First Build

[White Summer]

Ok, so im trying to make my first guitar, a solid body unique shape. I know you guys are ravenous for pics, so im going to take and post some ASAP. ive been watching this forum for the past week or so, and ive been getting alot of ideas. My dad found a BEAUTIFUL piece of mahoghany on the local interstate, 10 feet long, 12 in wide, and 1 three quarter inches thick. My fingerboard will be a stewy mac rosewood, an all in one wrap over bridge, and im going to carve my own nut with a knife. My neck is a cherry piece, but my problem is that im trying to make a 25 in scale with 24 frets. Im not exactly sure how i should connect the neck to the body, i think that a set neck is going to be too weak, and i want to angle my neck back like a gibson. Is it possible to bolt on the neck and get that angle without putting in wedges? what im thinking is to shave down the square where the neck joins.

Sry there is no Pics, and im going to ask about the pups i want to use, but ive got to go now.

[Geo]

It sounds like you may not have done enough research to start the project? You should already have a drawing of how the neck will attach to the body.

I'm sure you could figure out a way to do a bolt-on neck with an angle... but doing it well might be the problem. For your first project... it might be better to do Strat-style neck attachment (i.e., no neck angle, bolted on).

You should probably get Melvyn Hyscock's book first and read it. It will explain everything.

[Xanthus]

A neck-through guitar with no neck angle would be easier, in my opinion. All you really need is a little sliver of wood under the fretboard to raise it up a bit. then you could throw a fender-style bridge on it AND have no bulky heel, and not have to worry about routing a pocket for the neck, making sure it's snug, drilling holes, etc.

But yeah, I agree with you Geo, I can't stress reading enough. I searched for info for an honest 5 months before starting my project and STILL managed to **** it up quite a few times

::EDIT::

Only thing is the wraparound bridge won't work with the setup I described above, sorry. You'd need a flat-mounted bridge, no studs.

[Supernova9]

Ok, so im trying to make my first guitar, a solid body unique shape. I know you guys are ravenous for pics, so im going to take and post some ASAP. ive been watching this forum for the past week or so, and ive been getting alot of ideas. My dad found a BEAUTIFUL piece of mahoghany on the local interstate, 10 feet long, 12 in wide, and 1 three quarter inches thick. My fingerboard will be a stewy mac rosewood, an all in one wrap over bridge, and im going to carve my own nut with a knife. My neck is a cherry piece, but my problem is that im trying to make a 25 in scale with 24 frets. Im not exactly sure how i should connect the neck to the body, i think that a set neck is going to be too weak, and i want to angle my neck back like a gibson. Is it possible to bolt on the neck and get that angle without putting in wedges? what im thinking is to shave down the square where the neck joins.

Sry there is no Pics, and im going to ask about the pups i want to use, but ive got to go now.

If you think that a set neck is too weak, you need to read some more because you obviously don't have a great understanding.

[biliousfrog]

+1 to everything else so far.

You need to get a book on guitar building, Melvyn Hiscock's book is highly recommended, & read it through thoroughly before commiting to anything. When you have an understanding of how & why guitars are constructed the way they are you'll have enough knowledge to make informed choices about scale length, bridge type & neck construction. When you know those three things you will then have all the details to calculate neck angle & fingerboard taper & width. Then you'll have the basis of a guitar.

Don't cut a single piece of wood until you have everything pinned down & a full size drawing of the front & side views. A lot of new people skip this part & 99% of them ruin the instrument. There is a reason why everyone who deals with construction, from aircraft designers to architects to toy designers, plan everything on paper first. If it doesn't work on paper, it won't work on the real thing & it's much cheaper to buy more paper or to rub out a line than to buy more wood, paint, laquer, hardware etc.

[White Summer]

Alright, ive read two books about a million times in the past month, i dont know if they do any good though, it seems yall read different ones. I read Make Your Own Electric Guitar and Bass by Dennis Waring and David Raymond, and The Player's Guide To Guitar Maintenence by Dave Burrluck. Ive made a rough cut of my neck, and glued the pieces of mahoghany together, and made a life size drawing of everything so far exept the pickups. The problem i mean with the neck (sorry i didnt clarify), is that it connects at around the 21-22 fret, so im thinking the set nect would have to extend pretty far into the body.

EDIT

Do you think that it would be easy to do a deep set bolt on?s

Edited May 1, 2007 by White Summer

[fryovanni]

Alright, ive read two books about a million times in the past month, i dont know if they do any good though, it seems yall read different ones. I read Make Your Own Electric Guitar and Bass by Dennis Waring and David Raymond, and The Player's Guide To Guitar Maintenence by Dave Burrluck. Ive made a rough cut of my neck, and glued the pieces of mahoghany together, and made a life size drawing of everything so far exept the pickups. The problem i mean with the neck (sorry i didnt clarify), is that it connects at around the 21-22 fret, so im thinking the set nect would have to extend pretty far into the body.

EDIT

Do you think that it would be easy to do a deep set bolt on?s

The book you are reading tells you that the neck and body meet at the 21st to 22nd fret? Is that where the lower or upper bout meet the neck? What style neck is it(set, bolt, neck through)? Is the heel shaped to accomodate the high access placement?

At the upper bout. An LP, Strat, Tele are going to meet around 16. Soloists, RR, Jems and such are going to push the upper fret access and meet around 18th or 19th. A PRS meets way up there but is a set neck with heel and a longer tenion. It would be cool to see a picture of your full size drawings to get an idea as to what you are planning.

Peace,Rich

P.S. Personally I don't think set, deep set, bolt, neck through are any more difficult than each other. You may have a bit more room for adjustment and servicability with the bolt, but you have more fitting to do. A neck through is a simple joint, but must be planned out well. Set neck allows for a bit of fine tuning at the time you join it to the body, but again you need to have your plan well in order before you glue. I suppose the most straight forward(in terms of building would be a Fender style neck. Bolt on, no neck angle, no scarfs and such). For me personally I find a neck through(with or without angle, it doesn't make much difference to me) to be the my most comfortable construction method. It is actually kinda nice because I don't have to mess with routing the pocket or fit up.

[Geo]

One thing to consider... if, like me, you don't have access to a bandsaw, you may want to do a scarf-style head. I don't know how you would cut out a Strat headstock without a bandsaw. I have cut three scarf joints by hand, each one better than the last, but all needing serious cleanup with planes and sandpaper. It's actually not that hard; I just clamp the blank down flat and hold the saw at a very shallow angle and start cutting, trying to follow the line I've drawn on the side of the blank.

Just some thoughts.

[White Summer]

Sorry guys false alarm. my neck joint isnt THAT bad. My drawing shows that it connects at about 19. I think i could get away with it if i extended the part of the body that connects the neck (what is it? the heel? has the little chrome plate on it...) out about 1/2-3/4 of an inch.

for my pickups im thinking about a P-90 in the neck, and a jazz master in the bridge. Thats what the guy im working on/ helping me out with this guitar recommended when i brought up that combo. I dont know if he has posted, ill try to get him to put his guitar on here, he loves this site. Im going to get some pics on soon, but my mom has the camera right now.

thanks for all the advice guys.

edit

i forgot to tell you, ive got access to about 1000 different tools, jig saws, planers, drill presses, band saws, table saws, if that helps you recommend stuff.

Edited May 1, 2007 by White Summer

[prs man]

buy Melvyn Hiscock's book and read it over and over again and agin.

as for the set neck I would first try and build with a fender style neck joint.

one more thing about set neck once you learn a little more you might find you like set neck better then you thought. when glued together correctly they are vary strong just ask Gibson or prs

[fryovanni]

Wow this is like the second time this week someone had the same idea about their neck. Must be something going around.

I know you mentioned you had read your book. It would be a good idea to break that book out and really focus on each step in the process. You can work out exactly how you will approch each step of the build(a very good idea). After you have a clear idea as to how you will work through the steps. Study your drawing and relate it to your methods for each step to try to identify possible conflicts in the process. Build good templates for your parts. Building good templates may also point out other issues before you start building.

Peace,Rich

Edit;

prs man-

one more thing about set neck once you learn a little more you might find you like set neck better then you thought. when glued together correctly they are vary strong just ask Gibson or prs

I dunno Gibson and PRS will probably tell you Fender Bolt-ons are better .

Edited May 1, 2007 by fryovanni

[White Summer]

lmao...

Yeah, set necks look awesome, i just think there wont be enough contact area on this guitar, but i think a fender bolt on would work. I need to extend the heel or whatever it is out 3/4 in. I took my tele apart last night, and it had 3"x 2" of contact area. how short do you think i could go? I need an inch to match fender, but do you think i could get away with 2 1/2" or 2 3/4"? Im going to have to lengthen my body some if this is too sketchy, i suppose.

Thanks in advance

Edited May 2, 2007 by White Summer

[Hector]

pics would help a lot.

[White Summer]

Yall arent going to believe this and will problably kill me. I forgot to measure my body LENGTH, so when i cut it out (on posterboard) it was way small. Pics will come eventually.....

im just glad i saw this now, and not on wood, and im glad its just a small problem like this, and not something too severe.

Edited May 3, 2007 by White Summer

[White Summer]

ok that was what it looked like before i measured the length. Eww

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p96/temp4/DSCN0531.jpg

This is more of what i was going for in the first place anywho. I just need to design a headstock, and put in a toggle switch

originally i wanted a really small curve on the top, like in the first pic, but i like the more normal size better

Edited May 5, 2007 by White Summer

[Geo]

Yall arent going to believe this and will problably kill me. I forgot to measure my body LENGTH, so when i cut it out (on posterboard) it was way small. Pics will come eventually.....

im just glad i saw this now, and not on wood, and im glad its just a small problem like this, and not something too severe.

Dude, you are out of control. I guess you're learning though! I hope your project turns out well.

[White Summer]

Im only 13, gimmie a break

[Geo]

Im only 13, gimmie a break

I guessed something like that... hey, when I was 13, I didn't even play guitar. Don't be discouraged--when you've finished this project, you will have learned tons of things about building a guitar, and your guitar builds will only get better and better.

[White Summer]

after this, im problably not going to have time to do any more projects like a guitar, so i want to plan out everything before hand to get it right. My body keeps staying small, no matter how big it looks on paper. Could someone get some deminsions of of a les paul for me? I know they feel good, and they are really tiny compared to a fender. My parts should be in wednesday, so things should take off at that point.

[pmarlin]

after this, im problably not going to have time to do any more projects like a guitar,

You said your 13, you have your whole life ahead of you.

[Geo]

after this, im problably not going to have time to do any more projects like a guitar, so i want to plan out everything before hand to get it right. My body keeps staying small, no matter how big it looks on paper. Could someone get some deminsions of of a les paul for me? I know they feel good, and they are really tiny compared to a fender. My parts should be in wednesday, so things should take off at that point.

You got to make the time, dude! Don't give up on building guitars.

BTW, Les Paul never struck me as significantly smaller than a Fender. Unfortunately, I don't have a Paul, can't help you with the dimensions.

[Rick500]

My Les Paul is approximately 17 1/4" body length, 9 1/4" widest point of upper bout, 7 3/8" thinnest point of waist, 13" widest point of lower bout, 1 13/16" thick at the edges, guessing 2 1/8", maybe 2 1/4" thick in the middle.

[oblaty]

Im only 13, gimmie a break

Nice to see here another teenager I build my first guitar last summer when I was 17 so take your time...

Edited May 8, 2007 by oblaty

[White Summer]

Thanks alot, especially rick, My body seems a little small, its the same length as a tele (15 3/4). well let me just give you guys everything. Length: 15 3/4", width at waist: 8 5/8", width at the back: 12 3/4", width at the front: 10 1/2". I really think i need to lengthen/widen the smaller cutaway, its sortof out of proportion to the rest of the body. My length, and rear width seem to be correct. I think that after i correct the cutaway problem, it should be near its last revision.

And when i mean i wont have time, i mean in the near future (year or so) lol.

thanks for the help, but dont hold your breath yet

[fryovanni]

Thanks alot, especially rick, My body seems a little small, its the same length as a tele (15 3/4). well let me just give you guys everything. Length: 15 3/4", width at waist: 8 5/8", width at the back: 12 3/4", width at the front: 10 1/2". I really think i need to lengthen/widen the smaller cutaway, its sortof out of proportion to the rest of the body. My length, and rear width seem to be correct. I think that after i correct the cutaway problem, it should be near its last revision.

And when i mean i wont have time, i mean in the near future (year or so) lol.

thanks for the help, but dont hold your breath yet

Looking at your drawing it looks like you have a lower bout that is closer to 14"(measured from widest points side to side) which is wider than most. It also looks like that you have pushed the waist forward quite a bit(something closer to center between bridge and neck PU would be more common). The relation between the bridge and rear of the guitar is pretty close to a strat with a 25.5" scale. With a 25" scale you will just be bringing the neck about 1/2" closer to the tail of the guitar. This is probably part of why the bouts seem to be even farther forward than what I am used to. Also the waist seems a little off in width. Not being similar in distance from center is cool, but the lower waist looks like it could come in another half inch or so and would be a little better fit(as is you look about an inch farther off center at the lower waist). As far as length. I would allow the neck joint and heel to form the required length. Then you can play with the horns as you see fit. The neck/heel/bridge/tailpiece(if applicable) should be designed around(for structural and functional reasons), after that horns, waist, are all personal taste, ergonomics, as long as you can fit your controls.

Peace,Rich