guitar ideas

so im in a very cool woodshop class at my high school, and at the end of the class we can build whatever we want and i chose an electric guitar. ive never built one before and i was wondering if anyoe had any ideas for design or any tips.

Doesn't the Woodshop offer templates for you to choose from? If not, you're in for a Major Project, to say the least. My advice would be that if you are going to devote all of the time and effort taking on such a tedious and precise instrument, invest in the highest quality material available. Take your time and build it right ( make sure to have a complete schematic that you can add to or alter as things arise).
I like your optimism, it shows character.
Study every type of guitar that you can get your hands on and document your findings, all the way down to the location of the strap pegs.

Good luck..................

PS::::: Always remember;
"An Optimist is one who finds opportunity in every difficulty".
"A Pessimist is one who finds difficulty in every opportunity".....

Here's a complete description for all types of Individuals;

Optimist; = A person who doesn't have all the facts.......
Pessimist;= An optimist who has all the facts.............
Cynic; = A pessimist who has seen all the facts in action....................
Paranoid; = A cynic who just realized that the facts are after him.........

Last but not least;
Always borrow from a Pessimist, He doesn't expect you to pay him back.....

thanks a lot man :)

My advice would be to aim for the instrument you'd most like to play - there are going to be times when it seems like a real drag, and being able to visualise the finished article will help keep you going. A strat style guitar will be easiest in so far as the templates are readily available and using a front-routed design will give you more margin for error for your first time. If you put a pickguard on the front you can cover any rough edges. Depends what tools you have access to though. A tele shaped guitar would be even easier - one less horn to cut out!

Bear in mind that unless you are very lucky and/or a woodworking genius you're likely to mess up now and again - hopefully only in a minor way. Accept imperfections as part of the instrument's character.

Finally, if you've got a little spare money I'd suggest looking at books by Dan Erlewine, this one for example, and take a trip to www.stewmac.com. It might be worth investing in some of the more specialised tools that the workshop perhaps won't have, and they have templates for pretty much everything.

Good Luck, and be patient - measure twice, cut once.... ;)

hi there,

im new here...first post!..anyway..

i think you really under estimate what you are getting yourself into. if you are still at high school..there is probably no way you could find enough time to devote to making a guitar, and finish it before you leave school...

creating an instrument from scratch is a mammoth task for a begginer with no wood working skills, you simply cannot do this without proffesional guidance.

to put things into perspective for you...

i studied instrument making for 2 years...in my class were 12 students..we all chose an insrtument to build..some made violins, electric guitars, mandolins, classical and accoustic guitars..i made an steel string accoustic (more about that later)..

we had a tutor/luthier, who specialises in all manner of stringed instruments. also a another part time tutor, who was and still is a proffesional luthier.

without the guidance of these people, not one of us would have been able to make an instrument..

..each and every piece of wood in any hand-made stringed instrument is surgically precisce to a degree that no professional joiner or carpenter would understand....let alone a "craft and design" high school teacher...no offense, im sure he's very good at his job..but he cant help you...even if the electric guitar is the easiest of all instruments to make.

if you really want to make an instrument, you will have to find a university or college that teaches it...

to make an accoustic guiatr from start to finish will take a proffesioal luthier around 3 months or 1 month for an electric..but they dont do it that way..they will make 6 at a time, for more efficiency...the folks in my class took 1 full year study to make an electric guitar..and 2 years for any other stringed instrument...and thats starting from designing the plan with pen and paper and devoting thier full time, 5 days a week.

oh...and all that wood and metal parts is going to cost a fortune!

best of luck!


mark

I don't want to discourage you, but I don't think you really know what it takes to actually make a guitar. Its not something you learn in a high school shop class. There are so many factors that go into making a guitar. Any dent or curve can change the sound of the guitar from great, to completely unplayable. There is a reason you never hear about people making their own guitars. You really have to be an expert to do it correctly.


Edit: I think it was this forum but Im not sure. Wasn't there a thread somewhere that someone had where they were making their own guitar from scratch? They kept updating it with progress and they finished it eventually. Ill try to find it.

Edit 2: FOUND IT! RobSm made the thread about his experience
http://www.guitartricks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21138&page=1&pp=7
This shows his entire process
http://www.geocities.com/fanlee_rhs/Contents_List.htm

i second hunters opinion...

i have made an accoustic guitar....it took me 1.5 years!

will post a few pics soon...

..you are far better putting the 5 or 6 hundered dollars into buyng a ready made instrument..at least you will have something to show for your money, other than lovely pieces of wood that you have hacked up.

for an idea of how difficult you will find this project...

practise with off cuts of bits of wood...try and make the neck first...

...see if you even have the skills to make the simple lap joint (a process that uses a diagonal cut where the headstock will be, flip the wood round and attaches to to back of the join to give your headstock angle) and see if you can square up the pieces of wood to lie surgically flat against one another....

...or you could even practice squaring up a mock fingerboard to lie flat on the mock up neck..its a very difficult and a tedious process..if you take off a fraction too much material (and you will), you have to start again..

i think this is too big a project for you without proper proffesional tuition.

cheers

mark

Making the body shouldn't be to hard (if it's a solid body) Just have to be very precise where you cut for the bridge and the neck.

yeah i was gonna buy the neck seperate anyways, maybe do a bolt on

Originally Posted by: hunter1801I don't want to discourage you, but I don't think you really know what it takes to actually make a guitar. Its not something you learn in a high school shop class.

Awww come on, you've got to start somewhere! I think its a brilliant idea, you never know this guy could turn out to be the next Nick Huber !

Originally Posted by: freaksauceAwww come on, you've got to start somewhere! I think its a brilliant idea, you never know this guy could turn out to be the next Nick Huber !

This is from Nik Huber's website

Nik Huber, founder and managing director of Nik Huber Guitars, carries on a more than 100 year old family tradition.
In 1896 a heritage of woodworking expertise was born to proud parent Nikolaus Huber in a small village in Southern Bavaria. Today Nikolaus Huber IV carries that expertise forward in the form of exquisite guitars. More than a 100 years of gathering knowledge and passing it on from one generation to the next makes a remarkable difference in a fast paced world like today’s.

I think he had a little more help than a High School woodshop class :p Regardless, if its something you really have a passion for, I say go for it. You just need to go in knowing what's in store for you.

Originally Posted by: hunter1801 I think he had a little more help than a High School woodshop class :p Regardless, if its something you really have a passion for, I say go for it. You just need to go in knowing what's in store for you.

Haha, yeah fair enough he's an exceptional luthier with a better schooling than most, I just picked him because I was just reading about him at the time :)

Building guitars is an option in the tech class at my high school. I've seen one person (the one and only kid who actually cared about the project) succeed in building an outstanding guitar. He designed and built up the whole thing himself, and to this day uses the guitar. :rolleyes:

thanks a ton guys!

i think it would be a very cool thing to do but i would consider, the time scale and also if it covers the requirement for your course, ie for my electronics a-level i made a stomp box but was very limmited to what i could make because the course required certain subsystems within the project, if youre course is anything like this it may require you to use certain skills and techniques, so first thing i would do would be to check that a guitar would cover everything you need.
anyway put the effort in and imsure you will manage

good luck