Dadovfor

Hey Zyon, while the plywood neck sounds like a lot of fun, I'd also like to see you run the original experiment ... a quality neck and pickups, but with a plywood body. That way you're isolating any tonal differences to the body and really testing some of the debate that has raged on this and other forums. But if you're going with a bolt on, perhaps you can do both? Record a sample with a 'quality' neck, and then reassemble it with the plywood version? I'll watch this one with interest ... and going by the number of responses you've accumulated in such a short time, so will a lot of others.

Is this some bizarre experiment in seeing how long you can keep members of this forum in suspense??

Or have you seen this tutorial? http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/logo.htm I haven't tried it myself ... yet!

There's no doubt about it ... the circumstances you're in will be challenging. But that's the beauty of building your own guitar and this forum ... continual challenges that you'll resolve through your own ingenuity and/or the assistance of the supportive members here. Perhaps for inspiration, take a look at this guy's site to see a beautiful guitar produced with very limited resources: http://members.fortunecity.com/jtfish/lpc/cvr/cover.htm Obviously ... my view is that you should go for it. Good luck and keep us posted.

If the volume of machining versus hand-made input is the only difference, wouldn't the end result be a guitar of similar quality but at a lower price? Or are the inputs (wood, hardware, etc) also of inferior quality? On a related note ... I know from an earlier posting that CNC removes the soul from a guitar but I'm not sure what sort of discount you'd expect for that???

Thanx for the positive feedback. Xanthus (et al) ... on reflection, I agree that the balance would be better if the headstock was black. The original intention was to do a logo with my son's name (hence the plain background) but a lack of materials, time, and expertise seemed to kill that. So it remains plain ... for the time being at least. We bought more traditional gold knobs in the planning stages, and you can see them in one of the photos where I tried everything on the body for size, but my son loved the skull knobs when he saw them on the net and was determined to get a set. Like the headstock, they probably don't give a great visual balance ... but they are a bit of a talking point and they're good for a laugh. [i got a couple of spares which I might turn into cuff-links]. Anyway ... I'm going to take what I've learnt and move on with the next couple of projects ... but I've got the feeling I'll eventually come back to this one and make the sort of changes you've suggested. Again, thanks for the positive words ... it's good to get good feedback from this community on a first build.

It's time to stop lurking in the shadows, and start participating. This was our (one of my sons and I) first build. There's some obvious BC Rich inspiration in there. It's a 25.5" scale, 'e-bay special' neck (maple and rosewood). Plantation mahogany body blank from Gilet guitars. Skull knobs from Dreadmeister. Dual humbuckers and a licensed Floyd Rose bridge. According to my son it plays well ... I can't play a note. We finished this one months ago but I'm posting it now 'cos we're looking at moving on to out first (Project Guitar supervised) build. Given that I'm a simple old, office-worker, I'm really pleased with the result, despite the obvious flaws and newbie errors. So this is an introduction; a practice post; an invitation for feedback; and a warning that I'll be back shortly looking for guidance. [Now why didn't the picture work?!? See the next post.] The first cut Routed and ready Mock up Headstock Wiring and covers

There are so many issues that your question raises ... as the reply posts above mine prove. I'm an old office worker with no woodwork training at all, and the only musical instrument I can play is a CD player. Yet for some strange reason I looked at one of my sons' Fenders and figured "that couldn't be too difficult to make?!" So we gave it a go. I was confident we could make something that would 'work' ... but the question would be how well it would 'work'. At worst I figured we'd end up with a fairly impressive wall hanging. When we plugged the end result in and it played [not at first, but that's another story ... about his amp!] we were one rapt father and son team. It tunes correctly, it plays, it's our design, and it looks great. When friends and relatives look at it with awe you can imagine what a real buzz it is. I learnt truck-loads from the process and from lurking around the talented people (guys?) on this forum ... and I learnt how little I actually knew before I started. Our guitar is not perfect, and there are so many things we will know and do better when we start build number 2 ... but only a player or a forum member would spot the mistakes and short-cuts. So the short answer is, if I can do it with my limited skills and music knowledge, then you certainly should be able to. But plan out and draw up what you're going to build ... run your ideas past the very giving (and honest!) people on this forum, be prepared to take crticism and to listen and learn ... and finally, you will find the answer to just about any question you might have in these forums, so practice with the search function. And if that fails ... just ask. Sorry for the longish post ... but I feel like I could now write a thesis on "The Transition from Conscious Incompetence to Unconscious Competence of the Newbie Member and Builder on the Project Guitar Forum". Enjoy the ride!!

It looks like a fox or a wolf ... it would certainly make for a unique guitar.

As a total noob, it's contributors with your experience that make this forum worthwhile. I really look forward to seeing some of your work ... and being further inspired to having a go myself. Cheers

Nice work ... I like it. It looks something like a future project I've been imagining ... which only means I have to try a little harder if I'm going to keep it unique. Well done.

Woo hoo!!! I got a 2.5hp compressor for Christmas!! How did Santa know!?! BE WARNED: I'll have lots of stupid spray painting questions for you all in the new year. Best wishes to you all.

I find it easier to cut routing templates out of a thinner medium (say, 6mm or 1/4" masonite) and then when I'm satisfied with that, transfer it to a thicker medium (12mm or 1/2" pine at the moment ... cos I have a sheet lying around). It's fairly easy to cut the masonite slightly inside an outline of the neck using a jig-saw and than file or sand it out until I get a precise fit for the neck. Once I have that, I use double-sided tape and route out a thicker and more stable template to keep. Trying to create a template straight on to a 3/4" piece of MDF would require more luck, skill, or patience than I possess!