Official Luthiers Forum!

Well what's up OLF?

If you remember me, it's probably from the stupid, rude, noob, unintelligent posts/threads I made 2 years ago when I inquired how to build my first guitar. Then proceeded to argue with every person here. You guys surely hated me.


However, I'm here to tell you that I did in fact build a guitar. I built two years ago actually. It is very nice and is now my only guitar. I acquired tools piece by piece starting with a 10" bandsaw, a handheld router, some files, and small variety of sandpaper. I pieced together some large paper and devised some very basic plans using one of my friends guitars that I chose to model my design from. Then I used some leftover lexan from one if my dad's home improvement projects to construct the template, then proceeded to cut the body out of a 2-piece alder blank that I ordered from Stew Mac. After routing and making the body, I called upon a friend I know who used to be in the luthier business to help me construct the neck out of quartersawn maple. After construction of the body, I had it painted by a local guy who paints motorcycles, who also bas experience with guitars. He did a fantastic job!

To make a long story short, I modeled the guitar after the Charvel Pro Mod San Dimas USA models. It's pretty much exactly a replica of one of these guitars, except for some key changes to suit my preferences, such as the Ebony Fretboard (instead of maple), The Reverse Headstock, and the Bill Lawrence pickup, instead of the S. Duncan.

Here are the specs of my homemade guitar:

Body Style: Charvel San Dimas USA model
Body: Alder
Neck: Quartersawn Maple
Fretboard: Ebony
Headstock: Reverse San Dimas Style
Radius: 12"-16" Compound
Scale: 25.5"
Frets: 22 Jumbo
Bridge: Floyd Rose Original
Tuners: Grover Mini-Tuners
Neck Pickup: S. Duncan '59
Bridge Pickup: Bill Lawrence L500XL
Hardware Color: Black
Finish: Orion Silver

I'm very proud of how it turned out. Attached is a photo of my 5 year old niece playing it.

That's it. Thanks for reading!

More pictures.

I took pics every step of the build. But they were taken with the old phone I had at the time which unfortunately got destroyed. These finished pics are all more recent.

It looks well-done, and I believe it is. But it's not perfect. The line of the neck, bridge, and pickups is up slightly too high on the body. The untrained eye won't catch this though. The paint looks very good. But has some blemishes. Altogether this guitar looks virtually just like the productions models, but close inspection can tell it's homemade.

Looks good - thanks for reporting back

Thank you. I would have shared it sooner, but honestly didn't think anyone here cared about seeing it. I made one other body out of swamp ash before I made this one. It did not turn out good, so I purchased another blank. That's the one you see here. I managed to construct it well. I probably attempted to construct three different neck before breaking down and getting my luthier friend to help me and use his tools in his shop. I did enough work on the neck to say I built it. But he did most of the very difficult work. I'm glad I did this because the guitar looks and plays fantastic.

Man, sweet axe, Eli!
The finish looks really good.
Is it an automotive type acrylic?
Dan

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

Very nice. I like the upside down strat style headstock.
Although I guess it isn't really upside down if intended to be that way...

Anyway, great looking git'.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Slick! Good work, Eli.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Thanks for all the kind words guys. It took finding experienced people and having them help. And also tye community here for your words of wisdom (that I initially argued with). Lol

I believe the finish is all automotive paint/acrylic. I didn't have a hand in painting it. I just took it down to this old guy and left it with him for a week, and he painted it. The finish is even more beautiful in person.

Thanks again for all the kind words guys!