Now Complete! First guitar build project underway - project diary

the_jaffa · March 2016

Big day today, actually started working on the real wood rather than the MDF.

With the loan of a friend's bandsaw I trimmed down to just outside the outline (actually done last week) leaving me a nice close amount to do with the router:

This was pretty exciting as my body wood started to actually look like a guitar.

Then today has been spent in the garage with the router and pillar drill. After seeking advice on here, thanks guys, I went slowly with the routing and did passes of about 10mm in depth and it has worked spot on. I had a bit of a brainfart at one point on the first pass and lifted the router on it's plunge base which caused a rather large dent in the first 10mm of the body but also the template. Managed to work round that though and tidied it up from the front with the front template. The bit that's missing will be removed with the roundover so not the end of the world thankfully.

Anyway, body now routed and it looks like this:

I then moved to my little Aldi pillar drill to start the hogging out of the control, trem and pickup cavities using a Forstner bit. Got most of it done but have run out of throat capacity on my drill so can quite finish the Jag trem and haven't been able to start the Strat trem but I can get them done another day on the big pillar drill at work.

I'm well chuffed with the progress and super excited as it now is really starting to look like a guitar. Hoping I might get on to routing some of the top cavities this afternoon.

the_jaffa · March 2016

Managed to get the top cavities routed to depth (except the Strat trem one that I need to finish from the back and the Jag trem one that needs to be a little deeper to take the spring and stuff on the plate)

Couldn't resist a little mockup:

Really chuffed with how today has gone. Got way further than I expected

TTony · March 2016

It's a really good feeling when it starts to look like an actual guitar, rather than just a lump of wood, and you realise that YOU have made the transformation happen.

As @Andyjr1515 said above, the first build always takes ages because you have to invest so much time in getting the templates right. Once you've got the templates, builds 2, 3, 4 and beyond can happen much more quickly ...

[edit]

Should also add ...

the_jaffa said:

Couldn't resist a little mockup:

When you're doing serious work, you shouldn't distract yourself with making a guitar.

Andyjr1515 · March 2016

This is looking really good

jd0272 · March 2016

Just excellent !!!

tabbycat · March 2016

barrie cadogan from the primals plays one of these too...

it's looking neat. i'd love to build something but it's the finishing that puts me off. i like high gloss black which translates as months of stink and mess and very hard labour, which isn't an option in a small rented flat.
it also requires massive patience, which you appear to have in just the right measure for the job, while i suspect i have less. am more a modder with wild ideas.

the roses are one of the great car crash bands re career suicide. if you haven't seen 'blood on the tracks' about them you must. like a 'baggy' spinal tap. 'we fought the hairdresser and the hairdresser won' should have been the title of their second album. but john seems happy enough painting now, and they are not signing on, so a happy ending for all concerned.

i wish you all the best with it.

the_jaffa · March 2016

I've seen pics and read a bit about Barry's guitar. Built by the same guy who built guitars for Kevin and Bilinda of MBV. It's a similar shape but not quite the same and has P90s and Bigsby rather than the split HBs and strat trem on John's.

I do wonder if I've bitten off more than I can chew for my first build but so far it seems to be going ok. Taking my time though

the_jaffa · April 2016

Just spent a couple of hours this evening making a table for my pillar drill so I can use it as a bobbin sander. Used a load of bits of scrap from the garage and it's worked pretty well really.

Going to be proper handy for tidying the edge of the body up while keeping it nice and square before I start the round over routing.

the_jaffa · April 2016

Got a chance to get back in the garage today and got on to the part of the build I've been fearing the most.

After sanding the edge of the body nicely post routing, I got on to doing the round-over. I've been worrying about this for a while as it's the final shape, there's a lot that could go pear-shaped and it's a much bigger cut than the routing I've done before.

But...

It went really well and I now have the body all rounded. It looks great and feels really good. Bit of extra sanding to contour the round-over in to the neck pocket and tidy it up and job's a good'un. Well chuffed with it:

Sarge · April 2016

Bloomin marvellous!

tabbycat · April 2016

the_jaffa said:

Bit of extra sanding to contour the round-over in to the neck pocket and tidy it up and job's a good'un. Well chuffed with it:

be deeply chuffed, jaffa. that is a most chuffworthy first build if ever i saw one. it's stunning.

BigMonka · April 2016

You should be really proud of that! To me it looks as good as any of the guitar bodies you can buy online!

the_jaffa · April 2016

Thank you guys, I'm flattered

Andyjr1515 · April 2016

That looks really good =D>

usedtobe · April 2016

Wow!!!

ThePrettyDamned · April 2016

Looks great!

the_jaffa · May 2016

Made some more significant progress this afternoon. I've sorted the forearm and belly cuts.

I used a combination of angle grinder with flap wheels, files and sanding to get the shapes right and it's worked out very nicely I reckon. The body is now pretty much there shape-wise and just needs a bit of finer sanding (it's all about 120 grit at the moment) and a couple of little pits filling in.

Pics showing the cutouts here:

I then brought the body into the house to start looking at sorting a template for the scratchplate. With this being a custom shape body with some odd bits on it the scratchplate is a bit of a mongrel too. After laying out all the control panels and the trem I marked them on the body and then traced the outlines on to tracing paper. After some judicial use of the french curves again I've now got shape for the plate that I am happy with. Next step with this is back to the MDF and the router and start making a routing template that will enable me to cut the blank scratchplate (3 ply WBW).

the_jaffa · May 2016

These pics have made me realise that maybe I should sand and treat our picnic table once this build is done. It's in a horrible state.

the_jaffa · May 2016

Spent most of last Wednesday and Thursday sorting out the templates for the scratchplate. Took bloody ages to get them right and to fit all the nooks and crannies properly but finally got them done to the required level late on Thursday evening. Took a couple of goes to get the hole cut for the hexagonal lower bout plate but finally got it right.

Anyway, on to this afternoon and I did the routing on the actual scratchplate material.

All went beautifully and it all fits spot on...

Except the bit just above the neck and under the upper plate. I cocked up slightly and managed to chip the plate during the bevelling of the edge. Tried to correct it but that now means it doesn't line up properly with the plate.

So, I've ordered another blank plate and will sort it again when that arrives. Bit of a pain but far from the end of the world and it does mean that I can use this plate as a jig to wire up the pickups and switches without worrying about dropping solder or anything on it.

Definitely getting there but not quite there yet

the_jaffa · May 2016

FFS, just cocked up the replacement scratchplate by being an idiot and lifting up the router before it had stopped. Taken a lovely chunk out of the neck pickup hole.

Feel like a proper idiot and really frustrated with myself.

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Now Complete! First guitar build project underway - project diary

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