Grimzors Posted November 21, 2006 Report Share Posted November 21, 2006 Hi guys, im new to this forum and to the world of guitar making, designing, i already got a design drawn in my notebook, and have read up abit on how to put a guitar together, i am buying a neck, and wanna make a custom body, now ive seen pictures of people glueing the wood together, what way do you glue the wood? one on top of the other. or side by side? and what are the dimensions of wood size i should use to make my guitar, its going to be a fairly odd but small shape, if someone can just give me some good links or some decent pictures with description i would appretiate it highly, thanks alot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted November 21, 2006 Report Share Posted November 21, 2006 Buy/borrow (from the library, like) Melvyn Hiscock's 'Make Your Own Electric Guitar'. Read it cover to cover. A few basic hints while you go looking/waiting for said book: 1) draw your design out full size, in at least a full frontal and full side view. 2) You glue wood with wood glue. Titebond original (not II, not III, just the original) is your best bet. Don't glue end grain to end grain, other methods are all fine, really. You want perfect, tight joints that don't need to be forced to line up prior to gluing. If you don't know enough about woodworking to understand basic gluing (as in, making a joint, that sort of thing) you might want to do a bit of background reading before jumping into the deep end. At the very LEAST read the book (Make Your Own Electric Guitar), which should clear up a good deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acousticraft Posted November 21, 2006 Report Share Posted November 21, 2006 I draw out my guitar body shape on a piece of light cardboard set up on a drawing board. Make sure you work off a centreline along the body length, so everything is equal and symmetrical. When you put your pattern on your wood line up your centreline with your glue joint line. Then the position of the bridge, where the fingerboard finishes, pickup cavities, switch mounting holes etc. are all accurately marked out so you can transfer measurements directly from the plan and also draw around it to mark the shape. Doing it this way you can play with the body shape on the drawing board until it is aesthetically appealing to the eye before you cut into or glue any wood. I also draw a side profile using the height of the bridge at its lowest setting so neck angle can be calculated. If you do this you will gain a better understanding of how all the parts will fit together. Otherwise trial and error can be expensive. Actually necks are not as difficult to make as most non-luthier types think. The cost of buying one neck would buy me enough wood to build about 3-4 guitars. Mahogany is an excellent wood as it is so stable and easy to work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted November 21, 2006 Report Share Posted November 21, 2006 Since the guys already answered on how to do it, I'll offer some other advice. Here's a picture of one of my bodies being glued together The top section of the body is being glued to rest of the body (the center laminates and the bottomg section are already glued, that is why there are no clamps there). The body is being glued together tightly with the red clamps, while the blue/yellow ones are there to keep it level. It's very important to have clamps there to keep it level, you don't want them slipping or else you'll end up with a body that is not flat. I suggest using just about any cheap clamp and using scrap wood to keep it flat on the top and bottom. Place wax paper beneath the scrap wood so it wont glue to the body, that would be no fun having to remove that. Make sure your scrap wood you're using to keep it level is flat, although I think that part should be common sense.. A better example of the scrap wood idea would be found ~>here<~ Use Titebond original like Mattia mentioned. 20" length x 13" width x 1.75" thickness (or 20" x 13" x 1.75") should be a sufficient amount to take care of this body, but that is completely irrelevant to your project. Draw it out and figure out what width and length you'll need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fryovanni Posted November 21, 2006 Report Share Posted November 21, 2006 Sounds like you have the good advise above. I posted up a topic about some nifty clamps I picked up not too long ago. They work slick to keep your pieces aligned while you clamp. Here is the link to the topic-click Peace,Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimzors Posted November 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2006 Hmm sorry im still a little confused as to what way you glue the wood, lets say i have 2 pieces of mahogany layed out flat on the ground next to eachother, would i apply glue on the side and push them together(which i dont think so) or would i stack one of them on the other and apply the glue in the middle of the 2? sorry guys, i just dont know much n the technical terms, im just a guy with some big ideas in mind , thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fryovanni Posted November 21, 2006 Report Share Posted November 21, 2006 Hmm sorry im still a little confused as to what way you glue the wood, lets say i have 2 pieces of mahogany layed out flat on the ground next to eachother, would i apply glue on the side and push them together(which i dont think so) or would i stack one of them on the other and apply the glue in the middle of the 2? sorry guys, i just dont know much n the technical terms, im just a guy with some big ideas in mind , thanks. You could glue pieces either way. It really just depends on what you want to do. Most common is to glue edge to edge, although you can certainly glue pieces on top of each other. Generally a body blank would be close to 1-3/4" thick(although thinner or thicker can be used depending on design). You should really see about rounding up a book on building as suggested above. You will do much better if you do that. Peace,Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimzors Posted November 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2006 well glueing it side to side would give me more room to work with, and i dont think that 1 piece of wood is deep enough to build a guitar, because theyre pretty thin but i might be wrong, so ppl keep the posts comming :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fryovanni Posted November 21, 2006 Report Share Posted November 21, 2006 well glueing it side to side would give me more room to work with, and i dont think that 1 piece of wood is deep enough to build a guitar, because theyre pretty thin but i might be wrong, so ppl keep the posts comming :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Sorbera Posted November 21, 2006 Report Share Posted November 21, 2006 Guitar building is pretty absolute, your body shape will either fit on your piece of wood, or it won't. You need to draw out your plans full size. Now how big is your body? length, width, and depth. Now you know how much wood you will need to build it. Lets say for instance your body is 18" long 13" wide and 1 3/4" deep. Now lets say you have two pieces of wood that are 19" long, 8" wide, and 2" deep. You would glue the board on the side to get your width of 13". Lets say you have two boards that are 19" long, 14" wide, and 1" thick. You would glue them on top of each other to get your depth of 2". If that doen't make sense please don't touch any wood until you have read some books and understand more about general wood working. You could seriously injure yourself if you don't know what your doing. A teacher is very helpful, see if you can find a local cabinet maker nearby. They are almost always nice people with awesome shops that will help you on your way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radrobgray Posted November 21, 2006 Report Share Posted November 21, 2006 this is not meant to be harsh but, if your not sure what to do you shouldnt be gluing things together or starting your build just yet. do a little more research then ask questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimzors Posted November 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2006 k...well i just wasnt sure how it should be glued, but you guys definately cleared it up for me, thanks, oh and my dad is a carpenter btw, but he doesnt speak english well...so yea but thanks alot i get it now. , any idea where i can get a picture of actual size pickup template for a humbucker, i plan to have one EMG in there, i think one humbucker would be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted November 22, 2006 Report Share Posted November 22, 2006 (edited) This should be exactly what you're looking for. Stewmac will have everything you will need for your projects. http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Routing_..._Templates.html Edited November 22, 2006 by Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimzors Posted November 22, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2006 Thanks Jon ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiKro Posted November 22, 2006 Report Share Posted November 22, 2006 Some Times I wonder, other Times i'm in awe! MK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.