If you're thinking about designing and building a custom guitar, or even if you're just curious, this Instructable can give you some valuable knowledge and a look at utilizing tools in a different way than maybe you would think was possible, with amazing results.
Applied learning colleges and universities often have a machine shop handy, and if you're a student and you ask nice enough, they might just let you use their tools to build your very own guitar with unparalleled precision.
I managed to put this project together for about $100, parts and finishing products included. This is because the neck I used was a donor from an old Fender "Stratocopy" and the wood was a leftover oak stair from my uncle. Recycling! If you purchased a nice quality complete neck, and a nice slab of wood,this project could bump up to $450, and up to $600 for premium pickups and electronics.
Now, since mills are large, expensive and potentially dangerous machines I am going to write this Instructable assuming you have little/no milling experience, but have someone close by to assist and answer your machine-specific questions. I won't be able to help with that kind of specific questions.
Alright, lets get to work!
Applied learning colleges and universities often have a machine shop handy, and if you're a student and you ask nice enough, they might just let you use their tools to build your very own guitar with unparalleled precision.
I managed to put this project together for about $100, parts and finishing products included. This is because the neck I used was a donor from an old Fender "Stratocopy" and the wood was a leftover oak stair from my uncle. Recycling! If you purchased a nice quality complete neck, and a nice slab of wood,this project could bump up to $450, and up to $600 for premium pickups and electronics.
Now, since mills are large, expensive and potentially dangerous machines I am going to write this Instructable assuming you have little/no milling experience, but have someone close by to assist and answer your machine-specific questions. I won't be able to help with that kind of specific questions.
Alright, lets get to work!
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Signing UpStep 1: Materials and Tools
Materials:
- Approx. 1.5" thick hardwood slab, large enough to accommodate your design
- Prefabricated bolt-on guitar neck
- Double coil humbucker pickups ($33 for two on eBay)
- Tune-o-matic bridge ($12 on eBay)
- String tail-piece ($6 on eBay)
- Jack plate ($3 on eBay)
- 1/4" mono jack
- 2x knobs ($3 each on eBay)
- 2x 100k audio-taper potentiometers (pots)
- Les Paul rear plate ($6 on eBay)
- Strap pins
- Sacrificial piece of 1/4" to 1/2" thick plywood
- Wire
- Solder
- Triangle wood wedge
- Large sheet of paper
- Wood conditoner
- Wood stain
- Urethane wood finish
- Paint thinner
- Cloths
Tools:
- Mill
- Assorted mill cutters
- Assorted Forstner bits
- Mill slot-clamps and assorted clamping bars/rests
- Drill press*
- An extremely long 3/8" drill bit
- Band saw**
- Sandpaper
- Sanding block or palm sander
- Wood rasp
- Soldering Iron
- Bubble level
- Pencil
- Protractor
- Mallet
* Unfortunately this will be required unless you want a major redesign
** A jigsaw will work fine, band saws just make life easier
- Approx. 1.5" thick hardwood slab, large enough to accommodate your design
- Prefabricated bolt-on guitar neck
- Double coil humbucker pickups ($33 for two on eBay)
- Tune-o-matic bridge ($12 on eBay)
- String tail-piece ($6 on eBay)
- Jack plate ($3 on eBay)
- 1/4" mono jack
- 2x knobs ($3 each on eBay)
- 2x 100k audio-taper potentiometers (pots)
- Les Paul rear plate ($6 on eBay)
- Strap pins
- Sacrificial piece of 1/4" to 1/2" thick plywood
- Wire
- Solder
- Triangle wood wedge
- Large sheet of paper
- Wood conditoner
- Wood stain
- Urethane wood finish
- Paint thinner
- Cloths
Tools:
- Mill
- Assorted mill cutters
- Assorted Forstner bits
- Mill slot-clamps and assorted clamping bars/rests
- Drill press*
- An extremely long 3/8" drill bit
- Band saw**
- Sandpaper
- Sanding block or palm sander
- Wood rasp
- Soldering Iron
- Bubble level
- Pencil
- Protractor
- Mallet
* Unfortunately this will be required unless you want a major redesign
** A jigsaw will work fine, band saws just make life easier
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From what I gather the thumb rests just sit above the strings and you place your thumb on them while your fingers do the strumming. I haven't ever actually seen those in real life. Looks like you just simply screw them down, doesn't seem to be related to pickups at all.
Glad you like the look.
very nice looking guitar, be proud for your undertaking, it was a lot of work
For the contour shaping, I would use a bandsaw for the rough cutting, like you did, but I'd use a 3/8" curve-cutting blade after I cut off the big chunks to get to within a couple millimeters of the line. For a job like this, you don't need an especially large bandsaw - a $100 9" from a home center will do fine. A jigsaw just can't cut curves accurately enough to bother with for this. To clean it up, rather than using a milling machine, I'd use a tool called an oscillating spindle sander. These can be had for $100 or so at Harbor Freight, or you could get the popular Ridgid model for under $300. Don't let the word "sander" make you think "slow" - it'll finish the shaping task in minutes. You could also use a curved patternmaker's rasp (not a file) and a lot of patience, or even a convex-soled spokeshave, if you'd rather use hand tools.
For the internal pockets, I completely agree that the Forstner bits in a drill press are a great way to rough them out. A relatively small press will do that job, so I consider that well within the capabilities of even a modest home wood shop. To finish the walls of the holes, rather than a milling machine, the old fashioned way is actually quick and not nearly as hard as it sounds - some sharp chisels and a traditional joiner's mallet. I'm a relative novice at such things, and I've taken on more complicated mortises using that technique with great success. Make sure to keep those chisels sharp, though - they are almost always sold dull, and they do lose their edge as you work. 1500 grit sandpaper and a sheet of plate glass or a cast-iron machine table solves that problem quickly enough.
As for drilling the long hole, your method requires a rather large drill press and is still a bit error prone. I have a simple suggestion. Start with an "installer" drill bit which has a long shank of the same diameter as the cutting flutes. Take a chunk of wood about 3" on a side, and drill a hole through it, referenced to a flat "bottom" side, at the height that you will be drilling the long bore at, being careful to make it as parallel to the bottom as you can. Then just cut the block in half, leaving a hole in both blocks. Insert the bit into the holes, spacing the blocks as far apart as you can make them while still having enough bit length to drill the hole in the body. Using the bit as a reference to keep the blocks properly aligned, fasten them to your workbench in some manner (clamps, dog holes, or make a jig by screwing them to a sheet of plywood). Clamp the guitar body down to the bench or plywood, properly aligned with the guide blocks, and drill the hole using a regular hand drill. If you plan to make more than one guitar this way, make the plywood jig and add some toggle clamps on spacer blocks to hold the guitar body in place for drilling.
Also, I think I'd use a cabinet scraper instead of sanding through all the rough grits or using a power sander. That's just personal preference, though.
Hopefully those suggestions will be useful to anyone reading along who does not have access to the expensive tools that you used.
I don't know a lot about guitars, but this is awesome!
Great work :D
Here's the Showcase link: http://www.warmoth.com/Pages/ClassicShowcase.aspx?Body=1&Spotlight=1&Path=Neck
And here's the neck I really like. If you get it with 6150 Vintage Jumbo frets, white Corian nut and a clear stain nitro finish it'll cost $265:
http://www.warmoth.com/Showcase/ShowcaseNeck.aspx?i=SN7672&Body=1&Path=Neck
Pretty, pretty