Going to make a guitar from scratch

[John Rogers]

Well except for the neck which is easier to just buy one. Back in the late 1970s I made a pair of Stratocaster clones from zebra wood, one light colored and one dark colored, both with Fender's Lace Sensor pickups and after playing them for 15 years or so I sold them and the amps to a fellow in a band in Tijuana MX and went on to racing the 914-6 until it was sold. Now I find there are quite a few companies that make a "kit" similar to what you can buy to put together a muzzle loader. I'll post picts of before and after once I decide the type and such. There wasn't any thing like this back then so it should be a tad easier.
John

[arcsine]

FWIW, if you have not done so it will be worth your time to look at Warmoth.com. Excellent necks and bodies that you can customize to your heart's (and wallet's) content.
I have probably 8 guitars and basses with Warmoth necks and a sundry collection of custom, tweaked and stock bodies including this Warmoth chambered body, short scale Warmoth neck, blend-potted, jatoba pick guard strat. Hope you have fun.

[John Rogers]

That's one of the places I have looked. When I made the last two I bought all the parts including the ready to use necks from Moze Guitars in San Diego and the frets were inlet into ebony which looked really great with the zebra wood. I made the strat copy bodies from the large piece of wood that I had to butt join with an epoxy glue and some dowels. It took me about as long as the several gun stocks I have made from scratch. When I got the first one shaped I decided to buy a router, table, bits, ETC and the second one was much easier!
John

[Chocaholic]

Is that considered “from scratch”? After reading the thread title I expected pics of you cutting down a tree in your yard as step 1.

[ledhedsymbols]

I dealt with USA Custom Guitars when I did my strat build. I was very pleased with them and their service. I used a MIJ body on mine and a neck from USACG. I don't know if they do finishing work there. My body was already painted and I sprayed lacquer on the neck myself.


Edit- I just tried to get a link for you and it appears that there are some issues with them. They have closed, reopened, and closed again for a move to the Midwest. With that, I'd say not to take my advice. I have no idea if it is still valid.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

Is that considered “from scratch”? After reading the thread title I expected pics of you cutting down a tree in your yard as step 1.

That's actually step 3. Step 1 involves a seed, and step 2 involves water, fertilizer and time.

[masraum]

Me Too!!

[look 171]

Get good with the router and a couple of stationary sander that will sand curves. Those little bench tops one are great for the money if not, clamp a belt sander on its side and go to town. When I taught wood shop in high school a little girl made one out of Padauk and sprayed it with 8 coats of clear. It was this cool natural orange color. She had a great time building it and she can't even play. She did start so that's good. Keep us posted.

[pmax]

Camphor wood.

[Nostril Cheese]

Warmoth makes GOOD stuff. Had a custom neck made for my Jazzmaster.

https://www.stewmac.com/ Another good source of info.

https://www.reranch.com/ Finishes, lacquer, colors...

https://www.wolfetone.com/ pickups from Pelican Wolfe Macleod.

Building a body isnt too difficult. Like anything else, practice.

[porsche930dude]

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

Is that considered “from scratch”? After reading the thread title I expected pics of you cutting down a tree in your yard as step 1.

Thats childs play there was a luthier class in my high school they did just that

[Nostril Cheese]

Originally Posted by arcsine

Gorgeous work. Whats the pickguard made of? Can we see more of the Gulf Tele?

[Noah930]

Slodave made a beautiful Les Paul replica several yeats ago. IIRC he made everything, including the neck. You can see if he has any words of wisdom.

[TimT]

In the late 80's I made a guitar by hand.. I styled it after the Alembics, and custom guitars and basses Garcia and Lesh were using

Body laminated with nice burl for the top

Used a spoke shave, and tons of sandpaper to shape it.. Ebony fretboard, maple neck.. I laid out and
set all the frets..

State of the at DiMarzio PAFs wired every which way...

Guitar didn't survive one of our hurricanes.

A spoke shave is a good tool to have

[John Rogers]

Thanks for the info guys, there are a ton of websites that are for companies selling pretty much everything you need to make any sort of guitar. Back when I made my first ones that wasn't the case I'm afraid and the choices now are great. I have built several muzzle loaders from "kits" from companies such as Pecatonica River Supplies and even then it takes a fair amount of wood work. I have made 6 .45 caliber slug guns from slabs of fancy walnut ($$$$$$$) and I have planes, spoke shaves, carvers and most all electric tools. I think I posted some pictures of the guns I made, the last one being the single shot pistol I made.

As for pickups I am still thinking, maybe some Lace Sensor active type as I used before?
John

[ledhedsymbols]

My Strat build has Lace Sensor Hot Gold pickups in it. I really love them. Very versatile, they sound (to my ear) very close to the best single coil strat pickups, and they have minimal noise when you crank it up to 11.

[arcsine]

Originally Posted by Nostril Cheese

Gorgeous work. Whats the pickguard made of? Can we see more of the Gulf Tele?

The pickguard on the Mongrelstrat is made of jatoba.

The Gulfcaster is has an ash body that I chambered. Everything blue on the body is hollow. Paint is as close to the true Gulf colors as I could find in lacquer. It has a maple Warmoth neck, Duncan Pearly Gates pickups, a flipped control panel and a coil split in the volume knob. I cannot play any of my guitars but the guitarist in our band really liked this one. It does sound amazing I think.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

Is that considered “from scratch”? After reading the thread title I expected pics of you cutting down a tree in your yard as step 1.

You mean from scratch like this?

Technically he didn't chop down the tree but close enough, lol

1959 Les Paul guitar build...

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Noah930

Slodave made a beautiful Les Paul replica several yeats ago. IIRC he made everything, including the neck. You can see if he has any words of wisdom.

1959 Les Paul guitar build...

BTW, where is Dave? Last activity over a year ago.

He OK?

[vash]

Originally Posted by masraum

Me Too!!

hahahhaa..

cerealisly, that would be my contribution as well.