Thinking about making a guitar. Any adivce?

[educatedfilm]

I'm thinking about making a guitar, as i have an idea in my head, and someone around who can teach me. The only thing is lessons cost money,so i can't waste time deciding what materials/ hardware to use in a lesson.

What i want to make is a semiacoustic strat/ gibson 335 hybrid type thing. I want to use 2 humbuckers as i want a bassier sound, but i'm open to oppinion there. Another thing is, i originally wanted them wired out of phase, but i have been told (i can't remeber exactly how) that there is a way to put a switch in to switch been having the pick ups in and out of phase, is this true? if so how do i go about it? I dont know what sounds better a shorter or longer scale length?

another thing, should i even give a thought to making a frettless acoustic?

[PeptoB]

I don't know much about making a guitar but the fretless acoustic sounds funky! I like the idea and was always wondering if anyone would come up with that.
I know Billy Gibbon's been playing fretless strats for quite a while so you might want to check out on his gears and infos.

[educatedfilm]

The reason i asked about the fretless acoustic is that i've never seen one.
I've seen fretless electrics, but never acoustics, i was wondering if there was technical reason, or whether they just didn't sound perticularly good. It maybe that i've just not seen any.

[blackrose]

if youre just looking for origional ideas an idea would be to make the guitar one piece instead of having a separate neck/body and have the neck run straight into the body instead of having the bolt thing that usually would serve to lock the neck in place. if that doesnt make any sense, tahts the best i can explain it anyways.

[Lordathestrings]

Take a look at some the books available on the subject.

The whole point of making your own guitar is to make your own decisions among the many choices that have to be made as you sort out which combination of features you want.

I heartily recommend "Make Your Own Electrinc Guitar", by Melvyn His****. I got mine through StewMac.

http://www.stewmac.com/cgi-bin/hazel.cgi?client=89707797&action=SERVE&ITEM=catalog/p.html&A=%2BNAME_LINK%3DMake_Your_Own_Electric_Guitar

Dan Erlewine is their in-house expert luthier. He's got some really good books on the subject, but I think Melvyn's is a better place to start the process. And you're a lot better off to spend $25 on some decent instruction before you lay out the coin for the materials.

Good luck!

[Lordathestrings]

That bunch of asterisks in my post is what happens when this website doesn't believe that a man really does have a name like Melvyn His----!!

[Raskolnikov]

try the name "Bill D i c k e n s" sometimes... with no spaces...

[Bardsley]

I'm intriguedd. I can't figure out what his last name is, can you write it with spaces?

[educatedfilm]

Melvin HIS C O C K. I'll have a look for this book, cos 2 poeple have now recommended it to me. It's about £16 in the uk, but i've had a tough time finding it, and i dont have a credit card so i cant order it online.
I'll have to go down to the library, and ask them to order it in for me.