themikestro

The best way to start is planning! But the Melvyn Hiscock book and plan everything out very carefully on paper, the more planning you do the less costly mistakes you are gonna make.

I made my first guitar for about £220 ($350) and the one I'm working on for a bit less. The really expensive part is the tools if you don't already own them.

You will certainly need a router and a couple of bits

Some decent Chisels

Planes, Surforms and Spokeshaves

Loads of clamps!

and access to a bandsaw...

Worked for me, my first effort would benefit from some tidying up, but it sounds fantastic and plays well, as well as being a unique shape. Live the dream! Ha ha!

I've nearly finished my current project and i'm already thinking about the next one.... premature I know, and the missus won't want me making anything until all the padauk dust is out of the house.....

Anyway, i'm thinking about working on either a through neck fretless bass or a surfin' guitar in the style of the old mosrites, obviously it won't be exactly the same , but I've been having trouble sourcing info on them to get me started.

I just want to know some of the basic dimensions, scale length and woods used etc... Does anybody have experiance with these wacky retro beasts?

Thanks for lookin'

It stands for standard guitar and was invented by Les Paul, and early ones carried his name, he decided he didn't like it and the name was taken away.... Thats how I remember it anyway. I love SG's! 'specially blue ones!

If I were you i'd make an SG, in fact I am making a P90 equipped hollowbodyso I would say that! Maybe with some different woods.....

If you plan on copying either to the last detail you'll really need to know what you are doing! The Les Paul is a very complex beast! The SG has it's pitfalls too, tricky neck join and some none to easy carving...

What would work well would be a flat bodied Les Paul, a bit more like a Tele really, unless of course you're an experianced woodworker, in which case you'll be fine!

That is a fine looking guitar for sure!

It's too late for me to do it on the one i'm working on, but what method did you use to put the recess in under the knobs and switch? I wanted to do that on my SG i'm doing but I couldn't figure out the best way to get it uniform.

I was thinking a dremel with different sized grinding bits for depth..... or a graduated rout, but in the end I just didn't want to ruin my hardwork!

Whats the secret?

I had no real experiance of woodworking (and still have only a little) and I've made a perfectly good guitar and I'm halfway through another.

The key to getting it right is reading up, lots of planning and owning a good router.

Something like an explorer would make an ideal project as it's not too complex and if you have a natural finish it'll make it an ideal first timer I think.

Get a router, a spokeshave and some decent chisels and you're set!

Nothin' wrong with Squier guitars, especially the old silver series Strat models, I've got me a Jagmaster that cost me next to nothing and i'm constantly messing with it. It's a cheap, cool looking and easy playing budget wonderaxe!

Ahhhh! Bowties.... I've clearly just got a sick mind.

I've got to ask, is the whole Randy Rhoads plane crash/propeller inlay thing a coincidence or deliberate?

Fine looking axe you got there.

Rebuilt a bunch of crappy ply-o-casters, built my Ash custom thingy six weeks ago and my hollowbody D/C is 3/4 done now..... It's all getting a bit expensive!

Cheers for the advice everyone, the "recess" I had in mind was only about 3mm to stop it looking too weird.

Regarding a neck angle though, is it easily done with a bolt on? Or are there issues with the screws going in at an angle? I just don't want the neck join to be too weak really........... I was thinking of routing flat but deeper than needed and gluing in a thin wedge of offcut for the angle, is this a bad idea I wonder...?

Everything has gone smoothly up to this point so I don't wanna mess this up!

Question, I have a bolt on paddle neck that i'm going to fit to the body I'm currently working on and I've got a bit of a worry.....

I'm using a Gibson style compensated stop tail bridge with a height of about 15.5mm and the neck is something like 27mm (inlcuding frets) at the body end... I'm not sure about using a neck angle because of the bolt on thing, but i'm worried that the neck isn't going to sit deep enough in the body for good support. I think thats the correct dimesions but i'm at work so I can't check it!

Has anyone else experianced a problem with this kind of thing? Should I just recess the bridge by a couple of mm, that wouldn't be too tough.

It's only my second guitar so i'm still semi clueless!

Pirates aint all bad;

Rum: check

Silly accent and funny hats: check

Pieces of eight: check

Cutlass: check

But on the other hand, not so good things....

Scurvy: check

Keel haul: check

Davy Jones's locker: check

Really smelly: check

But ninjas rock harder;

Black outfits: check

Shuriken and sharp swords: check

Hold breath for three minutes: check

A load of good games: check

Practically invisible?: check

Having said that what about Shaolin monks? They truly rule.

More importantly perhaps, how do you pronounce Padauk, I read its meant to be poo dook somewhere.....

I think you are spot on with vol- yoot though, looks Dutch like that!

Yep chambering is absolutely the way to go wherever possible, i'm doing mine chambered with a maple cap, not finished it yet so I can't comment on tone.

But it would weigh a ton without the chambers!

Lovely looking wood I would agree, does anybody know the best products to keep it's natural colour for as long as possible?

I'm working on a padauk body at the moment, there a few things you need to look out for.....

I find the dust quite irritating, so wear a mask especially when sanding/routing, it is also bright orange and gets EVERYWHERE!

The block i've got is a funny one, half is is darker and brown, it works really easily but the other half is very orange and hard as rock! Seriously tough!

It can get a good shine on its own but I think a few good coats of wax certainly wouldn't hurt, and if you want it to retain its colour a uv inhibitor of some sort is advised.

Lastly it is very heavy and has a quite open grain that you might want to consider filling.

Hope that is of some use to you!

I agree about the tone thing, mines chambered with a maple top a weighty combination with out the chambering, and it's coming along slowly but surely.

It is always good to see somethign a bit different! Yours reminds me a bit of some of the Ovation electrics from the 70's, they certainly had something new going on.

Good luck with the remainder of your build!

I'm working on a one piece Padauk body at the moment, it's a nice wood with an interesting smell, but the stuff i've got is amazingly tough, half of it is bright orange and it's like working with stone! Maybe we should form some kind of Padauk appreciation society.... Wasburn make/made the Nuno N4 from Padauk.

Nice refinement of your original shape by the way.

Overexsposed and over-rated! Funny for a while but the joke has definately worn off..... I'm worried they are starting to take it seriously though, the new video is just so..... serious compared to the others.

Talented but contrived I guess. Oh yeah and ugly too.

Hi everyone,

Having been bitten by the guitar making bug, i'm starting work on my new (and more ambitious) project and I was just fishing for some advice..

I've ordered my materials and i was hoping to hear from people who have used the same woods and techniques. I'm still not a master craftsman so i'm looking for ways round binding and i'm still sticking with a bolt on for now. Anyway....

It's gonna be a semi hollow (think tele thinline) geetar based on a 70's Yamaha SG, using a pair of P90 pickups and a compensated wrapover tailpiece/bridge. The body wood is Padauk for the main body and a 6mm Flame maple top. Now my question is, does anyone know roughly how this going to sound and how is it working with Padauk, is it toxic and does it work easily?

My final question is, what is the best way to have the join between the top and the back of the body, I want to leave the Padauk natural and probably do a blue sunburst top, should I put a thin veneer between the the two sections mask a fake binding (leave the maple natural) or just stain the whole damn thing?

Goes on a bit I know........... Help me out here! If I get this right this guitar is gonna look and sound SweeeeeeT!

Weird! I'm a techie at a university too!

Regarding Kent Armstrong pickups, and in fact the basics of your design (not so much the shape) it aint so far away from the one I just finished...

My pickups sound absolutely fantastic, I've got the HROA (I think) in the bridge, which is meant to sound almost identical to the Seymour Duncan JB humbucker and I have a HPAO+ in the neck. The through body construction and these pickups is a winning combination.

Lovely design by the way, swervy!

Thanks for the hello's everyone, a fine forum you've got yourself here.

I already posted some pics in the finished projects/work in progress forum.

Firemaster! Now thats a butch guitar name.

To answer the question its pretty heavy, but then most of the guitars i've owned are heavy so I'm not bothered, the tone makes up for it.

The pickguard does need a bit more time spent on it so maybe i'll go for the tortoiseshell look.

Good to hear that you guys like the shape! It went through a lot of redesigns on paper.

The ball is already rolling on the next project, somewhere between a yamaha and Gibson SG but with a shred neck and mini humbuckers, I wanna do my own thing!

£15! Fantastic my lumps of ash cost about £40! I'm ringing craft supplies sharpish!

Cheers for all the input, very useful indeed.

Just to add to this list, I got the ash I've been using from http://www.guitarspares.com they sell a couple of woods in the required sizes, I was a little bit dissapointed with the way mine was when it arrived, lots of planing needed but it tidied up well. I get the feeling I could find the wood cheaper at a timber yard though.

Phyliss? That is exciting and new.... a little feminine perhaps...... I was thinking heavysuperbastardaocaster but the headstock is just too small.

Cheers for the link, I was looking at a few of these earlier today, i'll go add some others i've seen to the list I think.

Gotta shop around for my mahogany.....