MY First Project Guitar

[Dugz Ink]

After a little prompting by my friends, I decided to use my woodworking tools and skills to build my own electric guitar. As always, it started out as a simple project (building a new body for my Epiphone) and turned into a full-blown project.

Due to the limits of my resources and experience, I decided to build the body out of a face and a back... but that has now expanded to include a third layer of wood. By running the grain of this mid-layer piece in a different direction than the other two pieces, I will gain more strength and reduce the possibility of the body warping. Here's a side view of the design.

The face and back are from a piece of Poplar that I bought at Home Depot for a whopping $14... plus tax. (The mid-layer will be Black Walnut heartwood, and should provide a nice beauty line, while enhancing the sound.)

I printed the body's design onto 4 pieces of paper, and joined them at the center lines of the design... which I thought to add before printing the design. (These lines will continue to come in handy!) As you can see, the Poplar is is about 2" too narrow for this design... but that's okay.

I traced the design onto the wood, walked over to the jigsaw, and cut out the top inset on each piece of wood. Remember what I said about "the limits of my resources" in the second paragraph? I couldn't have made this cut with this saw unless it was less than an inch thick. That's one of the many reasons for the face/back design.

After making these cuts, I took the pieces that I had just cut, and prepared to glue them on to the lower section of the face and body. Because the parts I cut out came from the same general area where I was gluing them, the color matches nicely. However, there were some slight variations in the grain direction, so I used a file to alter the joint. Now the grain patterns appear to be going in the same direction. I set up the pieces in my trusty vice (with rubber jaw-pads) and started attaching clamps to the glued wood.

In the second picture you'll see one of my favorite tools: wax paper. In this case, I'm using it to keep the glue from getting on the beautiful Jorgensen clamps that I'm using to keep the two pieces of wood aligned.

The next day, I popped loose the clamps, and started cutting off the excess wood. I did this with a 1" straight-cut bit in my router table. Once again, I wouldn't be able to do this if I was building the guitar out of pieces of wood that were more than 1" thick.

Also notice that the router table is mounted on a piece of plywood, which is then clamped into my Workmate. All of my "bench" equipment is set up like this, because my shop is very small (one-car garage) and I don't have room to bolt down every piece of equipment at one time. So they sit on shelves until I need them, then I pull them out and clamp them down securely.

After that, I pulled out the bench sander and started cleaning up the edges. Not too much; I'm still playing with the design, and the current body parts are slightly wider at the bottom than the paper template. But that's okay, because it's about building something beautiful, not just following the lines.

So now I'm waiting for the Black Walnut to arrive, as well as the neck, and various other parts. I can't wait to move to the next step; assembling the body. When that happens, I will post more details.

D~s

[krizalid]

Keep up the good work!

[GuitarMaestro]

Cool stuff! Looks perfect so far!

[!!METAL MATT!!]

Due to the limits of my resources and experience, I decided to build the body out of a face and a back... but that has now expanded to include a third layer of wood. By running the grain of this mid-layer piece in a different direction than the other two pieces, I will gain more strength and reduce the possibility of the body warping. Here's a side view of the design.

I don't think it shows a lack of resources and experience to build the body out of a face and a back I like doing my guitars like that. Any way It looks good I cant wait to see more pics

!!METAL MATT!!

[Dugz Ink]

I bid on a Strat-style neck on eBay. Three weeks later, it still isn't here. I was really hoping to move on to the next phase by now, but the idiot (seller) has screwed that plan.

But that's what I get for trying to save a few bucks.

There's another lesson I've learned.

D~s

[Nicksguitar]

Dugz,

Here's a shameless plug for Brian at Universal Jems. You can get one of their Saga necks really cheap ($40 or 45) and they aren't bad at all. Even his higher end necks are good stuff cheap.

[Dugz Ink]

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind.

I came today, and found that the UPS driver had left this guitar neck on my front porch.

I guess I'll be fitting a neck pocket next weekend... or ruining my first project.

[Dugz Ink]

The project came to a halt for a short time; I was learning so much new stuff that I just set down the project. I've learned all sorts of things here at Project Guitar, along with some web sites that I've tripped over. I also found a great book: "The Electric Guitar" by Nick Freeth and Charles Alexander... which confirmed some ideas I had for future projects.

I also did a finish-test of the wood that I'm using. Gillespie's Tung Oil (which I have used for years) turns this piece of Poplar a beautiful golden color that is a near-perfect match for the amber "Speed Knobs" that I ordered from Stew-Mac... so I'm very happy. Im' so happy with the project that I'm not going to route out the body for the pickups until I test my dimensions on some other wood. Yeah... I only paid $14 for this Poplar, but it looks so good that I decided to spend $6 for some Pine that was the same size. I'll cut up (and probably screw up) the Pine before I do anything else to the Poplar.

And I'm having a great time. I sat out in the shop last night drawing various designs on wood for hand-made pickup rings. Yeah... I'm going to make the pickup rings. I even found the "perfect" piece of wood to go with the body... for less than $3. (It's big enough that I can cut the rings out of the dark wood, without using any of the lighter wood.) Check it out.

So I'll spend the weekend cutting an identical body out of cheap Pine, and test out my measurements. Then I'll probably start planing and shaping this wood to the right size for pickup rings. Boy, this started out as just a test project. Now it looks like it could be a nice guitar... if I just take my time.

D~s

Edited October 23, 2004 by Dugz Ink

[Dugz Ink]

I have finally taken my role of film to have it developed, and scanned in some new images. (Yeah, I know... I should buy a digital camera... but I would rather buy guitar parts.)

I decided to buy some really cheap Pine, and make a duplicate body, so I could practice a little before ruining the Poplar body that I have grown to love.

I pulled out the old hand-held scroll saw that Dad gave me, and I cut out the Pine in the same shape as the Poplar body. Speaking of which: I love this scroll saw! The head turns 360 degrees, so it's easy to cut around clamps. If a clamp gets in the way of the saw, you turn the saw until it clears the clamp, and turn the head so it's pointing in the direction that you want to cut. End of problem!

I cut and shaped the neck-pocket, put the body in my vice, and slid in the guitar neck. Oh my gosh... this could really turn out to be a cool guitar!

I marked out and mounted the bridge, then marked out the pickups. Since this is a test body, I just drilled the corners of the pickup cavities, then cut them out with the beloved scroll saw.

The test body is two pieces... a front and a back... just like the real body. I flipped over the front, and used the dremmel tool to route the wire channels. It gave me nice wide channels for wire routing, and it was easy to make them straight and smooth, but I'm not sure that I like the large arc. I'm still not sure if I'll use the dremmel or the router to cut the channels in the real body.

Then I dropped in the pickups and their mounting rings.

Dude! That looks terrible!

I went on-line to shop for new pickup rings. The only set that I liked (ie: that weren't rectangles) were made out of Ebony and cost about $70 each... so I decided I had to make my own.

For my test-rings, I pulled out some 1/8" Black Walnut. I figured that, if I tried to use the scroll saw on the inside cut after trimming the outside down, there might not be enough wood to keep it from splitting. So I cut out the inside first.

I drilled the corners of the inside of the rings, then cut out some of the wood with the scroll saw. Then I set the piece in the vice and carefully filed out the inside until it fit over the pickup.

Then I went to the table-mount jigsaw and cut the outside fairly close to the lines that I had drawn. After that, I used one of the bench sanders to finish shaping the outside of the pickup ring.

Oh yeah! That looks MUCH better!

OH YEAH!!

After that, I decided to try to contour the body with my draw knife and hand planes. I've used them numerous times (with a lot of success) on other woodworking projects, but those were all straight things... like the forearm of a gunstock. However, this body has some wicked curves, and the draw knife dove into the test body on several occasions... even though I was cutting in the direction that should have worked.

Now I'm happy that I spent the extra $6 to buy some Pine so I could experiment.

So... after all of this experimenting, I'm ready to move forward with the real thing. I'll post more pictures and details as soon as I use up another roll of film.

BTW: I picked up the latest batch of pictures on my lunch break. When I walked into the office (with them in my hand), one of my co-workers said "Oh... you have some new pictures?"

I said "Yeah! They're pictures of the electric guitar I'm building."

Her reply was a less than enthusiastic "Oh."

She doesn't know what she's missing.

Edited November 4, 2004 by Dugz Ink

[samoht]

please try the pine guitar with strings. i'm really interested what it would sound like. pine is even cheaper here because all the forests are full of it. Edited November 4, 2004 by samoht

[Dugz Ink]

Okay... I've finally put down the project guitar long enough to spend some time in the studio, and to scan in some pictures. (The song was a Christian Rock tune called "Even Jesus", and I was putting together a rough mix to send to my co-writer, who lives 800 miles away.)

Based on what I learned from the Pine test-body, I cut the neck-pocket out of the face, and did some basic shaping in the neck region of the face and the back.

As I expected, the flat-sawn Poplar was trying to bend. I had already planned to counter this with a layer of 1/8" Black Walnut heartwood, which would be laminated between the face and the back. But I decided to give it a little more counter force by routing out inside of the face, and adding in more Black Walnut. I glued and clamped the face with its Black Walnut, then did the same to the back with the original Black Walnut.

The next day, everything was flat and straight, so I proceeded with cutting the pickup pockets out of the face. I simply pulled out a Forstner bit that matched the profiles, drilled the corners of where the pickups would go, drilled where the mounting tabs would go, then played connect-the-dots with a jigsaw. After that, I pulled out the files and made everything smooth and straight.

Then somebody on PG mentioned something about leaving/putting wood in the pickup pockets, to strengthen the guitar body. So I routed out a little wood here and there, and glued yet another piece of Black Walnut inside the face. After that, I looked at my wire routing plans, and decided to expand them into a loop-shaped sound chamber. I don't know how it will affect the sound, but I decided I might as well try it while I had the guitar body open and the router warmed up.

I also decided this was a good place to test the stain that I want to use. After all, if it was ugly, it would be hidden after I put it together.

Then I cut out the opening for the controls in the face, and routed out some depth in the back. Hmmm... this is not what I had planned, but the evolution has been interesting.

The two pieces went into the clamps (Do I really need to insert a picture of 386 clamps?) and let them dry overnight. The next day, I drilled the holes for the neck-screws, and counter-sank the holes for neck mounting ferrules. I decided to add some Acra-Weld (gunsmith's epoxy) to the holes; that way, the ferrules would bond to the wood around them, instead of just pulling against the wood that is under them. In order to keep the ferrules lined up (while the epoxy set up) I sharpened some small dowels and stuck them in the screw holes.

While those were setting up, I started forming the control cover. I pulled out some thin aluminum, a small forming hammer, and a tiny anvil, and went to work. I beveled the edges, and even put detents in the surface (for the pots) so the knobs would sit lower. Then I shot a coat of paint, and let it dry.

When everything was dry, I flipped the body over, mounted the pots and knobs on my new control cover, and set the assembly on the body. Dude... that thing sticks out like a sore thumb!

So, it was back to the drawing... or in this case, the pile of Black Walnut. I pulled out several pieces that were 1/8" thick, and then sorted through for the one that had the "right" character. I found a piece that had a curved grain, and cut it to the same dimensions as the metal cover.

I routed out a hole that was almost as big as the cover, then went to work with my old trusty multi-angle scraper. This little tool (the green thing in the next picture) is absolutely wonderful; it shaves off less than a plane, but more than a file, and it will get into places that nothing else can reach. And the new (wooden) cover fits perfectly.

Hmmm... a little too perfectly! I finally managed to get it back out (without tearing it up) and started sanding down the edges. Yet another lesson learned.

So, there are the latest pictures, ideas, and progress.

D~s

[Dugz Ink]

No, I haven't quit working on this project; between the holidays and a severe bout with the flu, I didn't do anything for a month.

I started working on it again, and now I'm to the point of lining up the pickups.

After mouning the pickups (they're hard-mounted to the body) I put the strings back on (again) and started playing, just to see if I had any strange virbations or noises. Sure enough, there was a very clear harmonic, and it was loudest when I played an open G.

At first I thought the problem might have something to do with the pickups... but there aren't any springs, so I was completely lost. And the sound wasn't just coming from one place; if I opened the control cover, I could hear the sound travelling down the hollow sound channel. What could be reacting to the G string frequencies?

I finally found it.

The distance from the nut to the tuning machine post was the perfect length to create a crisp harmonic to the G string, and the sound was literally resonating through the entire guitar. I attached the string trees (that I had purchased from Stew-Mac) and the problem went away.

WOW! That says a lot about how much sound can travel from the head to the body!

D~s

[Dugz Ink]

After flailing around with my bridge height and setup on-and-off for a couple weeks, I realised that I don't know enough, so I took this guitar to a guy who works as the guitar-tech for Guitar Center, and does setups for Nashville session players on the side.

He said that the neck I have has a slight rise in it, from the 14th fret through the 18th fret. Then he asked me why I put such a cheap neck on such a beautiful body. I replied "Because I didn't know that this guitar would actually work. It's my first project... ever."

Everybody at Guitar Center loved my guitar, so now I have the confidence to buy a really nice neck for it. (No, I'm not ready to build a neck; it will happen, eventually.) So, I'm off to the web sites for USA Custom and Warmoth to shop for a maple w/ ebony neck.

You know... being told that your first project guitar could be worth $1000 (if you put a decent neck on it) is a pretty good compliment. It sure stoked my fire!

D~s

[Dugz Ink]

It's been a while since I last added to this thread, but a lot has happened.

Let's see... where was I, before I was so rudely interupted by a bad guitar neck? Oh yeah... working on the body.

I decided I needed a nice, stable rig with a sanding drum, so I put together something, using my multi-speed drill press. First, I cut some pieces of wood, for a base. I don't want the base to warp (for obvious reasons) so I attached two pieces of wood down the edges, with wood grain going in a different direction than the base.

Next, I used the router to cut an indentation (starting at the back and extending to the middle) in the base, so the sanding drum could extend slightly below the surface of the base. This ensures that all of the wood (that I'm sanding) makes contact with the sanding drum; otherwise, part of the wood could be slightly under the drum. I also cut a hole in the base, so the sawdust would have somehwere to go, instead of piling up. (The base bolts on to the metal drill press base.)

Here's how it looks:

This allowed me to do some very nice work on the edges of the body

I've been applying coats of commercial-grade Tung Oil to the body, as a pore-filler. (I think that really helps to bring out the various characteristics in the wood.) One of my favorite "inventions" for finishing is a piece of metal conduit; it hangs from the overhead tracks for the garage door, and I use it for hanging everything from my Dremel tool to wood that I'm finishing.

I usually use a large "S" hook (on the conduit), a metal swivel, then another "S" hook. The project that I'm finishing hangs from the second hook, and the swivel allows me to turn the project... which allows me (and my can of finish) to stay in the spot that provides me with the best lighting. (Behind where I stand, I have two large spotlights that shine towards the center of the conduit.) For multiple small projects, I have a 4-prong rig that I found at a saddle shop, many years ago.

Here are a couple pics:

Finally, it's time to decide on a wiring plan. I pull out and old terminal strip, a 1/4" TS plug, a hand full of blade connectors, and a bunch of wire, then make a poor man's patch panel. Since my humbuckers have split-coil wiring (4 leads, plus outer ground shield) I start trying all of the different options that I can, playing strings and listening to my practice amp. I finally decided to wire the coils (on each humbucker) in series, and decided to put in a switch that will allow me to reverse the polarity on the bridge pickup.

Here's what that mess looked like:

Yes, you will get a lot of hum by doing it this way, because you don't have any shielding for the connections... but you can get a pretty good idea of what your project will sound like before you pull out your solder.

So, there you have the latest pictures.

The body is currently on a truck, headed to Soul Mate Guitars; Doug is going to fit a new neck to it. My wife was teasing me about "seperation anxiety" as we left the UPS office, because she could see the look on my face.

It's not the most incredible guitar on the planet, but I already love it.

* SIGH *

D~s

[Bill-Murray]

That's cool man, I hope it comes out good for you!

[Dugz Ink]

I received the new neck from Doug (Soul Mate Guitars), called him, and said "DAAAAAAAAM!"

Yeah it looks that good. And he says some of the pieces were just scraps.

I have to shape the headstock, put finish on the neck, wire the pickups/switches... there are a few more things that need to be done... and I'm building a cabinet right now (furniture, not amp)... so the guitar won't be finished this month.

But you better watch out: this neck could win the GOTM by itself.

D~s

[Dugz Ink]

I know, it's been a long time, but life has a way of going off in it's own direction.

However, I plan on getting the project back on track this month; there will be some extra money coming in, so I will finally be able to buy the Steinberg gearless tuners for this project.

D~s

[Hunter]

Man, finish this project. It looks SOOOOO nice. Way nicer than my project I'm working on right now (It's my first). Hopefully my next project will wind up looking as nice as this.

[VanKirk]

You're farther along on your project than I am on mine and I've been working on mine longer.

I just keep telling myself it's not a race. It'll get done.

I'm moving in to my first house tomorrow and I'll finally have space to work in.

After the move and some landscaping I'll not have any excuse except laziness keeping me from finishing it so I'm not sweating it.

Guitar building was never meant to pay my bills and those damn bills have priority, unfortunately.

[erikbojerik]

Yeah, isn't that funny how life gets in the way of hobbies! Keep up the good work Dugz.

[Mattia]

Yeah, isn't that funny how life gets in the way of hobbies!  Keep up the good work Dugz.

←

Yeah, pesky life.

Now, to finish the strat, the tele, the acoustic baritone, get started on that pointy lefty explorer thing and those three other acoustics, singlecut carvetop electric for a friend, and maybe a personal rosewood neck guitar for myself. I've only finished one project this year, have one I started almost a year ago that needs finishing, and I want to finish at least the strat, tele, explorer and baritone before the year's out. Yeah, I'm a hopeless optimist.

Ahem.