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I'll throw my inexperienced hat in the ring for this. I have virtually no woodworking experience to speak of. That being said, I made an electric guitar body about 17 years ago in a metals shop (milled out all the pieces...never even touched a router and barely a drill). Bought a neck and had him rout the pocket. Had somebody solder the electronics. All said it sounds fine but looks horrible. Got the urge to do this again because you can never have enough guitars and even with all of the ones I have (maybe a dozen?), there are still plenty of qualities I don't have. Since the learning curve and cost of tools will be high, I've decided to make three of them concurrently! They will all be different and a lot of the specs are still TBD, but here is what I am planning...

Guitar 1 - Superstrat with 1 5/8" nut, 25.5" scale. Schaller Lockmeister and M6 2000 tuners in satin pearl. Birdseye maple fretboard with other wood TBD. Fernandes Sustainer in the neck slot, other pickups TBD, SSH style. Likely a ruby red sparkle paint job. May add a kill switch for fun.

Guitar 2 - Singlecut Rickenbacker style semi-acoustic with 1 3/4" nut and 24.75" scale. Hipshot Baby Grand in chrome with planet waves auto trim 3/3 tuners. Flame maple top (though I saw a great piece of redwood when doing some searching). Pickups TBD but heard great things about the Lollar Imperials for these types of guitars. Color TBD.

Guitar 3 - LP style thickness carve top double cut. 1 11/16 nut with 25" scale. Schaller Hannes piezo with flagship and DaVinci tuners in Ruthenium. Likely mahogany body with quilt maple top. Light blue finish to look like a swimming pool. DiMarzio PAF 36th Anniversary pickups (HH style) covered w/Schaller Ruthenium tops.

As of today (January 24), here is where I am at...I purchased plans from Luthier's Cool Tools for the fretboard radius. Made it last November before it got cold. When you see pictures of that, you will see just how inexperienced a woodworker I am. It has not been tested. The body styles have been designed and basic templates have been made out of 1/8" and 1/2 " wood. I can already tell how much I have learned just by screwing up the templates a couple times! The headstock template is drawn out but not templated. Plenty of pictures to come as I move along. I want to have everything planned out and parts sourced/purchased by the end of March. When it warms up in April, I need to start whittling away. Part of the problem is I don't really have a work bench or shop. It is currently in our garage wherever there is room. This could be more challenging than I thought...

BTW, If I am disqualified for one of these technically being my 4th build, that's OK...I'm sure I will have plenty of time to lobby for a rule change in the 2015 challenge, when I actually finish these!

You are jumping in with both feet! So which one of the three is going to be your entry? Hahah

It's ok not to have a shop to build in. Technically mine is in a shop but it's in my office at the shop. Hahaha. My desk is the work bench. Maybe one day I'll take pictures of what it looks like to share. Fact is no real work gets done on the office anymore.

Good luck!

lol I would say , Pick one ( 1 ) of these as your Challenge guitar entry and I have no issue with you getting in . sooooooooooo which one will it be ?

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If you we're to do a poll on which one to build, I would vote for #2. I would like to watch that one come together.

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OK, so I have to pick one...I'm most excited about 3 since I don't have anything like it in my lineup and what I would likely play most often, but I think it will be the most difficult with the carving and piezo wiring. Number 1 is most like what I have with the addition of a sustainer. I have a Gretsch hollowbody, but nothing really like the Rick style of #2...so 2 it is!

When my family heard what I was doing, they picked up a book to help me learn. I think it will give me a leg up on the competition.


Here are the body blanks that need a shade of touchup before March...




The headstock design is looking like this...



The double line in the bottom left of the headstock picture needs to be erased. The double curves at the top of the headstock are going to be beveled. I have a great idea in mind for them, but I don't know how to build it yet. When I draw the side view, I'll ask for your thoughts. Headstocks are really hard to design. The only different one I saw that I liked was the puzzle piece design.

I think I will end up binding #2. Semi-acoustic styles seem tough to build in the belly cuts and arm curves, so it would be the easiest to bind. I would love to figure out how to make my electronics cover the same wood as the back of the body. If I design and cut it out properly, maybe I can bind the cover as well to make it fit flush and look good. Hmm... I will likely end up doing inlays for the necks and headstocks as well. The headstock logo is a take on my first two initials (JJ). It might look nice if I add similar shapes as the fretboard inlays. Again...this is the 2015 competition, right?

Anybody else from this forum in the Milwaukee area?

Jeff

So, are you making 3 guitars, or just trying to decide among the 3? My vote, if you're taking requests, is for the Ricky. Good luck.