Electric Nylon Guitar From Recycled Wood

The idea is to make a solid body guitar electric with the dimensions of classical nylon string guitar. Unlike the typical electromagnetic pickup, this guitar uses piezo electric pickup. These pickups responds to the pressure exerted by the strings to the guitar body.

Step 1: Things Needed: Woodworking Tools

You can do the project with basic woodworking tools. Having power tools and other specialised tools like table saw, plunge router helps, but is not necessary.

Step 2: Things Needed: Wood

Since I used repurposed wood, I could not find a piece that is 940 mm long, so I joined two pieces of 300 mm and 640 mm end to end. It is better if you can use one single long piece- this piece will eventually become the head, neck and the main body.

Step 3: Things Needed: Electronics

You need:

1. One under saddle piezo pick-up

2. One pre-amp

3. One 9V battery case and a input jack board

1, 2 and 3 are sold online as a kit.

4. One 9V battery

5. One lead wire

6. Any kind of amplification unit. Even if you don't have the expensive ones you can simply use your regular PC speakers connecting them through your PC- in that case your lead wire must have a smaller headphone like jack at one end.

Step 4: Prepare the Wood

The pieces will be joined face 2 face.

1. Plane the planks with a jack plane.

2. Fix sand paper on a glass sheet. Lightly sand the planks on this surface, put even pressure while rubbing.

Step 5: Make the Head and Neck

The long piece of wood will produce both the neck of the guitar and the head- follow the diagrams to understand how it is done.

Step 6: Fitting the Electronics

You can fit the pre-amp and the battery board anywhere on the guitar body. I chose to fit the preamp on the top because it's easier to access while playing the instrument. The battery unit goes underneath.

Step 7: Assembling the Body

The two layers of the body are stuck together using PVA. The back layer is more like a cover, it's attached with screws, so that it can be taken out for maintenance.