My first attempt at making a guitar has started

axisus

I’ve knocked up partsocasters before, I’ve routed a pre-shaped body for Floyd rose trem, pickups, neck cut out, attempted aged finishes, created headstock decals etc. Now for the first time I want to cut out the body and make a neck as well, so that it is a genuine guitar made by me. 

I actually got this going about 6 months ago, but lack of space and time meant that it fizzled out somewhat. However, having recently signed up for the Bailey video course I now feel inspired to get going again, so I thought I’d start an official thread as somewhere to post progress. 

Its going to be a Tele type guitar, and I have named it ‘Chi Rho’ . The more astute may realise that is the name of the Christian symbol on the front. I realise that is not everyone‘s sort of thing but I’m cool with that, it’s something that I really want personally.

This is my working mock up, which I knocked up in photoshop:

I’m very tempted to change the inlays to some kind of MoP leaves. A bit of a weird choice you may think, but once again it has a very personal appeal. Decision pending. I may buy the inlays and then see what I think.

This is my full size plan.  As I do computer graphics for a living and have access to a large scale plotter, it made sense to do a full size drawing this way rather than by hand (as on the course). The bigsby is just for reference at the moment as I haven’t found a suitable drawing to add. I’ll probably just add accurate drill holes if I don’t locate better reference material.

Parts list: Some bits I have, others I need to source, and a few I haven’t decided on yet. Pickups will be splittable HB bridge, p90 neck and a hidden pick up in the middle that I'm hoping @theguitarweasel will be knocking up for me - just as something a bit different.

I’ve been slowly going through the course, so next up will probably be knocking up templates. Life is busy though, and my fundamental problem is no space at home to work. Updates will be slow, and infrequent ...... sounds like my sex life.

TTony

I remember seeing some of your other work.

So, I'm looking forward to seeing this one happen.

BigMonka

That's going to look great, nice one. Loving the CAD mock up too (as someone who uses Bentley Microstation everyday).

Andyjr1515

Yes look forward very much to this, @axisus

Deijavoo

Wow. I've been slowly working through the Bailey course before I throw together a partsajazzmaster. Probably overkill for that project but I want join the ranks of building from acratch one day. I also suffer from a lack of space so I'll be really interested as to how this turns out.

JohnB

Looks really cool - are you going to thickness/saw/radius your own fretboard? Very time consuming but ultimately rewarding I think

Adam_MD

Looks really cool. The angel tele was beyond cool.

axisus

JohnB said:

Looks really cool - are you going to thickness/saw/radius your own fretboard? Very time consuming but ultimately rewarding I think

Yup, planning to do that.

axisus

Some progress.

Neck cut to shape, tuner holes drilled and truss rod channel routed. 

Basic body template created, came out pretty well. also blanks for body, many thanks to @miserneil for the wood!

body blanks glued together

IvisonGuitars

@axius My pleasure! Looks great so far :-)

Andyjr1515

Yup....looking very good

Roland

Impressed

usedtobe

I do enjoy a good build thread!

stickyfiddle

TTony said:

I remember seeing some of your other work.

So, I'm looking forward to seeing this one happen.

Came to write exactly this. Looking forward to seeing more

axisus

Just better mention - I am not a precision person so this will not be the amazing thing of beauty that some people create. I am a big fan of 'aged' finishes, and for my skills that is a big plus as I know that there will be mistakes that will be far less obvious on a battered guitar (already damaged the headstock!). It will be flawed, it will not be the best guitar I own, but it will be something very special to me.

axisus

Minor update today, Was off work so I planed and sanded the body blank to thickness. On the Bailey course it is suggested that you don't bother attempting this but buy something pre-done! Although not perfect yet, it looks pleasingly good, nice and smooth and the join barely shows.

Sambostar

Hpow did you plane it?  By hand, electric planer or planer/thicknesser and if the latter, how did you afford a planer/thicknesser so wide? 

More pics!

Andyjr1515

Sambostar said:

Hpow did you plane it?  By hand, electric planer or planer/thicknesser and if the latter, how did you afford a planer/thicknesser so wide? 

More pics!

^^^ wot he said ^^^.

axisus

Electric planer with 2 inch cut, wooden hand plane, belt sander, electric sander, straight edge. To be honest, I don't think a picture would capture a flat surface very well.

Sambostar

You're braver than me then.

axisus

Latest update. As mentioned in t'other thread, the avaliable band saw was not going to cut through the thickness of the blank. So, plan B, I took out quite a bit using the router, then managed to get through the remaining section with the band saw. Pics below.

At this point I thought that all was going well, however, when cleaning up a bit with the router afterwards I realised that I had made a schoolboy error! (I'm totally new to this guitar building lark!). I routed the depth on the side to about 3cm down, getting closer to my pencil line shape, leaving a small 'shelf' at the bottom. Turning over and inspecting, I realised that there was more 'shelf' on one side than the other! When I worked on getting the top and bottom flat, I used a straight edge and worked until there was no gaps underneath, but I failed to realise that my two flat sides were not perpendicular. Out came the electric plane again. The shelf was really handy as I just worked on the whole back until it disappeared totally everywhere then went back to levelling. I was strongly thinking of making it lighter with a couple of chambers and a cap, and that will be a necessity now as the body is a bit too thin. Onwards and upwards!