Building your own guitar

[V100]

We are currently building our own guitar

We have a strat body (not brilliant but we are currently sanding it and going to respray) and also a neck. We're looking at a white scratchplate with pre-loaded pickups (recommendations appreciated) and a black paintjob, which we're doing some swirl designs in. We think it's going to look ace

The guitar was originally a dreadful cheap thing, but we're completely rebuilding it (swapping everything) and we should hopefully come out with something decent.

Pics to come soon of progress

Anybody else built there own?

[Dr Z]

Nice! I'm hoping to do a similar thing with my first and only guitar (as soon as some funds allow-which will be pretty soon! ). I've seriously outgrown it but can't afford anything at the moment. I've upgraded the electronics in it but that's about all.

It is a standard sunburst basswood bodied guitar with an awful neck. Hoping to put an nice ebony fretboard w/maple or wenge neck on it with upgraded copper/black harware. Much less flash than you though!

[V100]

Good luck

It was a bit of a revelation for me looking inside it and realising it is not quite as complicated as I thought. Really easy to adjust stuff as well.

Also look at a rosewood neck, they are bloody brilliant and what Gibson use. Not too expensive either.

[angusfaldo]

After building a couple (they went okay but the action was never good enough) I tried building a lute.

All I can say is ... don't. What a nightmare. I still wake up fretting (pun, sry ) about bending the wooden slats to make the bowed back.

[prand]

I suppose you've heard the story about Bryan May and his dad building his guitar out of an old fireplace? Good luck!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Special

[Dr Z]

V100 said:

Good luck

It was a bit of a revelation for me looking inside it and realising it is not quite as complicated as I thought. Really easy to adjust stuff as well.

Also look at a rosewood neck, they are bloody brilliant and what Gibson use. Not too expensive either.

Cool. Mine has a rosewood/maple neck on it at the moment. For purely aesthetic reasons, I want a more dark-looking wood, so ebony seemed to fit the purpose while being reasonably affordable without going into exotic woods.

[Bullett]

I have 2 completely hand made bass guitars and an acoustic/classical.
My father is a luthier though and he did teach classical guitar making for about 5 years.

[Bullett]

Found a photo!

[V100]

Just to clarify, it is not a unique design that we are carving ourselves, but a strat that we are making from pre-designed parts to fit our own specifications, it also means that we can paint it how we like.

[rhinochopig]

I learnt to dive with a German lad called Jens Jurgen. He turned out to be the JJ from JJ Hucke guitars. He started out by replacing pick ups and general fiddling. He found he had a knack for it and his mates started asking him to fettle their guitars. Could be a new career OP

[singlecoil]

Assembling guitars from parts is a perfectly valid way of achieving a decent guitar, especially if you use decent parts.

With Strat copies there's little that can go wrong as long as all the parts are designed for 25.5" scale length and the neck, if it's 22 fret, has an overhang at the end of the fretboard. If the neck sits too deep, or at the wrong angle, it's ok to pack it up as long as it's with something hard such as plastic, rather than something compressible such as cardboard, is used.