Building a guitar.

[Märk]

I just purchased some wood to build a guitar (something I've wanted to do for years). I got a 6'X5" board of alder for the back, and a nice chunk of 10"X18"X1" figured maple for the top. I'm going to chop it down to ~7" and re-saw the maple board to bookmatch it, and attach it to the 3 piece laminated alder back. I have a mahogany neck from a guitar that I'm cannibalizing for this project (it's either going to be a bolt-on, or I'll dovetail the neck and body for a set neck.. not sure yet) which I'll use the leftover maple to make a figured headstock laminate to match the body. A`nd I plan on doing a nice binding on the body. The design I want to do is a nice thin "superstrat" style guitar with a floating trem and 2 humbuckers. I plan on taking photos of the project from start to finish, so I'll keep you updated.

Anyone else building a guitar? Anyone have tips or advice for a nice end result? Post here!

[Paco Del Stinko]

Wow. Lots of luck, I'd be interested in the progress.

[Teplin]

Nice wood! You're definitely saving yourself some headaches by using a premade neck. Advice? Sign up here: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/
Project guitar forum has a lot of regulars who really know their stuff. Invaluable if you run into any problems, or just have questions.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Definitely document the project. Maybe even video tape it.

[Märk]

Grr already hit a snag. I should've done some more math before buying the wood. The alder is only 1" thick, so after planing/sanding/etc. I'm looking at a realistic thickness of 7/8", which is not thick enough, even with a ~3/8" top... simple solution is to chop the board into 4 18" pieces (it's 6' long X 5" wide) and rip the 4 pieces into 3 strips of 1 1/2". With the 3"X18" piece of leftover maple, I would have *just* enough to laminate everything together into a 14"X18"X1.5" back... This would actually add stability over a single slab or 3-piece laminate, because the grain could be reversed with each strip. I'm planning on finishing the back black, so looks aren't important (although it might just look cool anyway). I'm worried that all that glue would affect the tone, though. Any thoughts before I tear up this expensive piece of wood?

[Teplin]

I say do some research on really thin guitars before you decide. People have made guitars thinner than 1 inch and made it work, so there may be some tricks you can learn. Project guitar forum is a good place to start.

[Billy's Little Trip]

You could buy a third type of wood to laminate to the other two. Like maybe Rose or mahogany. That way as you round edges, bevel and shape the horns, you'll see the different colors of the wood. My Explorer is about 1 11/16" thick. The center wood is 1" and the rest is equally divided for the top and bottom with thinner pieces. I know the brown wood is walnut, but I'm not sure of the lighter wood, but I think I remember reading that it's alder.

[Märk]

I'm pretty sure that's just the binding, BLT. (binding is a thin strip of wood or plastic inlaid into the top and sometimes bottom edge of an instrument- mainly for decoration. Compare a Les Paul Studio, which has no binding, and a Standard or Custom, which does)

I think I'ma go ahead and do the multi-piece laminate for the bottom, and if I hate it completely, I'll just get another piece of wood. While I'd love to have a single slab for the bottom, buying a 14"X18"X1.5" billet of clear, instrument-grade alder is a little rich for my tastes.

[Billy's Little Trip]

No, it's definitely 5 pieces of wood laminated together. I've had the pickups out on occasion. I'm too lazy to pull them out to show you, lol.

edit: I forgot about just taking off the pot access plate. Crappy pic, but you can see the band of lighter color wood.

[Märk]

I was just going to post that I was mistaken I read up a bit on late 70's Explorers, and yours seems to be a walnut/maple laminate. Interesting way of laminating tonewoods. I trust it sounds good?

I'm seriously considering adding a slab of aluminum before the maple top on mine. Maybe an aluminum neck, too! Okay, not seriously, but the thought crossed my mind

[Billy's Little Trip]

Out of all my guitars, I like the tone of my Explorer the best. I don't know if it's the wood or the fixed neck, but the tone and sustain are awesome and it just feels right in my hands.

[Märk]

Walnut is a great tonewood. It emphasizes the lower registers. Add a Marshall or Laney with overdrive, and you're in Black Sabbath territory. I briefly considered walnut instead of alder for my project, but it's just too expensive. I want this to be a labour of love, not wallet...

[Billy's Little Trip]

I didn't realize that there was an instrument grade wood or that it would be expensive.

By the way, I use my explorer on all mt SF entries. I always record with my FX in line, but I almost always record direct in and I don't mic the cab. It's quieter that way, plus I think the cab mods on my POD sound great. But I will say, playing through my 100 watt Sun head and my 4X12 cabs live is a face melting sound.

[Märk]

I didn't realize that there was an instrument grade wood or that it would be expensive.

HA! Quality luthiers keep a stock of wood which has been air-drying for at least 10 years. I just went to a lumber yard which happens to stock some exotic woods (they have a few boards of Brazilian Rosewood... for the bargain basement price of 30 bucks/board foot) and I noticed that the maple "moves" a lot; that is to say, I had it laid flat on the table, and it warped up in the corners, then laid flat again, in the space of a day. Modern glue and clamps beats wood warpage, though

I hope

[Märk]

Okay, update: I finally got around to doing something! I chopped and laminated the alder back, and re-sawed the maple and bookmatched it. (holy crap was that a task- bandsaw blades wander a lot when there's a 7" gap between the guides. It took about 10 minutes to get through the board relatively straight)

I orbital sanded the back and top with 60-grit to get it relatively flat, and I'm going to let it settle for a few days before I attempt to laminate them together. (the maple top is warping and settling a lot) This is going to be a *thin* guitar, about the same as an SG, which is fine, I hope. Pics to follow.

[edit] Didn't take any pics. I laminated the top on the body, and drew out a basic outline. Tomorrow: to the bandsaw!

[blue]

i just finished my first tube amp. i pulled the transformers and choke from an old reel to reel and built the rest out on turret boards..

http://picasaweb.google.com/bluelang/AmpAlmostDone

http://picasaweb.google.com/bluelang/AmpAndBlankie

and now i'm working on building a pickup winder from the reel to reel tape motor.. you'll have to put some blue lang brand pickups in it.

[blue]

fuckin' weird, you have 1 more post than i do.

[Märk]

Hell yes, man.

[make that 2 more posts )

[Spud]

Nice Blankie.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Amp and blankie, lol.

[Märk]

Progress: I found another chunk of nice maple (not figured, but who cares) which I laminated to the bottom to add some thickness. about half of this is going to be carved/shaped/planed off, and I might leave it natural now, because the maple/alder combination is actually quite pretty

guit1.jpg (267.37 KiB) Viewed 2806 times

guit2.jpg (285.53 KiB) Viewed 2806 times

To the drum sander!

[Billy's Little Trip]

That wood is really sweet looking. I agree, you did such a nice match up and found some very clean wood. A blond electric would be beautiful, like a Tely.