Build your own guitar...

Sure its a great learning experience, and you include features that aren't available on stock guitars. I'm presently building a Tele style kit that will turn out as a very versatile instrument, I could recommend it to anyone with a bit of mechanical and woodworking skills. :D
 
Even if you own your own tools, unless you have a great deal of experience you are highly unlikely to save any money. Even on the initial build, it is difficult to save much money, and then there is an additional issue with resale value. Even if you use very high end parts, such as Warmoth or USA Custom Guitars, people are still not going to be willing to spend much money on your amateur build. With a parts guitar, you can frequently get more money for the parts than the whole guitar. And if you build the whole thing yourself from scratch, the resale situation gets even worse.

Now, don't get the impression that I am suggesting that building a guitar is not a good idea. I think it is a great idea. It is a great learning experience, and it is fun, but you should be aware of all the issues involved. You will not save money, and it is difficult to get a guitar which is as good as a factory made guitar, but if you look at it primarily as a learning and recreational experience, then you are going about it the right way, and can have a great experience.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Light said:
Even if you own your own tools, unless you have a great deal of experience you are highly unlikely to save any money. Even on the initial build, it is difficult to save much money, and then there is an additional issue with resale value. Even if you use very high end parts, such as Warmoth or USA Custom Guitars, people are still not going to be willing to spend much money on your amateur build. With a parts guitar, you can frequently get more money for the parts than the whole guitar. And if you build the whole thing yourself from scratch, the resale situation gets even worse.

Now, don't get the impression that I am suggesting that building a guitar is not a good idea. I think it is a great idea. It is a great learning experience, and it is fun, but you should be aware of all the issues involved. You will not save money, and it is difficult to get a guitar which is as good as a factory made guitar, but if you look at it primarily as a learning and recreational experience, then you are going about it the right way, and can have a great experience.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
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Not only that.. but in the end, Even if it does cost a little more, and it's not "perfect", the satisfaction of building something yourself usually is worth the effort, as long as you approach it with realistic expectations.
 
The road to hell is paved with unfinished projects such as this.
IF you have the time, skill, tools, talent, patience, eye, ear, parts, help & desire have a go.
Cheers
rayC
 
rayc said:
The road to hell is paved with unfinished projects such as this.
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i agree. the worst thing about diy projects is that sometimes they don't get finished or take forever to get around to finishing. i've learned my lesson on a few projects and now i tend to let any new diy project idea stew in my head for a few months before actually buying all the stuff.
 
TravisinFlorida said:
i agree. the worst thing about diy projects is that sometimes they don't get finished or take forever to get around to finishing. i've learned my lesson on a few projects and now i tend to let any new diy project idea stew in my head for a few months before actually buying all the stuff.
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I know exactly what you mean! I am world renowned for not finishing things. As a matter of fact, there is not a lot that I do fini
 
I would start by picking up a complete dog of a Strat copy ... I picked up a perfectly good three year-old Squier Strat for £20 a couple of weeks ago ... and then replace all the electrics. The advantage of this is, because it's a Strat, you can buy a new pickguard and mount everything on that before you need to take the existing stuff out.

Then replace the neck (easy cos it's a bolt-on) ... and when you're happy with all of that, build a body and replace that. You end up with a completely new guitar (and still have your original cheap Strat too) and then you just need to think about raked necks and you can get started on a Les Paul type!
 
noisedude said:
I would start by picking up a complete dog of a Strat copy ... I picked up a perfectly good three year-old Squier Strat for £20 a couple of weeks ago ... and then replace all the electrics. The advantage of this is, because it's a Strat, you can buy a new pickguard and mount everything on that before you need to take the existing stuff out.

Then replace the neck (easy cos it's a bolt-on) ... and when you're happy with all of that, build a body and replace that. You end up with a completely new guitar (and still have your original cheap Strat too) and then you just need to think about raked necks and you can get started on a Les Paul type!
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I was going to do this with a Tele. I actually had one in my hands the other day when I was at Musicians Friend. $75 and it was perfect except for a dinged up finish. I didn't want to stand in line behind 20 people so I left.
 
Thunder33 said:
I was going to do this with a Tele. I actually had one in my hands the other day when I was at Musicians Friend. $75 and it was perfect except for a dinged up finish. I didn't want to stand in line behind 20 people so I left.
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It was easier for me ... a kid came into the shop with his beat-up Strat wanting £20 for it so he could pay for the setup I was doing on his BC Rich .... I couldn't sell it in the shop but I took it as a project. One fret dress and five-minute setup later, it plays as good as any of my guitars (well, not quite).
 
noisedude said:
It was easier for me ... a kid came into the shop with his beat-up Strat wanting £20 for it so he could pay for the setup I was doing on his BC Rich .... I couldn't sell it in the shop but I took it as a project. One fret dress and five-minute setup later, it plays as good as any of my guitars (well, not quite).
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that is funny, the kid in front of me at MF had this haggard old BC Rich that he was trying to get fixed.
 
Thunder33 said:
well, this one was haggard. He has painted (poorly) his girlfriend's name or some shit all over it.
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LOL! Why can't you believe me that that's how they're supposed to look?!?!?!?! :D
 
some of the ugliest guitars......scratch that. the ugliest guitars ever laid upon the planet earth. some people like that kind of thing though.......means fewer ugly guitars for the rest of us.
 
I agree with Light.

Building a guitar (or trying to) can be a near - religious experience. Or something like that. But it's a mistake to approach it as a cost cutting measure because that is the one thing that is unlikely to happen. More likely is your first instrument will have enough kludges and oddball gremlins about it that it is simply not as serviceable as something off the shelf and you end up getting something else anyway. It's all about the learning curve, like anything else worth doing.

So go to it and enjoy every moment of it. Just don't set your expectations at an unreasonable level. Kits are great - if you're interested in solid body electrics, look at some of the Carvin stuff. There's a Bolt kit that is a sortakindastratlike. The machining is precise, the electronics are very comptent and available as prewired setups, and what is left for you to do is assembly, finishing and a hell of a lot of learning. If you're interested in acoustic instruments, the Stew-Mac kits are pretty complete, again with top grade machining. Be sure you have all the parts you will need; for the Stew-Mac stuff you will have to get tuners and so forth.

Good luck!
 
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Color me as a prime example of the expense you can put into a build project. I have a friend who went through a two year luthier course at a community college in MN, built some awful nice axes for himself and gave me one of them---One of his earlier works...Super nice neck, handmade, but the body had been a repeat science project for him in school, lots of pickup mods...

All I did was to replace the tuners and refinish the thing--I already have all the tools, as painting and refinishing is what I do...@ my price per hour for the labor and the cost of materials, painting the damn thing alone turned a free guitar into a $750 project, and now the electronics are giving me fits...Sure looks good though...

...Of course you can give a raw body a quick scuff-sand and rub 'er down with finishing oil...That'd save you a few bones... :eek:

Eric
 
Late in his life, my Dad decided to have his barn renovated as an office / studio / "treehouse" kind of place. He'd go up there and do a little business, have a place for his machine tool and ski area museum pieces, little hobbies and so forth. He'd been meaning to do that for 20 years and could never justify doing it. So we all got together and talked him into it. What started as an idea for a renovated horse stall quickly became a super insulated studio space using the whole barn - and then it grew a boiler and heating system - and then a bathroom and a small kitchen.

About the time he had the woodstove installed he remarked to me "You know, I'm getting absolutely fleeced on this project and I don't care a bit. I'm having way too much fun with this thing." We ended up calling it the Wonderworks. It was the treehouse he never had as a kid; he never had time or money for it as a working adult. But at age 80 he had built a place to play that made him chuckle every time he walked into the place.

Build the guitar and don't keep track of the expense. Just do it. :cool:
 
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