...and I don't have most of the proper tools (yet). Oh, also the "exotic wood" lumber place I buy materials from is so confusing I'm not sure what I even bought. At least I know what a board-foot is now...more or less.
But I'm determined to make a guitar still, here's where I am so far. Well, I figured I make 2 first guitars at the same time...my logic being I'd be able to immediately apply lessons learned from inevitable mistakes.
I settled on this design, figured I'd keep it simple as possible...close to Tele specs & construction.
A little odd looking but I like it...and I finally had move off the drawing board after a month of "tweaking" -- Haven't really settled on the switch & knob placements but will work that out once I can lay he parts out on an actual body. For these first attempts I'm pretty much got the cheapest tuners, bridges, and pickups that Amazon offers (as long as they had decent reviews). My focus at this point is learning basics of building, learning the tools and making something somewhat playable.
Here are the body & neck templates. First I made some out of 1/8 inch pressed board then flush cut 3/4 inch mdf versions...
...this took a while...here are my false starts, screw ups and reject neck templates >>
Why is it so difficult to sand a perfectly straight edge? I figured it out eventually. And got to know some new tools & techniques pretty well. Time well spent, and spent again.
So, I finally bought some wood. For necks...African Limba? Some other kinds, who knows...the place was overwhelming and I had no idea what I was looking at. But I made it home with materials that the lumber guy assured me would be "just what I need"
Thanks to this site, YouTube, and many other resources I began making the jigs to be able to make fret boards and necks. Yeah I'm still working on these...but making progress. They're starting to look like something.
This is an expensive hobby BTW. I'm buying tools as I go so not too bad all at once...that is if I can't figure out some cockamamy way to use the wrong tool. There was no way around needing a thickness planer, that was the most expensive purchase so far.
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Just started carving/shaping the neck tonight...I'll update when I have something to show. I know I'm the definition of a rookie at amateur hour, but gotta start somewhere!