Tips On Guitar Building?

[CameronW]

im in high school and for my shop class im making a charvel inspired guitar and i was wondering if anyone on here has some tips. my shop class sadly does not have a band saw so in case i cant get to one and other tips to make my guitar come true. all tips will be greatly apreciated!

[SwedishLuthier]

Welcome. Let me start by pointing out that if you don't have a good reference book, get one. There is a wealth of "information" out there but nothing beats a good instructive book. The standard books suggested is Melvyn Hiscock's or Martin Koch's (spelling?). For the first ten years of building I found myself going back to Melvyn's book over and over again for references. If you don't start with a base level of knowledge you will bang your head against the wall, waisting valuable wood and part not to mention your own time. If you already have one of those books (or any other good book on the subject) lets continue; You can use a jig saw, although the task is a bit too tough for those. You can also drill a series of small holes close to each other (preferable with a pillar drill) and then join the holes with a jigsaw or similar.

[WezV]

yeah, the book will give you the basic knowledge and vocabulary needed. then you will be able to ask more specific questions when you are stuck. the forum is much more helpful when asked specific questions

so the first tip is read as much as you can

[jessejames]

I am probably one of the very few here that will not recommend the hyscock book. I ordered it when I first started, and it doesn't take you through building a guitar step by step, and anything the book does contain of value such as neck angles or scale length's you can find on here using the search. I quickly turned around and resold it, it had zero help in me building my first, second, third etc guitars whatsoever.

Some people around here use it and really like it however. It's only about 20$ used on amazon.com so it's not a huge loss if you find no real value in it like me.

[Muzz]

I made my first guitar body (I used a premade neck), just from reading stuff on this site.

its the one on the left, it came out great, I love it. I read Melvyn Hiscock's book after that, and I found it really helpful. Still I used pauliemc's technique for shaping the neck on my second guitar though

Must be about time for me to make another one

[dpm99]

+1 on getting Hiscock. Also, try to avoid buying your wood from a major online retailer. Local is best, if you know what to look for.

[DarkAvenger]

I made my first guitar with a premade neck, it certainly simplified everything. It was a good place to start for me just to get a feeling for everything. +1 on local wood sources