Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello everyone, I've just joined the site after a little bit of lurking. I found this place while hunting online for guitar building resources and information, and it looks like this forum has everything. I'm interested in building my own electric guitar or two, nothing too fancy to begin with, I'm certainly not here to re-invent the wheel.

I've got Melvyn Hiscock's "Make Your Own Electric Guitar" on the way. Amazon delivers really slow to my location, so I won't see the book for a couple more weeks at the earliest. In the meantime, I'm reading forums, watching Youtube videos, and generally trying to soak up as much information as I can. All of the builds on this site are amazing and inspiring, and one day I hope to make something half as good. I guess we'll see how the first guitar turns out!

As far as my experience, it's fairly limited. I've done my own servicing for guitars I own for about the last 16 years, and done some very basic woodwork. I've got a few tools: mitre saw, jigsaw, circular saw, drills, sanders, dremel, router, other bits and pieces. Enough to make a start, I think.

Just recently I bought a strat style guitar at a pawn shop for $90. I decided it needed some TLC, so I replaced all the hardware and fixed some issues with it. The pickguard wasn't on correctly, and the new tremolo had different screw spacing, so I had to fill and re-drill some holes. I soldered in new pups, pots, switch, replaced the tuners and bridge, and I have a new nut on the way. The fix was just a bit of fun, but ever since I started it I've had the urge to build my own guitar, so here I am!

As for the guitar I'm planning on making... well, I guess it will be the first one from Melvyn's book. I'm planning on getting as much wood as I can from recycling centers or other cheap (read free) locations, anything that will be suitable for shaping and generally okay to use. I don't want to spend a fortune on wood only to stuff it all up. I'll probably end up buying a jointer and planer, possibly a table saw or bandsaw too. Oh, and a drill press. And some files/rasps. Okay, this is sounding expensive! Good thing I'll save money on wood.

I'm not planning on selling guitars, becoming a "luthier", or leaving the comfy confines of Network Administration. My main motivation is to pick up some new skills, have some fun, and learn about building guitars. The plan is to make a few out of scrap wood initially, and then if I feel comfortable enough, I'll then make the guitars I've always wanted to own but never been able to afford. Who knows, maybe some gifts for my other guitarist friends too!

Sorry about being so wordy!

~Ross

Welcome to the OLF Ross!

Thanks Glen! I managed to get myself an.. advanced copy.. of the book I'm waiting for, so I've already started giving it a read. 20 pages in and I'm already learning a lot, so I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing!

The real 'heart' of Melvyn's book is the section on guitar design - the how and the why and various options available for each design decision. The advantage of a book over just looking stuff up on the net is that you get a feel for the entire process, start to finish, in well-documented, coherent package. The walk throughs are very thorough and helpful, and you can certainly build successful guitars following only said book, but I also urge you look at various electric forums (Project Guitar comes to mind, as well as the TDPRI build forums) to see how others build. The one thing I don't recall seeing in the book but that is more or less standard practice is the use of templates and template routing to get body shapes dead on.

Enjoy the hobby, but I warn you now: it's not a way to save money, and you will build more than one guitar

Welcome Ross. I just built my first electric, more or less a Les Paul clone, using Hiscocks book and the StewMac plans (which are no longer available). I had built a bunch of acoustics so the tools and woodworking was pretty well under control, but there are lots of things about an electric that were new to me.

Let me make a couple of humble suggestions. You talk about building the "first one" in the book, that is a carved top set neck guitar, basically a LP or similar. The Tele is much simplier, you don't have to worry about all the carving and profiles, and the bolt on neck would be much easier. Hiscock does not include any plans, you can draw your own but it would be better to copy a more or less proven design for your first. Lots of people build guitars out of scrap wood (in fact it is kind of funky to have a 2x4 Tele or a pallet wood guitar), but if you are comfortable with your wood working skills, go ahead and use good wood (maybe not the most beautiful flamed maple, however).

Buy or build very good templates - they are key to getting cavities routed well. I think the most import power tool is your router - I added a router table to my tools for the Lester and it was very useful. A band saw, belt sander, drill motor, dremel and buffer are the other power tools in my shop, along with scary sharp chisels, planes and a few special lutherie tools.

Here is a thread on my build - not that I'm trying to show you how to do it but rather to show what an amature can do with simple tools working in his garage. I'll add, it plays pretty darn good too

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/sho ... e-Les-Paul

Thanks Freeman!

Yup, I wasn't sure what I was getting with the book, so I'd assumed it was "guitar #1, we're building a strat style, bolt on, 12" radius, 25.5" scale. Here's what you need and what you're doing."

Now that I'm getting stuck into the book, I've obviously discovered that it's not like that at all! So yeah, I'll definitely not be doing a carved top. You basically hit the nail on the head in regards to what my plans are. Pallet-caster pretty much, or whatever wood I can get from recyclers.

I'll be practising radiusing fingerboards and necks on scrap wood to begin with, and I'll definitely get some plans online and make up a body template. I'm planning at least two tele's, so a template would be great.

Tool wise, I've got a router and dremel, as well as cicular saw, mitre saw, jigsaw. I've got one huge ass chisel, but will definitely get some new smaller ones, as well as some rasps in case I do contouring in the future.

I've started reading your thread, that is great stuff, really inspirational. I have no idea how you guys do it and make it look so easy.

Ross, if I could offer my two cents, I would suggest not going out and buying a bunch of tools before you know that you need them. For example, do you really need a bandsaw, or will your jigsaw do what you need to do? Can you build a sled for your tablesaw that will allow you to rough out your body shape?

Do you have access to a cabinet shop or other place where you can borrow a machine for a little while? The jointer and planer would be a long ways down the list of machines to buy, by the way, but then again, I don't know how you are dressing your wood, or what shape you get it in.

For me, the most important shop machines are a drill press and a tablesaw. I don't think I could narrow it down further than that, nor choose between them. Next would be a router, then a jigsaw or scrollsaw, depending on what I was doing, then a thickness sander. My point is that you can end up spending a lot on tools very quickly, and run out of room for them, to say nothing of running out of money! So plan each step, find several ways to do it, and when one machine stands out as being essential, find good one on sale, or a good used one, and buy it. Did I mention buying a good machine? You may not need a Festool, but if you buy a Black and Decker or a Jobmate (I'm not sure if those are available outside of Canada) or whatever, you may be frustrated with the lack of power or precision, and wish you hadn't wasted the money on something you'll only have to replace with a better machine someday.

Most importantly, welcome to the OLF, and have fun building!

[quote="Bullant]I'll be practising radiusing fingerboards and necks on scrap wood to begin with, and I'll definitely get some plans online and make up a body template. I'm planning at least two tele's, so a template would be great.

Tool wise, I've got a router and dremel, as well as cicular saw, mitre saw, jigsaw. I've got one huge ass chisel, but will definitely get some new smaller ones, as well as some rasps in case I do contouring in the future.

[/quote]

Fretboard is one of the most critical parts and its easy to screw up (I did it on my first build, a dulcimer). Consider buying a pre radiused pre slotted one from StewMac, LMI or any of the other great suppliers.

Second, I agree with Lincoln - I run to my local cabinet shop for thickness sanding and things like that that I don't have the tools for. Even tho I do have a table saw, I rarely use it. Router, band saw (or good saber saw), bench sander and drill press work for me. You could get by renting a router and I didn't have a drill press for the first couple (but I couldn't live without one now).

With each build I find one tool that would have made it easier and add that to my shop for the next one. What you will find is that you replace GAS with TAS.....

Thanks again guys! Yeah, I don't think I'll be getting wood that will be in exactly pristine condition. I would like a table-saw or bandsaw for squaring off blanks, but I may just engineer a sled for my circular saw and see how I go from there. I'll probably get a thicknesser anyway, since I won't have any other way to plane wood to be flat and parallel, and I don't have a local guy or store with one that I can go to. I've priced renting one, and I'd be better off just buying. I'll probably get a cheap one (and will probably get what I pay for, I know).

I'm really busy this weekend, and then off to Indonesia for a holiday next weekend, so it might be a little while before I have enough free time to start building things. But, I can't complain, since I'll be spending a week drinking Bintang in a swimming pool in a tropical jungle! But I'm also anxious to get started.

I'm going to be slightly contrarian again and just say build what you want to build - my first was a carved top, chambered, set neck electric guitar. Sure, a tele is a lot easier, but if that doesn't 'tickle' you, build what does. Is it more work that way? Quite possibly. But the rewards are that much greater.

Tool-wise, buy them as you need them. I still don't have any form of circular saw blade, built my first 10 guitars with a jigsaw, router and very cheap drill press stand, and they all play fine. Yes, I prefer having the bandsaw and full-size drill press (and jointer and thickness sander and planer) at my disposal, but they're in no what necessary for successful completion of the project. They just make certain steps less tedious. The number 1 irreplaceable power tool for electric building is the router, IMO. Bigger is better (to a point), 1/2" shaft bits to be used where possible (stability of cut)

Yup, after a lot of thinking/planning, I've decided on (at this stage) a pallet-caster telecaster copy, for ease of build and price of wood. Then I won't be too angry at myself if I destroy it accidentally. If it all goes well... I've got about 2 dozen other build ideas floating around in my head that I'd love to do too haha.

I'll see how far I get with the tools I have, but it will be at least another week before I can make a start.

Salvaging wood is a very good thing to do. It lends to a unique instrument, it's inexpensive, the wood will be well air dried and stable if it's old, and it's ecologically friendly. I have two guitars going right now that are made entirely from 100 year old salvaged douglas fir, oak, beech, poplar and cherry. It's alot of fun to run the old wood through the jointer and planer and see what looked like an dirty old piece of trash come alive again.

A couple words of advice that I've learned after doing this. Be very sure of the wood you are using. Be sure of what it is and if it will be strong enough to build a neck with. Don't build a body from multiple pieces of 2 different species of wood that can expand and contract at different rates. Stuff like that. There's nothing worse than to spend weeks building a couple of beautiful guitars from somewhat questionable wood. It's slightly exciting I guess.. haha But it leaves me very anxious not knowing for sure if the guitar will work out. And that is the situation I am in now, I built a neck out of something that may be poplar, cherry or soft maple - I really was not sure and now I'm anxious about whether it's going to work. I have also built a neck out of quartersawn doug fir, which I'm pretty confident about, but I'm still just not sure as I've never seen it done. Hopefully the good ol truss rod will be all I need to straighten out any neck. But in the future I will be much more considerate over what salvaged wood I choose to use.

Wow,
Lots of awesome advice!
I'm a new guy, working on my fourth build. I consider myself an accomplished amatuer.
I suggest making your first guitar out of decent wood. Maple is a good choice for the neck which may be available in your area. Don't use Home Depot pine. You will spend countless hours building the guitar, so start out with nice materials. I use SM pre-slotted fretboards but they are expensive.
I got into the hobby by buying a couple of kits. It's a fairly inexpensive way to get your feet wet.
My tools of choice are bandsaw, router, drill press, and thickness planer (I buy rough-cut timbers).
And you can necer have too many clamps and lots of sandpaper. I don't see the point of trying to make an exact copy of a LP or Fender when you could just buy one, so be creative.

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

Awesome! Welcome to the forum! This will be a journey that may change your life (It did for me) - It will end up being a never-ending learning process(you can only hope) I got the same book, but ended up throwing it away after he mentioned to "Keep your first build simple" lol The users on this forum are awesome - I have made a few really cool friends in here that will do anything to help you along... good luck and be sure to post pics (we love pics!)

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

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

After seeing so many cool first builds, and with all the info around, your first build can be as awesome as you want it to be, and it will come out fine.

I started off with Teles, but that's also 'cuz I love them. They're still probly my favorite guitar.

If I'd had Mellvyn's book to start with, mine would have been fancier, but still a Tele, probably a carved top set neck tele.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Wow, thanks for the great welcome guys!

Good news is I'm back from my overseas trip and can't wait to start building!
Bad news is when my wife heard that I had enough free time and money to start a hobby, she wrote up a list of stuff for me to do that is longer than both my arms put together.

So, it looks like guitar building will have to wait until we've done some renovations. Fortunately, that looks to include a new workshop though!

New tools are definitely off the list now, too. At least for the time being. Being a grownup sucks sometimes.

The best advice I can offer is whatever you build, the most important thing is to finish it. Don't get into it for a bit, make a few mistakes and then decide to scrap it and/or start over. Unless you accidentally chop the neck in half or set fire to the body, I would say to plow along, more or less ignore the mistakes, and get that first one done and PLAYING. Going through the process once, even with all sorts of mistakes and errors, will give you a much better understanding of what order to do things in, which straight lines are important to keep around and which can be carved away at what point, etc. There are a lot of half built guitars out there where people just give up because they made a big cosmetic mistake they can't fix. Probably at least as many out there that WOULD have been OK if they had just ignored the problems instead of trying to fix them. "Oh, I'll just pop off the neck, recut the angle and glue it back in". 10 hours later, there's a complete mess on the floor that will never get fixed again. In a case like that, you can shim the bridge, for example, or route a cavity for the bridge to sit lower. Not a pretty fix, but a simple and functional one.

Once you actually get your first one playing, it's amazing how much simpler the whole thing becomes, but a lot of people never get that first one playing.

Just remember this....
"It don't matter how shiny it is".

Hey there now, shiny sounds much better at parties!

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

Hey everyone!
i'm adam, a luthier from hungary. i've graduated at the Liszt Ferenc Music Academy as an instrument maker, so this is my official me'tier. i'm working with guitars and basses fist of all(acoustic, electric everything's included).
i'm here to getting know luthier all over the world. i'm planning to moving abroad, so it could be a good opportunity
i wanted to move to Canada, but i'm afraid it's too big distance for first step...is there anyone here from germany? it could be a great start for first i think, but i don't know how this career goin' over there, i think it'll be a hard run to get a job over there, huhh
so i think i can say I'm highly trained in repairing works, worked for hungary's most popular guitar workshop, so i'll check the topics and try to give some help if i can...i'm sure some of you are professionals, so i don't wanna tell off anyone, i just wanna give hints how would i do
hope to see ya soon(and sorry for my english, i'm workin' on it, as i said i'm hungarian, hahh)