Early progress photos of my long-term project
Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 3:51 pm
I have been toying with the idea of building a guitar from scratch almost since I started playing guitar in the early 1980s. A couple years ago I started thinking about it again and found the old version of this forum. You know the rest: it only took a few weeks to progress from thinking about it to planning to do it, and then a few more weeks to go from planning to actually cutting wood.
This part will probably also sound familiar: I thought I would knock it out in a couple weeks. That was about 18 months ago! I did not account for having to wait for glue, which meant my long weekend break in fall 2011 only got me a half-cut body and a square neck with no fingerboard. Working here and there until March 2012 got me as far as a roughed-in and fretted neck, a cut and contoured body, and a new baby boy.
Then this also common story: didn't touch it after Nate was born until a couple weeks ago.
I have been planning all along to wait until the guitar was finished to post photos, but as time keeps slipping by I'm realizing that could be months from now! So here are some early construction photos. I have more, somewhere, but can't find them but the guitar is now stained and sealed and I just last night drilled the holes to locate the bridge. After that it's a matter of more sanding and carving (changed my mind about the top edge contour), then cutting and drilling for the pickups and controls, and then by golly I'll have a playable guitar.
The body is made from a hunk of mahogany my brother-in-law salvaged from an old building 20-30 years ago (it's probably over 100 years old) and a bunch of lighter colored mahogany that was woodwork in an old house (ditto on the age). The top is a piece flamed maple I bought after seeing so many beautiful tiger tops on this site. We bookmatched it and planed it down to 1/4" thick. The neck is a three-piece maple using boards he had laying around that are new by comparison, probably less than 20 years old.
Specs:
Neck: 3-piece maple, 24 3/4 scale, 11" radius (I bought a 12" radius rosewood slotted fingerboard from StewMac and sanded it to 11)
Gotoh TOM bridge
Neck pickup: Golden age
Bridge pickup: a late 1970s Seymore Duncan JB humbucker I've had since around 1995
Tuning machines: no-name imports I had on another guitar since around 1995
Volume for each pickup, master tone, 3-way switch
Body: heavily chambered mahogany with 1/4" maple top
I have made many, many mistakes on the way to getting here, including the current finish which is ugly and will be sanded off the next time I have an hour or two of free time, but best I can tell I am slowly winding up with a functional guitar that will hopefully sound and play well. We'll see!
This part will probably also sound familiar: I thought I would knock it out in a couple weeks. That was about 18 months ago! I did not account for having to wait for glue, which meant my long weekend break in fall 2011 only got me a half-cut body and a square neck with no fingerboard. Working here and there until March 2012 got me as far as a roughed-in and fretted neck, a cut and contoured body, and a new baby boy.
Then this also common story: didn't touch it after Nate was born until a couple weeks ago.
I have been planning all along to wait until the guitar was finished to post photos, but as time keeps slipping by I'm realizing that could be months from now! So here are some early construction photos. I have more, somewhere, but can't find them but the guitar is now stained and sealed and I just last night drilled the holes to locate the bridge. After that it's a matter of more sanding and carving (changed my mind about the top edge contour), then cutting and drilling for the pickups and controls, and then by golly I'll have a playable guitar.
The body is made from a hunk of mahogany my brother-in-law salvaged from an old building 20-30 years ago (it's probably over 100 years old) and a bunch of lighter colored mahogany that was woodwork in an old house (ditto on the age). The top is a piece flamed maple I bought after seeing so many beautiful tiger tops on this site. We bookmatched it and planed it down to 1/4" thick. The neck is a three-piece maple using boards he had laying around that are new by comparison, probably less than 20 years old.
Specs:
Neck: 3-piece maple, 24 3/4 scale, 11" radius (I bought a 12" radius rosewood slotted fingerboard from StewMac and sanded it to 11)
Gotoh TOM bridge
Neck pickup: Golden age
Bridge pickup: a late 1970s Seymore Duncan JB humbucker I've had since around 1995
Tuning machines: no-name imports I had on another guitar since around 1995
Volume for each pickup, master tone, 3-way switch
Body: heavily chambered mahogany with 1/4" maple top
I have made many, many mistakes on the way to getting here, including the current finish which is ugly and will be sanded off the next time I have an hour or two of free time, but best I can tell I am slowly winding up with a functional guitar that will hopefully sound and play well. We'll see!