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After a quick google search for a san dimas guitar, I would say that seems like an excellent choice for a first time builder. There's gonna be some extra figuring for the tremolo system and locking nut but you shouldn't need a neck angle and the body is relatively simple. Make sure before you cut anything you get your hardware, it really helps to have the real thing to see how it will fit on the guitar. Best of luck!

I usually don't recommend that people shoot for the ultimate guitar their first time out. Let me tell you why with an example that happened to me yesterday. I had a big piece of wood blow out of my headstock when I was routing it yesterday. 3 or 4 years ago, when I first started seriously building from scratch, this would have been a major problem for me and I probably would have trashed the neck and started over....and it would have completely demoralized me. Now, with a lot more experience under my built, I grabbed a chisel and made a V notch underneath the headstock veneer. Then I grabbed a matching piece of mahogany, cut a rough V on the bandsaw, cleaned it up with a hand plane and did a chalk fitting to the notch I had in the headstock. Once I glued that in, I carefully made a strategic cut in the mangled veneer edge to follow a grain line, found a matching piece of veneer, fit that and glued it in place. Then I grabbed a draw knife and cut that bit of the headstock by hand, and then blended it all in. All this took me maybe an hour or two and the little screwup is now absolutely invisible. My wife saw the before and after, and it's so invisible that she couldn't even remember which side the blowout was on.

Little things like this, and other set backs, are bound to happen. They happen to everybody. As you get better, you start to see the larger mistakes coming and you start making smaller mistakes. Then you start getting very good at fixing the smaller mistakes. When you're first starting out it's very easy to make relatively large boo boos, and it's easy to get discouraged and walk away from the project because it's difficult to make an invisible fix and you start feeling like it's all a waste of time because it's not perfect anymore. To avoid all of that I usually recommend that the goal for the first guitar is to get something...anything....strung up and playing. Just go through the process one time from beginning to end. It takes all the pressure off. There are a lot of guitars out there that have been started but never finished. I think it's really important to finish that first one, no matter what.

So you might build a world class guitar the first time out, but I don't think it's important that you do, and I don't think it's important if you're in over your head or not. You'll find out soon enough one way or another! I do think it's important that you don't let your vision get in the way of actually finishing the guitar.

I chose the san dimas mainly because they look a little more "rock'n'roll" than a plain old strat. But in reality they're nothing more than a plain old strat. Actually less if you think about it. They seem like a relatively easy guitar to build. Plus, I want to make a guitar I would play live. I don't really care for wild and crazy guitars. Simplicity does it for me. Now, I do want to get a little wild with the paint scheme, make something that stands out. At this point I'm thinking about just buying templates that are already cut out. Making this template has been tough. It might be easier if I actually had big paper to draw plans on and measure things exact.

You could also try and find some strat plans online. You should be able to get them pretty cheap, they'll be full size so you can take measurements straight from them and it'll give you a good baseline. The changes you'd make would be largely cosmetic like changing the headstock, but you'd also have to tweak the pickup routs to suit your setup. ( A set of strat plans would probably just have a slot right through the top for the pickup wires, that would be covered by the pickguard).

I think you might save yourself a lot of trouble if you shell out the $20 it'll probably cost. It'll give you an instant understanding of the relationship between all the pieces rather than you trying to figure all of it out on your own.

re: big pieces of paper

There's no reason you can't tape regular sheets of paper to each other.

I thought about doing that. I didn't know if it would work.

Actually thats a great idea.

The first git I made was a Strat copy.
I used a hand held jigsaw to cut it out.
I then used a big horse shoe rasp to rough out the body,
finished with a Nicholson 4 in one rasp, then sanded until finished.
Jigsaw, router, rasps, and a drill are the minimum tools.
Oh, and clamps.

Yeah. I just discovered I have a handheld jigsaw. Thats what I cut out my template with. I also have a small scroll saw. I doubt that thing can be used to cut out the body.

A jigsaw will work fine. Little secret: I use a jigsaw to cut out my headstock shapes, and then clean up by hand or with a router and a template, depending on my mood.

You could try going into a business supply store and looking for a roll of packing paper. If they have rolls of regular paper, that would be even better.

Eli,
A jigsaw can be a disaster cutting out a template (from plexi [or lexan?]) if you have a heavily toothed blade - on my first template I tried my bandsaw - unfortunately it was spinning so fast it was melting the plastic as I cut, causing a huge plastic sludge under the cut ...and I couldnt move it fast enough to get it to stop melting it.... then I tried my jigsaw but I only had the blades that came with it which were agressive to say the least - I knew that it was to heavy duty but impatiently I tried anyway - chips and cracks abound...
A trip to the hardware store and $2.99 and I had plenty of jigsaw blades that were adequate for cutting softer materials like plastic..
Also if your not picky about seeing through the template you can use a piece of hardboard that will do an ok template for first time round... Also if you only have a too agressive blade on your jigsaw you can use hardboard as a backing plate on your plastic to prevent your lexan or plexi (I dont have much experience with lexan as they only sell plexi at local establishments in my area....) from chipping... the way you would back a mahogany headstock when your drilling it out to avoid chipping...
Just getting the shape onto your wood will be inspiring, and will fuel your imagination and amp up your drive to get further on the project..
Eli Im glad to see you come around - ppl here have helped me greatly over the years .. and patiently endured me..
Thanks guys...
I think you'll find the same bud...
Cheers
Charlie

I have some blades made for cutting plastic but I found they are a little too thick for my precision needs. The template is going to be a challenge I can already tell. I made the outline of my plans today and I'm satisfied with the shape. I'm going to try and put up pictures of all this stuff tonight.

Places like Office Depot usually have large rolls of paper that are perfect for sketching full size guitar designs. I highly reccomend that over taping paper together. Shouldn't be too expensive. I've still got lots of roll left.

I don't know if I've recommended this already but this DVD: http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdproducts.asp?CategoryName=Videos%2C+DVD%92s%2C+CD%92s&NameProdHeader=Build+a+Guitar+with+Robert+O%92Brien Build an Electric Guitar with Robert O Brien will be an excellent guide to building your first guitar. It's only $40 or so and well worth the price. The only thing he really doesn't go into is finishing (he's got a whole other DVD for that), but that really shouldn't be too difficult for you. If you don't want to invest in much for spray equipment, you can find lots of great metallic paints in a spray can at auto stores or go online for more selection. You can even get cans of paint that change color at different angles. Clear coats come in cans as well. After that, all you need is fine sandpaper and some kind of buffing compound and a rag.

Is the jigsaw all you've got at the moment? I'd scope out craigslist for a bandsaw. You can usually find one around $50 or so, just make sure you learn how to set up a blade (not hard, lots of resource on youtube). And I'd get a router if you don't already have one.

That DVD will go into all other tools you'll wanna get too. I recommend watching it at least three times all the way through before you get going. That's what I did and I only had to go back to the DVD once or twice for measurements. Now it's pretty much all ingrained in my head.

Get your digital camera going and show us that wood.

P. S. Your appology was quite appropriate and even though you probably never addressed me personally, I appreciate you doing that. I have a lot of respect for the elders here, notably Chris Pile and Fillipo. When I told everyone here I was gonna build my second guitar out of a solid piece of cocobolo, they all told me not to do it and that I should hone my chops before digging into that precious wood. But I did it anyway and I think most of them liked the end product. You don't have to do everything they say, or even trust that they're always right, but you should respect what they have to say because they have been doing this much longer than you and I both. The most valuable thing they have for me is perspective.

Hope that helps you.

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Ok,

Sorry for not posting the pictures guys. I promise I'll get them up here soon. I've been very busy. I located a 10" bandsaw, a router, and a handheld router that a guy is selling. If all goes well I'll be picking them all up today for $130. The only other machine tool it looks like I absolutely need is a planer. The bandsaw has no blade, so does anyone reccomend a certain size/type of blade? Is it absolutely necessary to have both a table router and a handheld router? If not, which one is more desirable? I'll probably go ahead and just buy both of them since this is a bargain.

if you have a router you can make a table router with it. Just invert it under a platform with a hole in it for the bit to go through and build some legs to make it into a table.

As far as the bandsaw blade you'll want something fairly thin, meaning from the front of the teeth to the back of the blade, so that you can navigate curves easier. I have a 1/4" blade on my 14" bandsaw and it's great for general purpose use. If you were going to use the bandsaw for resaw work you'd want to go with a wider blade as it helps keep it straight as you move through.

Out of curiosity what do you need the planer for? I've found my tablesaw and jointer to be far more useful on my build than my planer, and this is a tool that you can usually arrange to use at a local cabinet shop or school for little to no cost. I work at a cabinet shop and we have people come in from time to time needing some piece work done, and the vast majority need to have something planed or ran through the widebelt sander.

Also with a good table saw it's possible to use it as a jointer if you need to for glue joints, in fact I prefer it sometimes. If you get a board about to the width you want it to be, take it and set the blade to just shave the edge. Do this on one edge and then turn the board around 180 degrees to do the opposite edge. You may need to bump the fence over a little each time but the idea is to just knock off any odd kerfs or any angle that may have been created in your rough rips. The saw blade should be a regular 1/8" or 3/32" kerf so it doesn't deflect when you cut, which would defeat the purpose. The minute kerf marks make for a great glue surface.

When I made my neck I used the jointer to level the surface that would receive the fret board. After I had glued up my laminated neck I put a micrometer on it and realized that one edge was slightly thicker than the other. I set up a six inch jointer with brand new blades and set it to just kiss the surface of the neck. After a couple passes with the neck face down I was within a few thousandths of an inch from left to right. I can't think of any tool that would have been so easy to do this with.

I'd recommend you buy some brand new pattern bits for your router, I have one with an 1 1/4" cutting edge that I use for routing the outside of the guitar to the template and one with a 3/4" cutting surface for routing the pickups, control cavity and neck pocket.

Also useful are some forstner bits to rough out the routs and save the knives on your router bits. Of course forstner bits are really best used with a drill press which is another tool that I might put above a power planer as far as usefulness.

Thanks for the info man. I have several cabinet shops in my town. I'm sure they'd allow me to use their planer. I'll keep those blade sizes and bit sizes in mind.

I would also like to apologize once again. Reading back through the thread, I now see that my first apology simply wasn't good enough. There is absolutely no excuse for the way I acted. I feel very embarrassed by the first impression I made. I do appreciate the wealth of knowledge and insight you guys are giving me. It is truly making this process and planing stages a lot less confusing. So once again, thank you, and I apologize.

I agree with John on the planer. I bought a thickness planer since most of my lumber comes from a sawmill, but in retrospect, I could really use a jointer. Those hand-held electric planers are a joke - don't waste money on one. I still do not have a good method of making a flat surface other than an old hand plane.

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I agree with others that a planer is probably unnecessary. I use a wagner safe-T-planer drill press attachment and clean up with a hand plane. They stopped making those recently, so unless you can find one used paying a cabinet shop is probably your best bet.
For the bandsaw blade, look for something around 1/4"-6tpi.

Well, I got the bandsaw and the router now. I bought a 1/4" and a 1/2" blade for the bandsaw. All the router bits I could find were in large sets and I just didn't want all of them. Could you be a little more specific as to what router bits I should look for? Like, what is the best bit to use for shaping the outside of a strat body?

I'm going to try and cut out my template tonight with my band saw.

did a check on ebay for saf-t-planers yesterday, they're going for over $200!

They were less than $60 for a new one a year ago...

here's a link to a pattern bit. http://compare.ebay.com/like/251048120741?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

basically it's a flush trim bit with the bearing on top of the cutters instead of on the bottom. If you have a 1/2" collet you'd do well to get one with a 1/2" shank (although it will be more expensive). Like I said I have one that has a 1 1/4" inch cutting length, it's 3/4" diameter and I think it's triple flute. I also use a shorter pattern bit for when I don't want to cut that deep, you should be able to find either 1/2" length or 3/4" length. You should be able to get one at home depot, but you would actually do well to find a saw shop in town as their selection and price will usually be better. I have a saw shop where I get all of my bits, and knives and they sharpen my stuff too. They are more helpful about directing you to the right bits for what you need to do than some guy at home depot who may not even be from that department. The other thing that's nice about finding a local guy is if you can build a rapport with them they'll hook you up on prices sometimes, give you a discount for being a regular customer.

You likely will only find large sets of cheap bits in a hardware store. John's description is correct, you want a straight bit with a bearing on the top.
Here's the one I use:
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=30166&cat=1,46168,69435,46171&ap=1
Here's another:
http://www.eagleamerica.com/product/v102-0552b/ea_-_straight_bits

Ok, thanks for the links. But let me just get a few things straight. The bit you guys provided links for is to go along the outside of the body to smooth it up and make it fit the template after sawing, correct? And this bit can also be used to route out the pickup, bridge, and neck cavities, correct? I'm sorry if you already stated that.

So this means I need to purchase another bit to round off the outside edges of the body, correct? Does anyone know the correct size and "roundness" (I guess I should say) to use for a san dimas guitar?

Also, I'm almost finished drawing out the plans for the guitar. But how can I go about drawing a fender stratocaster headstock? I don't have one handy I can trace. What do I do?

Pics will be up tomorrow, I promise!!!!!

Yes you will need a roundover bit, sometimes called a quarter round too. I don't know what the exact radius is on that particular guitar. If you have one that you can measure that would be your best bet. If I had to guess I'd say it's probably a 1/4 to 1/2 inch? If you can get to a store and take a measurement from the start of the roundover to the edge of the guitar, that will be the radius of the bit.