think you should pay particular attention to Mike Baker's suggestion. A full scale plan, drawn with at least top and side views, can help you avoid a LOT of little unanticipated things. It'll even help you figure out the order of your construction processes. Still, you are bound to hit a few hurdles, so come back to the forum often with questions and photos which illustrate whatever problem you are having.
The people here are quite generous with their help, and they've all encountered the same problems that you will encounter. Believe me, the process is very satisfying and addictive. You're going to have a LOT of fun!

If he did that,
he'd be too scared and worried about everything.
Just start whittlin' away on some wood.
This place has everything you need to know.
We will help you along the way.

Would you do this on a CAD program or just by hand? Just wondering if I should get a new program or not.

I have it drawn to 1'=3" scale on paper.

Full scale is best. It will be more accurate with CAD and make changes easier, but a paper draw will work fine.

Welcome to the forum! And if I were to pass on any advice as to what to do on your first build, everyone in this forum would kill me - mainly because what I did for my first build:

http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10123&t=31851

So, start simple, PLAN everything out, borrow and steal as many tools as possible and ---- uh.... oh yeah, SAFETY FIRST, did I mention "enjoy the ride" too?

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"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

I don't have the slightest idea how to use CAD. If you can get a full size rendering, on paper, using CAD, then i don't see why not.
What I do is draw it out, full size, by hand. I go down to Staples, and get what's known as "banner paper". It's the paper businesses(like your local supermarket) use to make banners that they string across the ceiling to announce sales, etc. You can get a huge roll of the stuff for about $6. Enough to draw several guitars with.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

I actually use Adobe Illustrator for all of my design needs and print out 8.5 x 11 sheets and tape them together (I use register marks and tape them up against the window when light is coming through to see the marks) seems to work fine and the printouts are dead on accurate.

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

I'm gonna go against the grain here. What these guys are saying is correct. And if you're building an electric guitar, you'll need a full sized drawing of the body anyway, for your template. But if you have an accurate scale drawing, you're MUCH better off than someone that builds from a picture in their head. If you can blow it up on a copier (several sheets of paper taped together), and cut it out, you'll have a full sized paper version of your design. You can check out the ergonomics, and it may reveal design flaws.

As for software, I use Microsoft Paint. It's definitely inferior to the other programs people have mentioned, but it does work.

Welcome to OLF. Now get to work!

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David Morris

I prepped by reading and watching just about any material I could find
but I organized it the best I could by breaking down all the processes and
ways/styles trying to get a step-by-step procedure established.
I also wanted an idea of the tools and materials that I would need.
By learning of the different ways a task may be done and the tools needed- it helped
me make a decision of which method I wanted to attempt first.

For example:
Making a neck- bolt on or neck-thru.
How many tasks are there to constructing a neck?
Dimension, fretboard, head design, shaping the neck, making a nut, installing a truss-rod, installing/leveling/dressing frets...etc.
For each one of these taks there are more questions and it's hard to know the questions so one should gather as much information as possible...for instance:
Just the Fretboard....what radius, how is it radiused, when do you radius it, what scale will be used how are the fretslots cut and how many ways are there to cut them? How are the frets installed and how many ways can that be done?...what tools does it take to do all of these tasks?

I believe if one is not prepared in the sense that there is a lot to it and it takes a pretty good sum of money for tools
to complete each task it could easily become overwhelming.
By spending time trying to get a mental picture of each process, it may enlighten them to the best approach to achieve
each goal. LOL I said "each goal" because tasks such as making a nut -it was a major goal achieved when it was
finally installed and nut action was set...

I did not want my first build to be a guitar that I wouldn't play or couldn't play. I realized I had to teach myself
so I wanted the best mental picture of every step of the build-knowing there would be things I missed-but still having
a very good grasp of the tasks, material and tools that would be needed.

That's just how I started for what it's worth...hope it helps you in some way.

Great post, Michael

Alright, now that I've got the truss rod cavity routed (I'll post some pics soon) I've got a quick question about the headstock.

I have a design already but when I compared the template to my Strat it was a bit smaller and did not look like the tuners would fit. Should I keep the same design and use mini tuners or expand the size of the head?

Thanks!

That's completely up to you. What would you rather do? If you're married to your headstock design, then get some mini tuners and see if they'll work. If you'd rather have full-size tuners, then redesign the headstock. There is no right answer here.

What about inlaying the fretboard? I got some diamond shaped inlays for Christmas and I am practicing my inlaying on the extra piece of fretboard, but it's not looking so good. Any suggestions?

I'm just free handing the diamond shapes now but I want to be sure how to do it.

Larry Robinson has a great 3 DVD set on the subject that's available at StewMac.com or you can rent it from smartflix.com - I demonstrate the outline of the process in part 2 of my documentary here: http://www.youtube.com/virgilguitar#p/u/7/_GNheJh6RIU Good luck!

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Be VERY careful when shaping your neck. Get a pair of digital calipers. you can get them pretty cheap on ebay. Check your necks thickness very frequently with them when carving the neck and sanding. I accidentally carved/sanded into the slot that I routed for the truss rod and its caused ALOT of problems and setbacks