Hey Im A Newbie :)

[Al3x]

well hi im Alex, im turning 16 on 24th march (soon!)

oh im also in a band

i decided for my birthday im gonna take the challange of building a guitar (with help of my dad and lee from the local music shop)

i hope to get it done in a month or too..

well heres what i want.

i like the neck on a gibson explorer, and les pauls.

i like the body of a fender jagstang etc

i hate whammy bars and those types of bridges.

so what? i dont have the $$ for those guitars..

why not BUILD a custom one, that i can take the time. make sure we make it real good..

heres a really crap pic, but it shows what i want. it dosnt look too great, but its how i would like a guitar. to be able to play it good u gotta feel good eh?

comments welcome, dont comment too bad on the guitar i know it looks weird and skinny (i shrinked the pic bad lol)

oh by the way im from australia

ciao

any tips hit me up on msn

Pm me to get it

EDIT:

also chrome hardware black pickup covers black finnish or just keep it nice and wood black scratch plate.

i can get hardware from local guitar shop with 30% off

wood ill try my local hardware, im looking for a heavy wood that will help the sounds and look good if i dont go with the black

Edited March 16, 2006 by Al3x

[Jehle]

Hi Alex, welcome aboard.

Glad to hear that you'll have some help along the way. It should make things a little less intimidating along the way.

I think your design is do-able. Even with the picture you put together, it's not bad looking. You can see what you are trying to make.

Have fun!

[Nitefly SA]

may a suggest a reverse heastock

[Al3x]

well, im making a template, done the body template.

looks verry nice

just waiting to get my wood etc..

i have to modify the body for the neck tho, as the neck on an explorer is a tiny bit wider, and a bit longer when bolted in

[TenderSurrender]

Hey and welcome aboard the forums dude

I think with some time, this guitar could be a good un' for sure.

May i make a suggestion though?, in your first post, id recommend you remove your email addy, its just opening you up for spam if the wrong people get it

Well good luck and welcome once again!

~~ TS ~~

[Daniel Sorbera]

It's looking good but I -serioulsy- doubt your going to get your first guitar done in a couple of months. Think more like six. The first one is always the hardest (of course) and takes the most time/money because you have to buy a few specialized tools.

[Guitarfrenzy]

Well, looks like your on the right track, as it's always best to have everything planned out. Welcome to the forum, and good luck with your project!!

[Robert Irizarry]

Welcome aboard! I'm fairly new myself (February 2006) and I just want to say that this board has a lot of great people possessing both experience and ideas. As a rule, people are very helpful but they do get frustrated if you ask questions that can be easily answered by a search on the forum. The forum search is not the greatest but it does get the job done. There is a tremendous amount of information there. The first week I joined, I spent several hours a day just going through portions of the site. It was incredibly informative.

Best of luck with your first build. I'm in the process of attempting one myself - just got the body blank yesterday! See you around...

[crafty]

Neat idea. I've been thinking about doing a Jag-Stang with a tune-o-matic and a couple 'buckers for a while, but like everything else, it keeps getting shoved to the back burner.

Keep in mind, the scale length on a JS is 24" v. 24.75" on the Gibsons. The overall proportions will be quite similar, but you will have to take that into account when designing the body and placing the neck, bridge, and electronics, in that order. And I'm not a huge fan of the headstock, but it's not bad. Maybe if it was natural instead of painted black it'd be better, but if you like it that's all that matters.

[wardd]

Alex,

Welcome to the board.

I’m a teacher from Iowa so I spend all day with people your age.

By the way, Iowa is USA, in the middle.

It’s great to see you taking on the guitar project, it will give you lots of opportunities to learn about wood, tools, measurement etc..

One thing to consider in determining how long it will take you to finish the project is to think in terms of how many hours of work it will take.

Then decide on how many days it takes to do that much work.

If you can work 5-10 hours per day, a month or two is probably way more than enough time.

Plus, don’t forget that some things in a guitar project take up more time than others.

Especially when you go to paint or finish the project, make sure you don’t get in too much of a hurry, let your finish dry/cure properly before sanding and polishing.

It’s easy to get in a hurry at the end of a project when you see the end in sight.

This board is a great place to find help when you need to make a decision about how you are going to build a given part of the project.

Make sure you spend some time reading in the tutorial sections of the main ProjectGuitar site. You will find lots of great info there. (Left you the link.)

http://www.projectguitar.com/menu/tutorial.htm

And most important, remember that on a board like this, everyone has an opinion of what a guitar should be, each of those opinions is equally valid, but the only opinion in the universe that really matters is yours, its going to be your guitar, make it the way you want.

Good Luck,

d ward

[psw]

oh by the way im from australia

me too...maybe put it in your profile so it shows when you post...whereabouts BTW?

welcome aboard... pete

[Al3x]

eltham in melbourne.

this is going to be a real low budget thing, going to make it out of a cheaper wood/parts. its first guitar its a learning thing. cant expect it to be great

im thinking $200 max not inc special tools (ill be using a pair of cheap hum buckers that i can get for around $20 each lol) they are a bit better then pickups u find in epiphone or squire. cant complain

nice to meet u all

[psw]

eltham in melbourne.

Ah I was up there the other day. $200 is ambitious in Australia, it all depends on if you can get a hold on parts. That's why I have tended to muck about modifying cheap secondhand guitars...you get a neck, pickups and most of the parts and can build around them, or improve things like tuners and bridges along the way or later. Best thing about bolt on guitars is that if you don't like the body, you can strip it of parts and make another...

Anyway, it's good to see that there are so many builders down here getting into it as we could share ideas on obtaining materials and parts...good luck... pete

[Al3x]

if you want cheap parts

go to main street music in greenbouragh (cant spell it)

try to find "lee" hes a nice guy, hes the guy i get ALL my music equiptment. he will take alot off..

my first guitar was a 700 strat, got it for around $500

i know there, for around $40 i can get the bridge, at first ill have 1 cheap humbucker, with space for another when i get the cash.

im sure i can find a pair of tuners around

i may even build a body, if its real good put it on my strat :O

wood isnt too expensive. i was thinking something cheapish but good..

or i could hit ebay up for the cheapest jap strat, take off the pickups and all that, slap my body on take ALL the hardware off it and use that neck..

[ToneMonkey]

or i could hit ebay up for the cheapest jap strat, take off the pickups and all that, slap my body on take ALL the hardware off it and use that neck..

Spot on mate, That way you get cheap parts and other bits to play around on. Soon you'll look in a box in the shed and think "Oh christ, where did all the screws come from again?"

You may end up with a spare neck to put on a body etc etc. I think that doing this way is probably the best way to get started as you learn and it's fairly cheap. Fair enough, the hardware may not be the best, but once you've got a bit of practice in you can always start changing stuff over (or build an axe from scratch).

Welcome to the boards from the UK

[Al3x]

hmm i might try for a cheap flying v copy or explorer, then i get the tune o matic bridge and the neck i want. the electronics aint too hard.