Does anyone make their own guitars?

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artCROSS

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I was wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction for any information on making one's own guitar. I searched the forums, but didn't find anything. Obviously, this isn't something i'm going to undertake right away, but I want to get as much information as I can so I can start somewhere (we all started somewhere when we decided to do home recording). THe reason I want to make my own guitar is more for aesthetics than anything else, (body, paint, etc) and I don't want to paya thousand dollars for it. Thanks!
 
I take it, you are talking electrics. Acoustics are something that you can spend thousands in equipment and wood, and you will still not come out with a product anywhere close to what you can buy it for. That said, for some semi decent material and electronics, you are looking at about $600 for an electric. That does not include wood working equipment or guitar specific equipment. Here are some links on the subject.



http://members.fortunecity.com/jtfish/lpc/cvr/cover.htm
http://www.mimf.com/inlay.htm
http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/guitars.cfm
http://www.stewmac.com/
 
yes, sorry, I am talking about electrics. Thanks for the info!
 
If you think you can save money doing it yourself, keep dreaming. This is like a disease, it takes over your very soul (if you even have one to begin with), and devours your every waking minute. Once you start down the path of lutherie, forever will it dominate your destiny.

Eh hem. Excuse me. I have been watching the new Star Wars DVD's.

Yes I build guitars, and in fact it is one of my professions. I say one of because it is a really shitty way to make a living.

There are lots of good resources for building acoustics, and far fewer about electrics, on the web. However, your best bet is to buy some books, and read them. They will give you the most in depth and reliable information.

THIS is a good book, though I am not wild about his design sense. But of course, he is teaching you how to design and build, so your end product is from your design sense. So it is up to you if your guitar is butt ugly.

I haven't actually read any other books on building electric guitars, but what I would recommend is that you at least get started by building a kit guitar. It will help you a great deal in learning some of the basic things you need to know in order to build your first guitar from scratch. A lot of builders have started this way.

All of the sites recommended so far are good, but I would also like to add KATHY MATSUSHITA'S SITE. She is an amateur luthier who has done some excellent work, and has an excellent site. It is geared a little more towards acoustic instruments, but she has built an electric, and many of the skills are the same.

I was serious, though, that this is not a way to save money. I have heard lutherie described as the process of acquiring and using clamps, and it is true in so far as it goes. It is, however, missing something. Sure, we probably have about 1000 clamps around the shop (I have never actually counted), but we are also constantly buying new tools of all sorts. All builders do. It is inevitable, and tools are expensive.

Also, do not think that you will be completely happy with your first instrument; people never are. The most common problems are an inability to create a fair curve for the body shape, which just looks bad, and shaping a neck. I have almost never seen a person build a first guitar which had a comfortable neck. They are almost always bulky and oddly shaped. Not big, mind you (which some people like) but bulky. They are not shaped right. It is just a matter of taking off more wood, but people either get nervous about taking off too much, or they get tired (particularly if they try to make a maple neck), and stop.

Do not get me wrong. I am not trying to sound discouraging, as I think building guitars is great fun, a wonderful hobby, and I would absolutely encourage you to do it. But do it for those reasons, and not to save money, or because you think your first guitar is going to be the greatest in the world. It is not. They never are (even my first one has problems, and I built it under the direct supervision of one of the worlds greatest builders, my dad).

So build it, and have fun, and then build another one. Somewhere around ten or fifteen, you might even know what you are doing.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
In addition to the excellent advice already given, you might try just getting a used something and playing around with that. I bought a old Kay solid body at a pawn shop several months ago. The frets and tuners had to go, but I'm still having fun trying to decide what direction to go with it.

Something like that would give you a headstart if you want to practice on finishes, etc. In fact, in my wood shop, I routinely will tape sections of scrap wood from my projects to test stains, etc so I can compare what the end result might look like... It might be cool to stripe that old Kay with 6 different stains and high gloss on one end and gradient to a matte finish on the other :-)

Plus when you do something like that, you'll usually figure out what NOT to do pretty quickly ;-)
 
i'm a wannabe guitar maker too. in the sense that i WANT to build guitars, but i never built any. so far.
having said that, books that i have, and that are very good are the above mentioned make your own electric guitar and dan erlewine's 'guitar repair'. i also have 'complete guitar repair' by hideo kamimoto, which is good too, though more geared towards acoustic guitars. another nice one is 'guitar electronics for musicians' by donald brosnac; very useful. there's also roger siminoff's book whose title i forget now.
oh, and there are a bunch of videos and cd-roms around. take a look at stew-mac.com for some nice examples. i have a cd-rom called 'build your own guitar' by martin koch, and it's great. it's geared towards those who don't have a full-blown woodworking shop.
and if you want to build an archtop, check out robert benedetto's book and videos. they're pretty good too.
besides all that, you should have a basic knowledge of woodworking techniques. you could get some books on that subject too, as well as on wood finishing.
 
brian may from queen built his with his father if i recall correctly...
 
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