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I usually get my bits from http://www.toolstoday.com
The Amana bits, they are very good, and stay sharp for a very long time, I have built 5 guitars with the current set of bits I have off them.

However, I will give you some different advice for a bit to smooth the outer surface of the body, I use a spiral bit with the bearing on top. The spiral bits have less of a chance of tearout, and I have always gotten a little tearout with the standard bits when doing the outer surface.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-4-Spiral-Flus ... 500wt_1156

whiteside are also good bits

re: roundover bits
I don't think I even own one anymore. I take a piece of sandpaper, sand a small facet and then round it over. You're going to need to learn to do it like this unless you plan on building flat guitars for the rest of your life. The roundover will not work very well if your guitar has back or front contours of any significance.

You also don't need to route the body to shape. In fact, I'll say that I probably route it to shape maybe 50% of the time. Often times I just grab a small sanding block with some sandpaper and smooth it out like that. That said, you don't need to make a pattern you can rout against. You can just cut out a piece of paper, put it on your blank and trace around it. Cut it out, smooth out the marks with a sanding block (ALWAYS use a sanding block if you can) and done. My favorite sanding block is a little piece of cork I picked up at my local Woodcraft. I also have a piece of MDF with some sandpaper stuck to it. I also wrap sandpaper around various sized dowels, and I have a piece of curtain rod that I flattened on one side and then wrapped with leather.

Routing out the shape is not a bad way to do it. It's just unnecessary and makes you spend time and money doing things other than actually building a guitar (like building templates and things like that). You'll end up building the guitar twice....once for the template and then once for the actual guitar.

Jimmy, I'm not entirely sure but to me it looks like that bit has the bearing on the bottom (as in a flush trim bit rather than a template bit). Do you use that bit and do it all in one pass?
You will need at least two bits. The template bit is used to rout the body outline, neck pockets, pickup cavities, the control cavity and the recess for the cavity cover. You will also need a round over bit and, unless your template bit happens to be the right size, a straight bit for the truss rod channel.

You can certainly do it the way john recommended, but you can probably save some time by routing the round over before you shape the contours. It really depends on how big of a round over you want.
I agree that routing the body is unnecessary and I never do it myself, but if you do want to match the shape exactly (and don't have mad bandsaw skills) it is the best way to go.

Thanks guys. Any advice for the headstock question?

Well if you can find a picture of what you want, you can follow the instructions here and get a nice plan. http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/291417-how-create-print-plans-photos.html

You will need to find a straight on, non angled pic.

I'll have to disagree with John here, I think routing the rough cut body to shape with a template is the way to go. Sure, you could sand that 1 3/4 inch body by hand with a block, but why not sand a 1/2 to 1 inch MDF template instead? I've done it both ways and trust me, sanding the much thinner MDF is a lot easier than sanding 1 3/4 inches of hardwood. Then the routing is easy. I believe this is the much less labor intensive method. Do make sure you route with the grain rather than against, and maybe try that spiral bit.

And as far as top and back contours, that's why you route before you make those.

_________________
http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

I'd agree with Chameleon too. One benefit of routing the body to the exact template too is you can draw or scribe a line that is dead center in the template running north to south. I know on my guitar this was helpful because if I ever had any doubt, because of sanding or rubbing off my pencil marks I could just line up the template to the body and divine where all my routs were supposed to be. It was really helpful to be able to reference this when I located my pickups, my bridge and tailpiece and my neck pocket just to make sure everything was lining up.

I suppose you could do it freestyle, I just liked the structure that having a template with my centerline on it afforded.

Thanks for the link, man.

The other thing that is scaring the heck out of me as I've come to it is making sure the bridge is in the right place on my plans. I've got the center line, the body, the scale length, and the neck drawn on my plans. But I'm having trouble understanding where and how to draw the bridge cavity so that the saddles fit perfectly 25.5" from where the strings break the nut. Its a floyd rose and its kind of hard to work with. The saddles are at different positions and are movable. I'm not sure what to do with it.

I'm sure you could find some full size strat plans as well for the headstock somewhere on the net. I found a nice thinline tele plan after a little google searching.

You can check the stud placement here:
http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Reference/Calculators/i-fretcalc.html
Looks like about 24.937" for a floyd rose II or schaller floyd or 25" for a floyd rose original.

A good set of plans will be a big help. I refer to my plans all the time.

Also you might think about picking up a set of templates that are already done. Here is a site that has a pretty decent selection. I think you can request a specific bridge placement. They also have the neck pattern so that will cover some of your future.
http://www.guitarbuildingtemplates.com/products

I haven’t done an electric, but I think when I do, I might spring for a set of these and a set of plans. Get one set of plans with the measurements and stick to that. You could probably find a Strat plan with a Floyd rose bridge and go from there. Tweaking the outer body shape to a San Demas might not be as significant as the bridge placement\fret scale numbers.

Here is a link to a good source of good quality router bits. Buying from here will get you Witeside bits for right about the same as you would pay for an individual lesser brand bit at a Big box hardware store.
http://www.woodworkersworld.net/

Bits can get expensive. I recommend buying what you need as you need them rather than getting a big kit with bits you may never use.

Here is a link to a German site where someone has compiled links to tons of plans and drawings for many guitars. I bet you could find a drawing of the fender headstock with a little searching here.
http://www.gitarrebassbau.de/viewtopic. ... =6&start=0

The main thing I can tell you is to think in baby steps. Each challenge will lead to another. Overcome one and it might help your thought process on one down the road. Tools will change from one step to another, just plan for the next step.

Good Luck,

John

Thanks john, that's good advice and info. And I am taking very small steps and taking every precaution. Some of this is getting a little scary because I'm afraid to mess something up.

What grit of sandpaper should I use to sand the template? This 220 I'm using just isn't doing the trick. I cut out my first template with my bandsaw and it was a little bit messed up. I think I need to trace the outline with a brighter color because I can't see the black line on the lexan where the hole is under the blade.

Ok guys, here's a link tomy photobucket page where you will find pictures of my build so far:

http://s1078.photobucket.com/albums/w482/rbanks6/

My bandsaw blade broke in case your wondering why I didn't finish sawing the wood. I didn't realize until I started sawing that I had placed the template on its face. But no biggy I can fix that later.

Well, tell me what you think.

well, looks good so far Eli. Are you making a lefty? or did you just lay your template on the back?

Did your bandsaw come with set up instructions? You want to make sure that it's at the appropriate tension and your guide bearings or bushings are set up properly. It's definitely worth looking into, a broken bandsaw blade is a pretty dangerous thing whipping around and sometimes launching right out of the tool.

Don't feel bad if people aren't commenting, they're probably waiting for you to finish cutting that body out at least. I posted some pics of mine and it's way further along and only got a couple comments. I think people are more interested in helping with specific questions or seeing stuff they haven't seen before, and of course the finished pieces. Anyways I decided not to take it personally and I think you should too, I don't think anyone's doing it to be a jerk!

Lol. No, Its not a lefty. I just didn't realize I had placed the template face-down until it was too late. Lol. But Its no big deal it turned out fine. I'm actually very pleased with how it turned out!

And no, the bandsaw didn't come with any instructions. I spent more time tinkering with the stupid thing trying to get the blade to stay on than I did sawing. Lol. Its a contrary little piece of poopy!

Oh, its no big deal. I just thought people would be happy to finally see my pictures.

But I have a new question. First of all, are there any pickup gurus out there? I'm putting two humbuckers on this baby and I was wondering if anyone had any advice as far as pickups go? My style is more heavy metal, lead guitar. Good harmonics, brighter sound, lot of punch, and also something that cleans up well. I've been looking at some dimarzios as well as seymour duncans but I'm kind of lost. Any advice is appreciated.

I would do some google searches for setting up your bandsaw but basically you want to make sure that there is enough tension on the blade that it doesn't push back or to either side without some pressure, and it tracks properly on the wheels. You want to set up the bearings or bushings so that they are not in constant contact with the blade but the blade doesn't have to move too far to hit them. When you set the height I always like to set the guide block armature so it's just above my wood. Any extra height will just give the blade more room to wander which can lead to undue pressure and breaks. It's especially important when sawing thicker wood.



The best advice I can offer for this is to think about what guitarist's tone you like and try and find out what they use. It's really tough to pick your pickups, even with online sound bytes it all gets muddled really fast and the tone they use for examples could be using a vastly different amp than yours, effects, microphones...

I ended up buying some Tom Anderson pups because I have a Mesa Boogie Mark IIc+ and I was looking for something that was a good match. The guys at boogie have been using Tom Anderson's for all of their bench testing for years so I figured they would be a good start. I emailed the company and Tom Anderson himself wrote me back asking what kind of wood I was using, what kind of amp I had, what style of music I like to play. He recommended the pups I bought and sold them to me cheaper than any other price I had found.

I'm putting some Bare Knuckle's in my next build, warpigs I believe and the one after that is going to get some Bill Lawrence pickups. I really don't think anyone can help you too much with picking them as it's such a subjective, personal choice. Sorry that that's not much help, lol.

Its okay, I just don't know much about them. I'm trying to research and trying to get the tone I'm looking for.

Look on ebay for some used seymour duncans. I have always liked the jeff beck for a bridge and the SH59 for the neck. I have a guitar in which I got them covered, and that really kind of mellowed them out more than what an uncovered pickup does, if I could go back I would change that.

But that being said I bought a pickup winder and will just make my own pickups from now on. Lots of guys on this and another forum (http://www.projectguitar.com) make their own.

Well the body is all cut out. And very nicely done if I say so myself. Now that I've come to this point, I feel like sanding around the body would be the better approach for me instead of routing. About to route out the stuff on the top. I'll post pictures again soon.

Just remember to use a sanding block of some sort. A flat piece of wood, maybe 1x2x3 works. Just wrap the sandpaper around the block...no need to glue it down. I use a piece of cork because I like a little give. Just something so that you don't sand waves and grooves into the sides. It will save you a hell of a lot of trouble when it's time to finish.

For metal you're right on with the Dimarzios. Lots of good reviews on the Air Norton Neck, Tone Zone Bridge combination. Look for vids too, they'll give you an idea of sound color, although keep in mind most of them have terrible audio so it won't be like the "real" thing.

Dimarzios clean up pretty nice, even their hot ones, but for super duper clean you could try the Lace Alumitones. Just don't get the "Deathbuckers" I tried em, really, really, bad sound. Even and especially when distorted. I don't know what they were thinking when they made that one.

But their regular "humbucker" Alumitones sound pretty effin good in the videos I've seen. They sound cleaner than any pickup I've heard, but appear to also distort very well. I haven't had a pair of my own yet though so don't take my word for it. Good way to make a guitar lighter too, they weigh nothing.

_________________
http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

I had a hard time finding the link to your pics - there are about a million posts on your thread now eli ... some with links to other places - I did eventually find it however and so far so good man - I like the body shape and looks your ready to rock bud...
Cheers
Charlie
PS if you click on your IMG link>? on the side of your photobucket page you can paste the photo right into your post Eli, by clicking the IMG button on the top of your reply window and pasting it into your post..

What grit of sandpaper would you reccomend for the body? Sorry if someone's answered this already. I have a sanding block I'm using but its not cork. It's just one I picked up at Lowe's. Btw, I bought a 1/4" roundover bit but I'm starting to think now that stratocasters are 3/8". Idk.

You might want to look into the Entwistle neodymium humbuckers as well. Pretty nice and affordable. They're very articulate and clear.

I start with 80 grit. That will make quick work of saw marks, tooling marks and other scratches. The key it to remember to progress through the grits and don't move on until all of the scratches left by the last grit are gone or it will take FOREVER.

I also recommend leaving everything ROUGH until you get to a step that you need a smooth surface to go off of. You will undoubtedly get little nicks, scratches and chips during the building process. It's best to leave everything rough, do all your damage, and then finish it off one time instead of having to go back later and fix all this stuff in the final surface.

So the progression would be:

1) sand with 80 grit until all the tooling marks are gone. Use wood blocks/dowels and whatever else as a sanding block...don't hand sand anywhere unless you absolutely have to...you will regret it later when you try to level the finish. When you're done with the 80 grit, you should have a nice 80 grit scratch pattern over the entire guitar, and every tooling mark/deep scratch should be gone. At this point, treat the guitar like an egg. Don't put it down on anything except a towel (or I use anti-skid foam that I keep clean and free of any debris). Putting the guitar on tiny stray bit of wood chip or whatever can leave a dent or scratch and have you starting all over again. At this point, you're no longer woodworking...you're finishing and unless you want it to take forever, be very very careful and work clean.

For hand sanding, I go
2) 120 grit to get rid of the 80 grit marks
3) 180 to get rid of the 120 marks
4) 220 to get rid of the 180 marks
5) 320 to get rid of the 220 marks

For powered sanding, I find it works just as well to do 120 straight to 220.

And at that point, it's usually ready for finish. You can actually stop at 220 for purposes of laying down a finish, but I find that the slightly smoother surface of the 320 helps the initial coats a go on a bit smoother, making it easier for my to judge whatever color I'm applying, especially bursts.

Keep the paper clean and unclogged. Bits of stuff stuck in the sandpaper will leave deep scratches. Sanding goes very quickly if you take your time right in the beginning, pay attention to the details, don't damage it as you go along, and don't move on from that 80 grit until you're really truly satisfied that the surface is right. I swear, half the time I spent finishing on my first few guitars was fixing damage I introduced during the finishing process.