strat91

Alright guys, ive looked at your site in envy for the past 2 years, and ive seen it all. I have never built a guitar before and it really intrests me. I love the guitar. It is art with a sound. I would like to start building my own guitars. I have plenty of patients and plenty of time. Now all i need is the know how. I would really appreciate it if you guys could get me started with the best books, supply websites, tools, and most of all, what you would reccomend as a first build for a begginer. If yall have ne tips or insight on how i should do this, please post, thanks.

My son and I started out with a book, "Build your own electric guitar" by Martin Okham. It was a cool book that included a blue print template and so on.

Best of all it had a list of Tools needed and provided the basics of building a solid body guitar.

I suggest you start by building an electric guitar body, so you can understand the process of tool use and templates. Something like a strat is

pretty simple because all the pick-ups are attached right to the pickgaurd, so the pocket routes are not that critical. The neck pocket was really

the only critical route that was required. After completing this first project, We were able to see the mistakes that were made with routing, cutting and

sanding techniques. One thing that really needs attention, is the finishing of the guitar. While the project ended up looking okay. It needed a different approach to finishing. Different coating, stain, sanding sealer all that stuff. I did not make the neck. It was a little too abmitous at this time

In the end, the guitar came together and is a real player. I've used it on a couple of gigs, and it's just the sound I was looking for. And the fact that it was a father and son project makes it even more rewarding to play and own and gaze at. We're now working on a telecaster body out of Mahogany.

Make sure you ask as many questions as possible. We purchased the swampash for the first project at a local exotic woods retailer on a Saturday morning. There were about 10 guitar makers and they all offered some sort of advice. They love talking about this stuff. Don't be afraid to ask questions.

Good Luck!

Can anyone give me some advice on using a palm router vs. a standard fixed or plunge router.

I will only be working on a couple of projects a year, and was wondering wether the palm router

would be okay for solid body electric guitar. Are they strong enough for routering pick-up and neck

pockets, or should I stick with a regular router.

My son and I just completed our first home made guitar project, a strat copy.

we installed the Guitar Fetish Boston Blue Texas Overwound with Alnico magnets.

They are really good if you're looking for a killer swamp blues and or SRV sound.

It was the sound I was looking for and I got it with these pick-ups, at a price that's

is much cheaper than brand name or boutique pick-up. I also installed them

with some high output electronics, which might have been a slight overkill.

Next time I'll try the Boston Blue Vintage set. Good Luck.

Im building some Strat type guitars with students and want to know if anyone has used some of their pickups. Im looking for a set for blues/rock and also no doubt some of these kids probably want extreme metal type sounds that will probably make me cringe. Any suggestions what people have used or can suggest? Are these pickups noisy as I am a humbucker fan and dont know much about them?

Thanks in advance.