The Guitar Challenge

For my birthday last year, my Mum and Dad gave me a book on how to maintain and fix electric guitars. This got me thinking, "I wonder if I could build my own guitar?"

I found a website that sold all the parts for a multitude of guitar styles, but soon realised the body, neck, electronics and hardware would all add up to quite a sum of money. The main cost was the body and electric pick-ups. If I was going to do this, I would have to make my own body. (Anyway, buying all the parts would simply be an assembly project. That seemed far too easy.)

After some great ideas from Dean and the encouraging words of my Dad - "You'll never do that. I bet you 20 quid (pounds) you can't make a guitar that works" - I was up for the challenge to build my own guitar. I would design and build the body and buy all the other parts. At best, I would end up with a new instrument and 20 quid; at worst, I'd have an interesting ornament.

Question: Which style would be the easiest set-up to make at home, with a few simple wood-working tools and no guitar-making knowledge? The answer came after spending time with our good friends the Phelans. Rob just happens to have a custom-made Telecaster. I played it for a while and decided it would be the model.
One night I started to design a body shape that I could incorporate the Telecaster bridge and pick-ups into. I like the look of the sound holes on violins and cellos, so I included these into my guitar design.

Next I moved on to the wood and was shocked to find out how much a blank to build a body would cost. It was time for a trip to the local guitar wood specialist: The Home Depot.
None of the materials available were wide or thick enough for my body design. There in the shop I had the idea to bond three pieces of wood together to get to the width I needed. I would make the guitar in sections with a top, a centre section, and a bottom. Hmmm...maybe this would have been easier and cheaper to buy a body. Oh well, timber in hand I headed home to try to figure out how to make this work.

I bought three large clamps and some quality wood glue and one night, after the girls were down, I started to bond the sections together. I now had a top, center inlay and bottom. I then made a cardboard template of the outer shape.

I had measured and recorded all the dimensions from Rob's guitar for the bridge, pick-up positions, neck position and the overall distance of the neck nut to the bridge where the strings go through the body. I drew these dimensions onto the template.

I wanted the violin-type sound holes, so the body would have to have hollow sections. I drew these onto the template, and then made a wooden templates for the different sections.

The template cut-outs and dimensions were then drawn onto the three body sections.
Using my router, I cut out the pockets in the top, centre and bottom sections to form the hollow body.

Cora and I then painted the inside of the pockets jet black.

Next, I routed out of the holes for the two pick-ups, the wire passages and the neck pocket.
It was now time to bond all three sections together to form the hollow body.
After several days of curing, I removed the clamps, and using the wooden template as a guide, I cut the outside shape of the guitar body.




I then routed around the template to give the final body contour, and then hand-filed and sanded to get the shape just right.

I cut out the sound holes in the front of the guitar and routed out the pocket on the back for the switch and control knobs. Cora then painted the inside of this pocket black.

The next week or so I was busy sanding. Lots and lots of sanding, not all of it worthwhile.
I first stained the body a very light blue. Didn't like it. Sanded it down to bare wood. I stained it a natural colour to let the grain of the wood come through. I then applied several coats of varnish with a brush. Didn't like that either. Sanded it down to bare wood again. I stained it a natural colour again, this time I applied the final varnish with a spray can. Finally I had a finish I liked. And a very smooth finish it was, what with all the sanding.

I ordered the parts I needed and when they arrived, I began the final assembly of the
guitar. I then made a cover plate, for the electronics that I soldered and installed, to finish the body project.


After installing the tuning heads to the top of the neck, it was time to string up the guitar for the very first time and see if it would actually play.

The next weekend when we went on Skype to see my family, I had fun showing Dad, Mum, Dean and Jenny the guitar, especially when I turned it on a played it.

It works and sounds good. I built my own guitar.

I will never try to figure out how much this little challenge project cost. With all the additional tools and materials I had to buy, along with the guitar hardware, it must have cost a pretty penny. But I have to say, looking at it gives me more pride than owning a guitar bought from a shop.

When all was said and done, I have an instrument, and an ornament. I won't say what happened to the 20 quid.