1st Guitar Build

[Myrk-]

Ok I'm getting ready to build my first guitar body (I've been putting it off for about 3 years now!), but do you think it's best to do one first out of some crap wood just to make sure I don't make any mistakes. Then if the guitar is right copy the settings I used to make it, and if it's wrong then change it for the final build (which would be made from much better wood).

Also does building in a hollow cavity do much to the sound? I would probably do it by building a 2 piece body - the top part would be about 1/2 inch thick and the bottom part being the proper part to the body which I would route all the way through for the electronics, the 1/2 inch or so top part would then be the section which blocks up one side of the electronics cavity and has the holes in it for everything etc.

On that note- whats the best book to get for building a body? Screw builing a neck, I'm gunna get a nice Warmoth one or something (the whole tuning rod thing scares me and I know I'd screw it up!). The guitar I'm building will be 24 fret and have a floyd rose (I already have almost all the parts except neck and body).

Edited June 17, 2005 by Myrk-

[Primal]

When I built my first bass, I did a mock-up with cheap pine from Lowes just to get an idea of how I would shape contours, and round the edges. It gave some good practice on using a router, as well. For the $10 in wood it would take (if that) I say go for it! And hey, if your local lumber yard has some poplar, use that instead of pine. At least that way you might have another usable body.

And the hardest thing about building the neck for me was routing the dual-action truss rod channel to be parallel with the neck. Everything else was a piece of cake.

[Batfink]

I think most people recognise Melvyn Hiscock's "build your own electric guitar" as pretty well required reading.

Jem

[fryovanni]

You sound like you are willing to do the research. You should do a neck. It is only spooky because you have never tried it. It is not that difficult as long as you do your homework and take it step by step. Using cheaper wood for practice sounds very smart to me. Then when you have a good feel for the process and what to expect you will do very well.

Peace, and good luck to you. Rich

[Mickguard]

I agree about the neck thing...too spooky for me. But I think that depends on what kind of skills you bring into this. If you already work with wood, and you're comfortable with the tools, then go for it--it'll never feel like your guitar until you do.

Hiscock is really helpful for the overall picture. This web site is great to fill it in with specifics.

The way I do it (since I'm bringing NO previous skills into this) is a practice the gestures/movements on scrap wood for each step of the way, then take it to the real wood when I'm confident that I'll be able to complete that step.

And my first project is just practice anyway, I chose to do something more difficult just to force me to face more issues than a 'simpler' build would.

Because you WILL start planning your second before even finish your first!

[Myrk-]

OK if the body is made of 3 pieces of wood (like a home-made ply of say mahogany-maple-mahogany) would it be better to use multile dowels to hold the wood together instead of glue, so as to keep a wood-wood join and keep sustain better? I've been reading about Ed Romans website about all the different sustain tricks. Seems wood-wood is best, and glue or anything just ruins the sustain.

How could you fit it perfectly without glue though without it loosening over time? Use clamping jaws on the edges that are permanently there? Like a metal bracket or something at each corner, or a special wood joint that fits in after to lock it up?

Edited July 11, 2005 by Myrk-

[Mickguard]

You need to understand how glue works (and how Ed Roman works while you're at it).

What the glue does is it seeps into the fibers of the wood, forming an extremely powerful bond-- stronger than the fibers of the wood itself.

I read some helpful tips somewhere that suggests prepping the wood for a join by first applying glue to the pieces to be joined and allowing that to seep in for a couple of minutes (and you'll see--the glue really does disappear into the wood). Then apply a new layer of glue and apply your clamps. This way you're certain of a truly strong bond.

Dowels? Well, sure, you could try that, why not...you can try just about anything when you're building a guitar. There are a few rules, but most of those can be (should be) broken. The whole point of building a guitar is to come up with something that you just can't buy off a rack in a guitar store.

Anyway, wood isn't that expensive --you'll be spending a lot more on decent hardware. And tools --don't forget the tools. I tend to practice my 'moves' on scrap wood as I'm going along. Once I feel confident, I switch to the actual project.

As for the effect on sustain--- pfffft! Until someone actually measures this with some true scientific testing, all you'll get is people's theories--or more accurately, hypotheses--nothing more. 'Sustain' and 'tone' quickly become subjective --and are influenced by so many other factors in an electric guitar (including the FX and amp).

To me, the whole point behind a single-piece guitar is that they just look so darned pretty. On the other hand, by matching the grain on a two or three piece guitar you can get something even prettier!

Then again, I like painted guitars...so pretty doesn't really matter anymore when it comes to wood choice.

And consider this --even if the pieces are joined by wood, they'll still be wrapped in plastic (the paint and finish).

And then there's Ed Roman...sure, it's fun to read his rants. And he's got a lot of experience selling with guitars, that has to be taken into account too. But he's a crank, and cranks are always going off about their favorite pet peeves. AND he's trying to sell his 'own' guitars (probably made in Indonesia ), so of course, HIS techniques are always going to be the best.

Anyway, you'll see, building guitars is a blast...count on making a few mistakes along the way...it's no big deal, part of the learning process.

[Guitarfrenzy]

OK if the body is made of 3 pieces of wood (like a home-made ply of say mahogany-maple-mahogany) would it be better to use multile dowels to hold the wood together instead of glue, so as to keep a wood-wood join and keep sustain better? I've been reading about Ed Romans website about all the different sustain tricks. Seems wood-wood is best, and glue or anything just ruins the sustain.

How could you fit it perfectly without glue though without it loosening over time? Use clamping jaws on the edges that are permanently there? Like a metal bracket or something at each corner, or a special wood joint that fits in after to lock it up?

←

Please don't make a guitar with metal brackets holding the body together. lol.. Ed Roman is just Ed Roman, and he is very opinionated about things, so don't take everything he says as written law of guitar building. If you was going to use 3 pieces to make a guitar body, then run the edges over a jointer, glue them and clamp them overnight. Ed does the same thing by gluing a guitar top(usually figured maple) to a guitar back wood (mahogany usually); so what's the difference? I'd find it hard to build a guitar without using glue on some part of it anyway. As far as it affecting tone, it's very subjective because there is so many more determining factors that goes into the sound you get, that gluing the body is the least of your worries. Pickups, pickup placement, wood selection, neck joint, electronics, bridge, bridge material, nut material, etc. etc. They all have more to do with the sound of your guitar than how you attached the wood together, at least in my opinion. Also, you mentioned using multiple dowels, we'll that's great in theory, but if you use glue to hold the dowels in place, then there is a thin layer of glue coating it also, so how are you still getting a wood on wood sound? You don't need any dowels when joining the wood laminates together, it's simply not needed as the bond with edge to edge will be more than strong enough for a guitar body, using standard Titebond glue. Every guitar builder I know uses this method, and I'm not saying you can't use dowels, but that I don't see the need, just unneccesary.

Matt Vinson

[thegarehanman]

I use 2 biscuits in my bodies to help line them up when gluing.

[Drak]

I have some good advice for you if you want to build a nice guitar.

Stop reading Ed Roman advice and check out some real luthier sites.

[j. pierce]

I used dowels (and glue, of course) when building my neck-through to keep things lined up so the neck angle would be exact. I just glued up several body blanks at once (The local lumberyard with the nicest wood doesn't want to sell me less than 9 feet at a time it seems) and didn't use dowels - both types of joints worked fien and held, but pegs or dowels or biscuits make it nice because everything stays lined up. If you don't realize it and something slips when you're glueing, if you don't have access to anything to surface the front and back of the body blank with, you're in for a litle bit of work leveling things out. The 5 minutes to drill alignment holes was worth the saved effort.

Be careful though, depending on how thick the pieces you're working with are - I once used dowels to line up three pieces of maple for a neck I was making, and somewhere along the way the neck blank got reversed, and I was certainly surprised when the dowel showed up on my neck profile as I was carving!