Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi,

I have built tube amps and ordered guitar parts and assembled and painted (lacquer) with great results. Now I have the taste to build one from scratch. I'm a bit concerned about trying a neck and may just order one and build the body around it.

Questions:

Set neck, bolt on, or through body?
Carved top (this is what I really want but not sure how to carve one).
Are there some good books on building electric guitars?

Thanks,
Rut

Also, one aside question, how are semi-hollow body tops and backs arched? I have a Washburn HB35 that has bot top and bottom arched. I think it is made out of ply with a veneered flamed sycamore on it. Obviously these aren't carved since they aren't thick enough.

Seriously, give making a neck a shot; it really isn't as difficult as you'd think.

I recommend Melvyn Hiscock's 'Make Your Own Electric Guitar', many also like Martin Koch's book. Read those to gain a firm understanding of various aspects of electric guitar construction, then head out to various forums with that framework firmly in place, and figure out the rest.

Neck joint: whatever's easiest. My first guitar (in fact, first real woodworking project) was a carved top, set neck, semi-hollow electric. Still plays and sounds fine, although I'm not all that happy about the aesthetics of it any more; tastes mature as you age, and 17-year-old-me wasn't quite there yet.

Top carving: search here, search projectguitar, look for Chris Verhoeven's Youtube vids on carving a top (verhoevenc here on the forum, check his sig file), and give it a shot. My personal preferred method for top carving is router for the basic ledge and any primary 'angle' if the wood's too figured to plane easily, then an angle grinder with a sanding disk for the bulk of it, then an orbital sander, and finish up with finger planes and scrapers for fine detailing and recurves. But everyone has their own favourite methods. Books on archtop guitar making have more useful info on top carving (Benedetto's) than the electric guitarmaking books do.

Personally, I find the neckthrough to be the easiest to make. There's no fitting of the neck to the body so you don't have to worry about getting a tight fit. Next would be the bolt neck, then the mortis and tenon set neck, and finally the dovetail neck joint.
All are easily doable, just do the right steps in the right order, take your time, don't rush.

_________________
Old growth, shmold growth!

If you dont build the neck its like not building a guitar. Its not that hard really.

OK. Thanks. I'll take a look at those books. What is the best source for purchasing wood?

Here's another great book. I can honestly say over the years, that I've incorporated different things from each of these books being mentioned, and this is my favorite, and it's very complete.
http://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Electri ... 959&sr=8-4

_________________
Old growth, shmold growth!

i am firmly in the bolt on camp, especially with a first build. if you mess up your fisrt neck you can always make a new un. if you glue it in and then f*&k up the frets don't come crying to me.
heres my method of a bolt on neck build. its simple and with practice trouble free-ish.

1.square up fingerboard side (face), and both edges of 1" thick neck blank on jointer.
2.draw taper along whole length of one side. draw 4/1 angle at nut.
3.cut angle saving the waste end for the headstock (use the lines you drew for the neck thickness taper and slope away towards the bottom of the 4/1 angle for the last 2-3" to acheive headstock profile).
4.cut neck taper on bandsaw and level heel and nut ends on beltsander.
5.locate squared fingerboard on your neck blank with nipped off staples in both ends of neck (make sure these are not in the way of truss rod).
6.mark out fret board and partially slot for frets (sharp knife, .53 kerf pull saw and engineers square).
7.rout truss rod channel.
8.cut top taper of neck and fingerboard.
9.relocate (line up staples and holes) and glue fingerboard (never enough clamps, clamp from the middle outwards0!!!
10.run the glued up neck sides over jointer until desired width (pencil lines) is acheived.
11.copy the neck face taper, cut, level the glue area and glue on headstock which we saved from the neck blank.
12.trim edges of headstock with jointer and glue on your 'ears'. i usually use a totally different wood with strong grain for my ears.
13.flatten headstock (sanding block, i use the sole of a block plane) and glue on ebony face.
14.rout headstock shape using template.
15.complete slotting(reason-if you fully slot too early, your jointer will take chunks out of your slots).
16.attach neck to body and shape while standing with headstock pressed against your chest (this is the way i found most usefull although most hold the neck in a vice).
17.remove neck for levelling, radius and final sanding (i say sanding, but if using a dark fingerboard with a light coloured neck you will make a horrible mess with sandpaper. a cabinet scraper is the way to go and just final smoothing with paper to 500 grit).
18.attach neck and install frets.
19.file fret ends and bevel (loads of masking tape when doing that bevel with a proper beveling file or you'll scratch the frets).

thats about it. for what its worth.

IMHO bolt on would be simplest for a first build(though I chose a set neck). As on poster said, if you mess it up you can always build another, and they're easy to change out. I agree with the majority, you should give building the neck a try. In truth, it's not that hard, and if I had went with the old build the body, buy the neck idea I'd've been dissappointed with myself at the end of the line. You're gonna go to a lot of work to get this right, why not go all the way? You know you want to.
Get the books mentioned, read and re-read until you've got a good understanding of what's involved.
Don't spend lots of cash on expensive wood. Get a good quality neck blank from a good supplier (sponsers at the top of the page have what you want). You need to make sure that is well dried and stable. You can use just about anything you want for the body, as long as it's fairly well seasoned. I used an old cutting board to build my first, but I've seen everything from cedar to pine used with good results. Remember, this is your first. Spend the money where it counts the most; neck wood and electronics/pups.
I would also recommend googling tdpri. This is the Telecaster Discussion Page. In the Home Depot section of their forums there are numerous builts chronicled by some really good builders. If you spend some quality time there you can learn pretty much everything you need to know about building an electric guitar, with pictures and explainations.
Good luck and welcome to the forum.

_________________
Mike

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