Frosty329

This was my first build, a Solidbody Strat, made from Australian hardwoods! I used a set of plans for the dimensions, but made a few changes to a standard strat, I'd always wanted a guitar with dual HB's and so here it is! I've learnt so much from my first go at building, for someone with no experience at all with timber, every step was a lesson! I have no idea what to call it, so it's the AusStrat? The body is Queensland Maple, the neck is Silver Ash, both purchased from David Linton at Australian Guitar Timbers. The fretboard is a nice piece of Red Box which i found lying around in the family timber yard. The scale length is 25.5' I have kept the wiring as simple as possible, the 2 HBs are golden age pickups from StewMac, didn't want to go too fancy for my first build, i have got a single volume and single tone setup with a 3 way selector. I found the wiring diagram at the SD website, very handy, but having a little bit of trouble with getting enough volume out of it! Built this in my dad's workshop, he's got a great selection of tools, i'm slowly building my own collection as I go! I really wanted to keep things simple for the first build and hence I went with the solidbody strat. The use of Australian timbers is something I'm really passionate about. We are very lucky to have some amazing timber down under, the family sawmill was lucky enough to cut hardwoods for many years until they were pushed out of the industry by the bigger sawmills and overseas processing. I'm glad we still have some great people milling aussie timber for furniture and guitars and want to support them as much as possible! I hope you like it! And where it came from!

Hi, I've been working on this build forever, it took a long time to get started from the idea and now it feels like forever to get it done, but i've finally started to get some momentum in the past few months. This is a Strat style build, the body is Queensland Maple, the Neck is Silver Ash and the fretboard is Australian Red Box. I've decided to go with two humbuckers (just cheap Golden Age pickups from StewMac) for my first build. This has more been about a lot of learning and having a go to build confidence. While it's not perfect I've definitely learnt a lot. I'm just working on putting it all together now, fitting parts and about to start on the wiring. I'm a little concerned that the neck pocket might be a little too loose but I'll set it all up and see how it goes.

@curtisa Thankyou very much, perfect explanation and the photos were really helpful! @bizman62 A wraparound is a definite for the next guitar, thanks for the heads up on that!

Hi all, I’m building my first guitar and I’m definitely hooked, plans for the second already. I’m just a bit stuck on the best way to get an earth wire to the bridge? I’m building a strat style shape but without a scratch plate and using a hardtail bridge. What’s the neatest way to get the wire from the controls cavity? Do I need to drill an access hole from under the bridge through to the cavity? I would appreciate any help! cheers Frosty