guitar building for dummies

[zero]

For anybody that has built thier own guitar...is it hard? I've read sites like projectguitar and various others so I kind of have an idea of what to do. but say I was to buy parts from warmoth do they just piece together or is there any woodwork to be done? I build computers and those are just card in and put a couple screws in ...are guitars the same way basically besides the soldering?

[gormuu]

the nut's gonna big the big thing, as i understand it...if you pick your pieces carefully, you should more or less be able to screw them together, and solder a bit. i don't remember right now, they might have pre-cut nuts...i know nuts about nuts when i think about it. (sorry)

i'm pretty much wondering the same thing as you, i'm more or less planning a warmoth myself, so i'll be very interested in what others have to say about this.

[JustStartin]

Building a guitar requires alot of wood working skills along with geometry and an eye for detail. If its something you want to explore, start out with a kit. Fitting a neck to the body isnt done by someone who has never built a jig or template. Ebay is a good source for templates, but make sure you practice with a router before cutting into a choice piece of wood.

Honestly, building a guitar is a craft. Its something that takes time and patience, and a willingness to make mistakes and learn from them. You're not going to make a stradovarious(sp) the first time out.

I say go for it. Craftsman are rare in the world these days. Too many say, "Why make my own axe when I can buy an CNC version of what is now percieved as the perfect guitar." Those guitars have no heart, no soul.

Give it a run! :)

[zero]

thx guys...It does seem like to fun to do. would be nice to have a guitar that I built myself. I'll check into it some more and see what I come up with

[SKEETER]

I would suggest that if you do not already do your own teching, to take a couple of years doing things like refretting cheap guitars, and doing some wiring, and like that. That way you will learn things about action , fret leveling and neck/bridge adjustments, intonation, and like that. Building a guitar in and of itself is not the hard part, the truly hard part is once it is built making it playable, the tweaking is the tough part, but in order to tweak the guitar well, you have to know how to do setups in advance in order to know what the light at the end of the tunnel you are building toward is.
For example, it does you no good to do a beautiful finish on a guitar you built only to find out you put the bridge and tailpeice in the wrong place.

[gormuu]

yes, but we're talking about doing a warmoth job here, not building a guitar directly from scratch.

thanks for the advice though.

[Johnny Electric]

With the Saga strat kit from ebay, you get the whole guitar for the price of a Warmoth neck!!! Sounds like an early '70s stratocaster.

[SKEETER]

Again, even with kits, the tough part is not putting it together, the tough part is the tweaking. Anyone can use tools and learn finishes, but there is a particular knack to making guitars feel and play the way you want them, and that only comes with time and actually being the guy that sets them up. Things like neck angle and adjustment, intonation, and string height without buzz, and cutting and setting a nut properly are all the most critical parts, and the most frustrating if you don't know what you are doing. I learned years ago ( I was not intentionally trying to learn, I just wanted guitars that felt and played like I wanted, and could not find techs that would do it like I wanted) so I started picking up cheap guitars at yard sales and rebuilding them. Best education I ever had, now all of my guitars are exactly like I want them to be, and they never have to leave my property in order to get that way.

[Puddlegum66]

Are there any good books out there that can teach me how to properly set-up my guitars. Me and my buddy pieced mine together but I paid for the set-up. Putting it together was fun and I'd like to actually build one from scratchif possible.

[gormuu]

setting up i can do though, except cutting the nut. but maybe a tech could do it for me?

[dkitt]

Are there any good books out there that can teach me how to properly set-up my guitars. Me and my buddy pieced mine together but I paid for the set-up. Putting it together was fun and I'd like to actually build one from scratchif possible.

1. Guitar Player Repair Guide by Dan Erlewine
2. Build Your Own Electric Guitar by Melvin Hiscock

Both available from the library or second-hand from abebooks.com

Frets.com is THE best luthier instruction site on the net. :)

[SKEETER]

Actually, you should be able to find great info on how to do setups on the net. Set up work is mostly common sense, once you find info that tells the theory behind why you do what you do to set one up it all kind of fits together in your head and becomes nature to you. At least, that is how it was with me.

[Carbohydrates]

2. Build Your Own Electric Guitar by Melvin Hiscock
What an unfortunate last name.

"Hey look everyone, I see Hiscock!"

[gormuu]

'Hiscock could have written a much better book than that!'

[gormuu]

'i'd say that erlewine know just as much about guitar-building as hiscock does.'

[gormuu]

'when building his guitar he depended more on hiscock's advice than anything else.

[gormuu]

'hiscock wrote a book? isn't it hard to read?'

[gormuu]

'what's up with hiscock? he seems to be walking funny.'

[shake a leg]

at least its melvin and not malvin

[gormuu]

anyone? ignore the tiresome 'hiscock' jokes.

[Puddlegum66]

1. Guitar Player Repair Guide by Dan Erlewine
2. Build Your Own Electric Guitar by Melvin Hiscock

Both available from the library or second-hand from abebooks.com

Frets.com is THE best luthier instruction site on the net. :)


Thank Dkitt, I'll try and pick tem up this weekend.

[gormuu]

there must be people who put together a warmoth guitar around here. please?

[Ukalali_Solo]

Actually www.projectguitar.com is an AMAZINGGGG resource for building/repairing guitars.

I probably spent a year or two just working on guitars, intonation, replacing parts, action, heights etc. I built a guitar from one i found being thrown out, and it plays nice, not a looker tho lol. And i also built one from the Saga kits, and its nice, i had to do some work with a band saw, some more wiring ideas, and also staining, but all in all its not tooo difficult.

Id recommend either making an ibanez (a ton of parts can be found on ebay) or doing one of the saga kits