Question About "placements"...

[lecompt]

hey all,

im looking at some point in the near future to build my own guitar body, i just have a few questions that im not so sure about but maybe you guys can clear up?

im pretty confident on the whole woodwork side of things, routing etc isnt a problem, the two main worrys i have are

1. the placement of the bridge/pickups etc, i'll be using a stop tail peice (i think its called that anyway), but id take a guess that it has to be pretty precise to make the strings line up, etc? is there any specific way to measure this or would it be wise investing in a template? the body im looking for would be either a PRS style or a random pointy edge thingy, maybe like a warlock

2. the neck pocket, i already have a neck of my old guitar, its a "standard strat" neck, how would i go about cutting this out and getting a good fit etc?

yeah, sorry if they seem like really noob questions, but never done this before and am really keen to.

cheers, thanks for your time.

lecompt.

[Simo]

Hi welcome to the forum

the placement of the bridge/pickups etc, i'll be using a stop tail peice (i think its called that anyway), but id take a guess that it has to be pretty precise to make the strings line up, etc? is there any specific way to measure this or would it be wise investing in a template? the body im looking for would be either a PRS style or a random pointy edge thingy, maybe like a warlock

If you're using a standard Fender 25.5 scale neck then the distance between the nut and the saddles is yep you guessed it 25.5. Have a search on the forum there's a lot of topics about this You can download free cad templates at.... http://www.guitarbuild.com or for a small donation to Project Guitar you can get access to a whole load of plans etc.

2. the neck pocket, i already have a neck of my old guitar, its a "standard strat" neck, how would i go about cutting this out and getting a good fit etc?

You can either make or buy a template, have a read of Krazy Derek's router tutorial for info on templates.... http://www.accesswave.ca/~derekn/routertutorial/

[lecompt]

thanks for the welcome & help simo!

ok, so i'm making a start on the actual body template today, after making my mind up about what i want to do, i have a few questions on that if its ok?

basically, i dont want to do anything TOO hard, but i want to do a warlock body (maybe it is too hard, but y'know, challenges)

to keep the whole project simple, all's i want's is one humbucker and one volume control, and a stop tail bridge (or w/e theyre called)

so my first question is about the wood, i know i can buy blanks etc, but im on a really tight budget, so for the sake of scavenging, is there any "around the house" wood's that i can build a body out of? im really not looking for this to come out perfect, im just wanting to see weather i can do it. or any cheap woods or anything you guys can recommend?

second is that the bc rich warlock has contours (i think, from photos?) is this just a case of cutting the body out thick (ie. one big chunk of wood) and sanding down contours to comfort?

probally the most troubling question i have is another thing on the placements, should i work of a "center line"? by this i mean, on my chosen peice of wood, do i draw a center line on it then work from that? so for example say the pickup is 6" do i put it in the center so it has 3" either side of the middle line? same with the bridge etc?

hope that made sense, thx for all the help

lecompt.

[asm]

so my first question is about the wood, i know i can buy blanks etc, but im on a really tight budget, so for the sake of scavenging, is there any "around the house" wood's that i can build a body out of? im really not looking for this to come out perfect, im just wanting to see weather i can do it. or any cheap woods or anything you guys can recommend?

second is that the bc rich warlock has contours (i think, from photos?) is this just a case of cutting the body out thick (ie. one big chunk of wood) and sanding down contours to comfort?

probally the most troubling question i have is another thing on the placements, should i work of a "center line"? by this i mean, on my chosen peice of wood, do i draw a center line on it then work from that? so for example say the pickup is 6" do i put it in the center so it has 3" either side of the middle line? same with the bridge etc?

hope that made sense, thx for all the help

lecompt.

piece of advice about the wood.

you can either go to home depot and get pine or poplar or the like for about 20.... and it will LOOK like you made it out of pine. or you could get on ebay, and find some mahogany, alder, swamp ash, lightly figured maple, ect. and pay 20-50$ for it and have a NICE looking body.

so, its up to you. but i went for about 250$ for my first guitars wood. and its going just fine. glad i didnt screw around with some cheap wood. just take your time and you wont mess it up.

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you can either do a flat top or a carved top. usually on carved tops its a seperate piece of higher grade wood.

of course it will take more time, skill to do any carving but it depends on you if you think you can do it.

if you decide to do a carved top you'll have to compensate that height of carving in the purchase of your wood, or buy another piece and glue it to your body and carve from that.

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for me i always work from a center line. to me it's easier to keep track of the measurement and you normally never cut away your reference lines. helps when the object your working with is symetrical like a guitar, instead of a freeform sculpture or something.