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!
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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 ?