Build your own guitar...

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.

SNIPPITY

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.
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I think this post kinda smells like "leave it to the professionals, one of which am I".

I am not terribly gifted with woodowrking tools, but I managed to put together a guitar out of spare parts and plywood and it functions well enough that I have used it out with my band for a few years now exclusively. I built it using the most primitive tools: a jigsaw, a dremmel, a sharpened flat-blade screwdriver and a (not kidding) leatherman. This guitar is every bit as "good as a factory made guitar" in terms of playability and sound and is a million times gooder in terms of coolness (the finish is bad, but I don't care because I am not a poseur).

Now, ordering a body and neck from warmouth and painting it pink is something different. The neck was scavenged but I made the body (neck pocket, routing, bridge placement, etc)

A strat (I have a real one that stays at home in the case now) is a terribly simple, crude device. If you want to make a guitar out of a toilet seat, use a strat as a template. There are tons of aftermarket part available for cheap and if you make it with standard sized plumbing, you can always screw a better bridge or pickups to it.

If you put together a guitar, you aren't going to want to sell it, are you? Resale/retail value seems irrelavant.
 
I'd never recommend against anyone taking on a learning experience like this, as long as they're aware of the possible monetary pitfalls and build accordingly...

I'm desperately wanting to build a new bass for myself, I want one with a fretless neck...The kit route is sure enticing and seems, at the drooling stage anyway, to be the less time and money restrictive...

Eric
 
I "built" one of those Saga Strat copies. It was easier than building a $4.99 model airplane. The most time-consuming thing was painting it. The neck is pretty warped and the pups stink. I can't stand to play it, but that's what I expected. I did it on a whim and I learned some things. I'll never sell it -- no one would want it, but it looks pretty enough to hang on my wall, when I get a wall.

At least now I know I never want to be a luthier.

g
 

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cephus said:
I think this post kinda smells like "leave it to the professionals, one of which am I"..
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Not quite. Light is a pro, but his advice here would be just as good whether he was in the trade, or instead pushed paper clips for a living. The original question involved an economy issue and red flags went up, as well they should.

Your post reminded me of a story that is told of a remarkable luthier named Boaz Elkyam who was traveling through Mexico on his motorcycle, stopped for a few weeks in a village and built a guitar during the time he was there - on a restauraunt table with a jacknife and little else other than locally available stuff like glue and rope. It was a beautiful classical guitar when he was done. The magic isn't in the tools or materials, it's in the head and heart. Boaz is alive and well and I believe is building master grade instruments in California.
 
I'm opting for one of the Carvin kits. Everything you need in one box. :D
and saving a couple of bucks never hurts...
 
I did speak out of turn. For me, the experience was so overwhelmingly positive that I am sensitive to any sort of discouragement. thinking back, I did screw up alot of perfectly crappy strat copies over the years learning how to pull this off. Like, I knew that the neck pocket had to be absolutely perfectly tight because I had a few with a sloppy fit.

I played a saga shitocaster for a few years when i had a really kick arse kramer with a floyd just becuase I thought the periodic paintjobs were such an expression of my "art". It was a piece of junk and every once in a while the action would jack up an eight of an inch for no reason. That guitar is hanging on my wall and someday I'm gonna try and put it together again, since I used some of its parts in my new guitar.

Maybe the best advice is to start cheap and just try and improve crap guitars. You'll learn what makes them crap and what components that you throw money at and get nothing in return.

I think it is a waste of money to spend $400 on parts to make a $100 guitar. Buy a $100 guitar and throw $200 at it first. You may at least end up with a $150 guitar and still be a hundred ahead.
 
Just don't do it my way - I've been reading and collecting instrument wood for thirty years or more - built a few dulcimers and such - and kept putting it off. I've read nearly everything in print, memorized both the Bill Lewis catalog of the 1970s and the first few LMI handbooks; I've followed the careers of some of these guys from company to company. I was at Fox's GRD school in Vermont (but unfortunately not as a student) and I still have boxes of top wood and an armful of one piece mahogany neck blanks I bought from Michael Gurian when he was in New Hampshire - before the fire. I've been all over this stuff all my adult life, but I think I was afraid to mess up the dream with the reality: I'm only a mediocre woodworker.

But I'll be fifty in July. We don't live long enough to keep putting this stuff off. I've finally started to build stuff again - sort of - and have a good friend who is building as well. We kick each other into gear and that may be what does the trick.
 
GamezBond said:
http://buildyourguitar.com/

What does everyone think of this?

Can you build your own guitar that will rival the likes of Fender, Ovation ETC :confused:

I'm interested, because I heard you can save lots of money by building ur own sh*t...
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I think the guy's site is cool. Practical, realistic with a good attitude about "why do it" and the $ issue - that you're not going to save money doing it.

I built one classical guitar and I can say that it was an unforgettable feeling to play it for the first time and oddly satisfying each day I've played it since. I had a pretty good gtr collection before building it, including two nice handmade classicals. It wasn't that I needed a new guitar - it was the personalization of the whole player/instrument thing that made me do it.

Tim
 
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I've never built a guitar before, but I did build all of my living room furniture. And the truth is, it costs alot more than buying new (unless you do it for a living, pumping out the same thing weekly). You always underestimate the cost, and you never can forsee everything that goes wrong (broken blades, extra screws, extra hardware). But what I got in return was priceless experience, time with my pop, and the main thing, the ability to tell my friends that I created something. There is nothing sweeter in the world than actually taking a pile of wood, tile, nails and screws, and turning it into something that is beautiful (well, to me anyway) and usable. If only every aspect in my life was as rewarding as that, I think i could die a happy man.

I will build a guitar one day. I do not have the time nor the resources at the moment (I live in an apt.) but as soon as i get into my garage, I will build one. And regardless of whether it plays or not, it will be just as sweet as writing a bangin' tune or touching people with a song.

Great thread, BTW!
 
cephus said:
I think this post kinda smells like "leave it to the professionals, one of which am I".
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Then you were obviously not paying any attention to what you were reading.

I ALWAYS encourage people to build guitars.

Repair, no, never, but build, absolutely.

I just don't want anyone going into it with unrealistic expectations. You will NOT save money, and you are unlikely in the extreme to get a instrument as good as what you can buy in the store. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, just that you should do it for the right reason, which is to learn and have fun. Which you will.

I've seen probably thousands of amateur guitars over the years, and with very few exceptions they all had mistakes. Not always ones which mattered, as the guitars were not being sold, but mistakes none the less. Curves that are less than fair, fingerboards with scale lengths as inconsistant as a 30's Gibson, necks joints which are just sloppy as hell. And that is fine. I point these things out so that next time (and there is always a next time with this shit) they can do a better job.

And of course, a good finish on a first guitar is all but non-existant.

As often as not, they don't even notice some of the things I point out, but they still always thank me for my advice, and then bring in the next one for me to evaluate.

But that is how you learn, by making mistakes. And it is one of the better things to do with your time. So yes, I encourage people to build guitars. Just don't expect too much of yourself. Aim for perfection, but don't be disapointed if you don't get there.
 
nice thread

so heres my situation. I really would like a bass guitar so I can have an actual bass in my songs instead of sampled bass. I'm not a bass player and do not want to spend any money on a bass right now (meaning over $200). I can not build a guitar completely from scratch at this point however I have been looking at the bass saga kit. Its a good price, I think it would be fun, and i would hopefully get a usable bass out of it.

Is it worth it with the saga kits? I'm not picky about my electric basses, in fact I can't tell a huge difference in sound (playability is another story) in the basses that are $500 or less.

So do I try and find a bass for as cheap as possible? Or do I buy an even cheaper kit, have fun (hopefully) learning how to build an instrument, and have a working bass that I can use at the end of it.
 
IMHO Light is absolutely on the money.

I think it is helpful to remember what you are competing with.

The likes of Fender and Gibson have been doing this everyday for 50+ years. They buy in bulk and slap a huge mark up on. There QC may not be perfect however there is still a reason the companies have survived the competition from other guitar manufacturers for all these years.

If you have the tools, the skill and the vision to make better for cheaper, go for it. It is done well by some.

However, just about every homemade guitar I have seen in 20+ years has been little more than a polished turd !
 
Tim, those pictures could have come right out of my dream states... :)

A few weeks ago my wife asked if I wouldn't rather have some of my guitar building stuff in our rubble room - a spare room up here in the house... which I wanted to do ever since we moved in here. She figured if the family sees more of what I'm doing, there might be more interest in it.

Now I may be as dumb as a box of rocks from time to time, but I can figure this one out without any reminders. It took a couple of days but the room is now clear of eighteen years of accumulated junk - which is headed for the dump. I've got all the guitars in there sitting in their cases in the very center of the room, claiming territory.

There's heat and I can control humidity.

This is gonna be good, folks. :) :D
 
I like buying super-crappy and super-cheap starter electrics, like Strat and Tele clones, and replaceing everything with higher quality electronics, pups, bridge/saddles, nut, etc. Adjust the action to where I like it. I'll end up spending 300 bucks on a 75 dollar guitar and making it play better than a 700 dollar Fender! Plus it's fun! ;)
 
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