The basic tools list

TTony

Mark includes this as a handout in one of the early lessons, but I thought it might be useful to post it here too ...

octatonic

WTF are Blanky and Pokey thing?

TTony

A Blanky is what you Sleepy in.

From memory, Mark's pokey thing is his centre punch - which also serves as a useful tool for poking things.

chrispy108

I'm not in a position time/space/cost-wise to be doing this now, but that list is not detailed enough for me to have a vague clue of what to buy.

octatonic

Seems pretty straight forward to me.

Which bit is unclear?

chrispy108

Some things are much more specific than others, loads of details on drill bits and routers, but not much on chisels or sandpaper. I guess it becomes clearer in the videos.

TTony

chrispy108 said:

Some things are much more specific than others, loads of details on drill bits and routers, but not much on chisels or sandpaper. I guess it becomes clearer in the videos.

It does (get clearer in the course).

But for sandpaper, it's really just a selection of different grits - 80, 120, 240, 320, 400.

For chisels - the precise sizes aren't really critical, one large, one medium is about all you'll need.

octatonic

Chisels, I would suggest a 6mm, 12mm at least.- full set helps greatly but it is better to have a couple of very good ones (Veritas, Lie Nielsen) rather than a bunch of cheap ones.

Sharpening is key.

My 3mm chisel gets a lot of use. 

Sandpaper- I use all grades (you kinda have to) but you can start with 100, 150, 180, 240, 320 to get it ready for finishing.

400, 600, 800 and 1000 are good to have but I usually get onto micro mesh after 600 grit.

Get some wet and dry too.

chrispy108

This is my point guys, I understand you're both trying to be helpful, and I understand it's somewhat opinion and there's multiple ways to get the same job done etc etc, but you've recommended slightly different things, it's pretty daunting for a newbie!

octatonic

chrispy108 said:

This is my point guys, I understand you're both trying to be helpful, and I understand it's somewhat opinion and there's multiple ways to get the same job done etc etc, but you've recommended slightly different things, it's pretty daunting for a newbie!

Welcome to guitar building.

We all do it differently and if you get into it you will find your own way as well.

Tony and I didn't say dramatically different things.

I do think it helps to have a full set of chisels, but you can get by with just 2 no problem.

It will be confusing to begin with- you'll get in the swing of it in no time, trust me.

I was a complete beginner a few years ago.

Deijavoo

@chrispy108 I think you and me can hold each other's hands for this course. You signing up?

TTony

Deijavoo said:

@chrispy108 I think you and me can hold each other's hands for this course. You signing up?

Whoever signs up, start your own thread in the BYOG subsection of the Making & Modding section here.

Post any questions you've got in there, and Mark will be popping in to answer them himself, or you'll get plenty of opinions from others doing the course, or others who've got experience elsewhere.

chrispy108 said:

This is my point guys, I understand you're both trying to be helpful, and I understand it's somewhat opinion and there's multiple ways to get the same job done etc etc, but you've recommended slightly different things, it's pretty daunting for a newbie!

I was that newbie before I did Mark's workshop course 8 years ago.  I was that DIY numpty who couldn't saw a piece of wood in half without getting it wrong.  

So I do understand.  Yes, it is daunting.  It took me about 6 months of dithering before I took the plunge and signed up for his course.  Actually, knowing how much I wanted to do it, but was afraid of how it might turn out, my wife was about to plunge me if I didn't do it myself!

I did the course - albeit the in-the-workshop version - and it was, quite seriously, a life-changing experience for me.  

@Octatonic has spent the last 3 (?) years learning how to build guitars *very* properly, whereas my learning was 7 days in Mark's workshop, and then plenty of trial and error on my own afterwards, so we're going to have different perspectives on how to do things, and the degree of perfect-ness that we expect to produce.  Hence Oct listed the whole range of sandpaper grades, whereas I short-cut them and finished at a Wudtone-ready standard (whereas Oct's will be ready for an absolutely perfect gloss finish).

The course breaks down the whole "build a guitar" project into a series of pretty simple individual steps, and Mark shows you how to complete each step.  Complete them, in the right order, and you end up with a guitar.  You'll learn a huge amount, and your second one will be better than your first.  Your third will be better still ...

£90 is a STEAL.  You get a ridiculous amount of Mark's knowledge and experience, you get expert tuition, you get his help when you need it, and you get to watch all the videos as many times as you want.

chrispy108

Deijavoo said:

@chrispy108 I think you and me can hold each other's hands for this course. You signing up?

I wish, but afraid not, I'm just about to buy a house that needs work, and starting a new job.

octatonic

Agree on the price being a steal.

The degree was much more expensive and actually, in reality, not a lot of teaching went on, once you had a grounding in sharpening and the basic tasks.

What we had was access to a knowledgeable person who could stop us from making too bad a job of it- much as you would with Mark's course, really.

FWIW I signed up to Mark's 'design a guitar course' a while back.

It is excellent and I expect the build course to be just as good.

Mark_Bailey

Hi guys - I see some of you have some reservations about tools - the list at the top of this post is just one page - a 'quickstart list' at the end of my ebook on tools which goes into more detail.

To answer your q on chisels:

For the guitar we build on the course, I recommend to begin with, just get one good chisel - doesn't really matter what size.

BigMonka

As a rough estimate how much would you expect the raw materials/parts to cost? Let's say I was going to build an SG.

TTony

Body blank, neck blank, slotted & radiused fretboard - say £75ish.

The hardware depends on whether you're going high / middle / low in quality, and whether you want new or used.

You can get a decent set of p'ups s/h for £50, tuners & bridge £30 each, pots etc for the same again.

Add in the other bits & pieces - nut, trussrod, knobs, strings, strap buttons, and the other bits that I always forget - and it's c£250 all-in.

You might get lucky and get it all for £150, you might decide that you want top quality new parts, and spend 3 times as much.

JohnB

I think Tony is pretty close with that estimate - amazing how the bits you forget add up !  It does depend a bit on how much you are prepared to do yourself and compromise on parts. I built a through-neck sapele guitar at home (after building  the guitar in my profile picture in Mark's workshop with close supervision!) .

Body and neck timber - £40 - from timber merchants (not luthier supplier) 

Fret board blank - £15 fret wire about £8 Nut £5

Truss rod £12

Pickups - Wilkinson Gold Humbuckers from Ebay - £25 

Tuners - Wilkinson £25

Bridge and tailpiece - £25

pots - knobs - selector switch - jack socket and plate - cavity covers - screws - £30

strap buttons and strings - £10

glue, oil, etc £5

And that is £200 - and you have to radius and slot your own fingerboard

But it sounds brilliant!

BigMonka

Great information, thanks @TTony and @JohnB

Sassafras

I'd say good sharpening stones should be on the essentials list. You can have the best chisels in the world but they're useless if they're blunt.

Mark_Bailey

Hey Sassafras - 

That is quite true - sharpening is definitely a skill that should be learned but it takes time and practise to perfect. My course is aimed at beginners building their first electric guitar. If they have to learn how to sharpen a chisel first most people will give up.

I grew up in a guitar factory where there were NO chisels! The only sharp edged hand tools in the whole place were my Skew Knife (for tidying up neck carves) and razor blades!

Using my methods you only need ONE chisel to make a guitar and it will be sharp enough from new to last for a good many guitar builds.

Having said that: There is a page on sharpening stones and how to use them in the Tools ebook that is included in the course. A sharpening stone can also be used to level the frets so it is well worth having...just not ESSENTIAL for your FIRST build.