Progress report on the electric guitar project

[scott spencer]

A couple of months ago I asked you folks for some guidance on building a guitar. After about a week of research I decided it was too much to do at the time. Another week went by and couldn't stop thinking about building one, so I jumped in with both feet anyway. Thanks to those of you who answered questions previously.

I'm probably nearing the halfway point and the guitar is starting to take on some shape, so I thought I post a progress report. The front of the body is curly maple and will receive a crimson red stain with the edges routed to reveal the natural color (thanks to Tom Pritchard for the maple). I plan to make a pickguard for the front out of birdseye maple to match the neck and head (natural of course). I bought the neck used from a good guitar shop locally (Stutzman's). The fretboard is rosewood, the back and head are BE maple...it's a licensed Fender neck from MightyMite for those interested in such things. The back of the body is mahogany and will be natural. The electronics are from a Squire Strat, and the hardware came from various vendors on Ebay. The basic shape is an original inspired from countless pics of others. I made a template for the body shape and routed it with a pattern bit (ok it took two tries for the template to get the shape I wanted :o...) With any luck at all, there'll be a couple of pics below to show the current status.

[Karl Laustrup]

Looking good Scott. Even with goof ups along the way, the end results seem to be always satisfying with a project like this. :)

Karl

[Jim Hager]

Looks good Scott. You'll be making music in no time.

[Doug Shepard]

Very nice job so far. Course you do know that in addition to attaching finished pics, you're required to post a sound file so we can hear the finished project.:D The sound police here can bust you just as hard as the picture police.:D

[Jim Knauss]

Looking good Scott! I have been so tempted to make one out of the kits Grizzly offers for my son. Just always too many projects, too little time.
Good work!

Jim Knauss

[scott spencer]

Very nice job so far. Course you do know that in addition to attaching finished pics, you're required to post a sound file so we can hear the finished project.:D The sound police here can bust you just as hard as the picture police.:D :eek::eek::eek: Oh no! I'm just learning to post pics! I'll have to pay one of the kids to perform for the sound bite cuz I don't play. One of the kids will figure out posting the file too....:rolleyes:...good thing there's alot of them! :D

[Bernie Weishapl]

Nice looking job Scott. I think it is going to be a beautiful piece when finished.

[Lars Thomas]

Looks lik eyou are off to a great start. You've also made some good hardware choices.

[Keith Foster]

Nice. Mine is still in the "swamp ash blank" stage. :rolleyes: But I'm looking forward to getting started.

Lots of great sites on the net for help if you get stuck. Watch the placement of the controls, don't want to interfer with natural hand movement when strumming a cord.

[Corey Hallagan]

Very nice Scott. Going to be great. I take it you are building it for one of the kids then? Beautiful choice of wood for the guitar!

Corey

[scott spencer]

Very nice Scott. Going to be great. I take it you are building it for one of the kids then? Beautiful choice of wood for the guitar!

Corey Thanks Corey. I'm definitely assuming that the kids who play will use it, but I honestly started just because of the challenge and the urge to build it. The kids already have 2 functioning acoustic guitars, one acoustic that needs strings, and one functioning electric, so need sure wasn't the motivator. Just one of those things I woke up every morning feeling like I needed to do.....sometimes a good puzzle is just the ticket to get you through the week! :rolleyes:

[markus shaffer]

Scott,

Looks good. Quick question though.. Do you plan on laying out the switch and knobs exactly where you've got them positioned in the photos? I ask only because it's pretty close to the strings and bridge.. As Keith pointed out, a bit of rock music on that and you'll be hitting them with your pick hand.. Given your pencil lines, it seems you're trying to incorporate them into the pickgaurd. Is the idea then to not have to route a control cavity from the back?

On all the guitars I've made, I've always routed the control cavity from the back. I'm not too big on pickguards, but that's obviously subjective. Something to think about since your cap is maple and the body is mahogany would be to make a cavity cover plate out of matching maple. I've done that on several instruments. I don't want to hijack your thread, but I'll add some photos of a couple guitars so you can see some examples.

Good luck with everything and post more photos as you get more done. If you have any questions, feel free to email me.

-Markus

[Doug Shepard]

Markus - that spalted Tele is VERY cool.

I'll second the opinions about the pot positions being a bit close to the strings. There's an advantage to having a volume pot somewhat close which gives you the ability to do volume swells with your pinky while still being able to pick or strum with the rest of your hand. But the group as a whole looks like it could cramp one's playing style. Course all this is relative somewhat to the hand size of the player.

[scott spencer]

Placement of the controls was for the pic, but since there've been several references to it from veterans, I'll definitely take some precautions to get them out of the way. I've already expanded that corner of the pick guard to make a bit more room.

Markus - I was originally struggling with the maple selection for the front...it was a toss up between the birdseye and the curly, The idea of the BE pickup satisfied the desire to include both types in the project, plus allows me the option of not using back routing. No holes or chambers have been cut yet, so I can still change my mind but that's the plan right now.

Thanks for all the helpful input everyone!

[Jason Tuinstra]

It looks a lot better than my air guitar! :p :D

Seriously, looks like a fine project so far. I'm sure there is a ton of detail work here. Have fun!

[Vaughn McMillan]

Looks like a great start, Scott. I really like the wood selection and the shape so far. As a player, I'll chime in with yet another opinion on the knob placement, and it pretty much echos what Doug said...the volume knob close to the strings is useful, but you need to make sure there's room enough between it and the other controls. On the guitar in the attached pic, I ended up replacing the master volume with a smaller knob (the silver one closest to the strings), because I kept hitting the pickup selector switch when adjusting the volume, especially doing the pinky trick Doug mentioned. Keep in mind most players don't look at the knobs a lot, the reach and "find" them with their right hand.

Also, regarding the triangular orientation of your knobs, I don't know which are for volume and/or tone, so take this with a grain of salt...If it's wired with a "master" volume knob, I'd recommend having it be the closest to the strings, and oriented in such a way that it's "in front" of the others. That way it's the first thing the player hits when he moves his hand down and to the right. (Again, see the attached pic.) On the other hand, if they are all separate volume pots for each pickup (a sweet way to wire it, OMHO), then it's a toss-up as to which on is the "main" one. I would think the bridge and neck pickups would be the ones a player would be tweaking the most, so I'd arrange the knobs to make them equally easy to find in the dark. That arrangement may just be how you have them laid out now, although if they were a bit farther apart I think they'd be easier to find in a hurry.

The main thing is that the person playing it likes it. And that you have fun building it, too. Keep us posted.

- Vaughn

P.S. Markus, the spalted Tele is sick. :eek:

P.P.S. Scott, guitars are kinda like clamps. There's no such thing as too many.

One of my war-torn battleaxes:

http://tg3k.com/tg3k/images/BC_Crop400.jpg

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Very cool project Scott and the body and fretboard look great! I can't wait to see the progress pics!!