Planning my first guitar - I need help!

[keithb]

I'm just beginning to plan my first guitar project. My woodworking skills are limited to basic carpentry, nothing that compares to this. I definately need any advice I can get

Here are my planned specs:

Mahogany body, modified Strat shape, chambered, HSS

Mahogany(?) cap, 1 f-hole

Maple neck/rosewood fingerboard

Wilkinson bridge

Graphite nut/locking tuners

I plan to buy my first router for this project, and I hope to do all other shaping with hand tools and a belt sander. I plan to buy a body blank and a complete neck (I don't feel up to constructing a neck yet)

Does anyone have any words of wisdom to offer?

Thanks!

[westhemann]

yeah try to find a local hardwood supplier for your wood.you can get wood for about 1/2 of what the places with blanks charge

[SguitarM527]

i would help, but im afraid im in the same posisiton you are my friend

[westhemann]

and the carvin necks are supreme

[Brian]

Plus belt sanders are good for removing hugh amounts of wood quickly, don't plan on using it to do detail work unless your really REALLY talented with one.

[Guest Litchfield Custom Gutars]

Well, I was looking at some kits on ebay earlier. The SAGA kits would be hella easy to customize for this. They are like $80 for a strat. Theyre basswood. Or you could to it like you said, but for the hollow strat, I'd omit the contours for a 1st timer. And get a palm sander. it'll come in way handier than you think.

[Jehle]

I'm just beginning to plan my first guitar project. My woodworking skills are limited to basic carpentry, nothing that compares to this. I definately need any advice I can get

Here are my planned specs:

Mahogany body, modified Strat shape, chambered, HSS

Mahogany(?) cap, 1 f-hole

Maple neck/rosewood fingerboard

Wilkinson bridge

Graphite nut/locking tuners

I plan to buy my first router for this project, and I hope to do all other shaping with hand tools and a belt sander. I plan to buy a body blank and a complete neck (I don't feel up to constructing a neck yet)

Does anyone have any words of wisdom to offer?

Thanks!

It's been my observation that most people when they first come to the forum post a wish list like this. Even I did and I never built that guitar. Keep the wish list in mind, but before you spend big bucks on expensive woods, consider what's been suggested.

The suggestion to start with a kit, or a ready-made neck is a great way to get started. Get your feet wet first by using what you can get easily first. Your first guitar probably won't be the most pretty thing to look at, but it will help you learn about where you need to spend the most time when you do get around to building that dream guitar.

And... Good luck and welcome aboard!

[keithb]

I like the idea of a kit, and possibly customizing it a bit. Are the Saga kits "decent"? I wonder if I could take down top of the body a bit and still do a hollow body. Time to find a friend with a planer and plenty of spare time

[Guest Litchfield Custom Gutars]

Yeah, that'd wouk. But be carefol of the body contours. Look around on like page 4 of this section. BeAr built a stratacoustic out of w squier, that might help in the hollowing dept.

[westhemann]

be original...take the bubinga,hollow it out,and fill it with alder or korina

just kidding,but then again...why not

[keithb]

I was looking around today, and I realized that I can get a Squier Affinity strat for just about what I'd pay for a kit. Now the question is: is the hardware, etc on the Squier better quality than the hardware on the Saga kit?