First time builder. Looking for a few tips.

[Ryan Sanders]

So pretty much I have access to an incredible workshop owned by my father and an insatiable eagerness to learn new things. I've played guitar my whole life and decided why buy another one when I could just build one! Unfortunately I'm feeling overwhelmed now, there's so much information out there on the internet and some of it can be confusing to plebeians such as myself. My dad is a wonderful furniture builder but alas the only guitar he ever built was in wood shop fifty years ago and his knowledge is limited. I just don't know where to start. I've picked out the woods I want to use, maple for the body and neck and a black walnut for the fretboard but other than that I'm lost as to where would be a good jumping off point. Sorry if this is kind of vague but anything you guys can tell me would be a blessing. Thank you for reading this.

Sincerely,
Ryan

[Dan Warren]

1) A lot of people start off with a book, something like Melvyn Hiscock's "Make your own electric guitar". The archives here have a lot of good information, but it's nice to have the whole process laid out step by step.
2) The most common advice I hear around here is "draw a full-scale diagram of the guitar before cutting anything".
3) Don't get discouraged if your first attempt isn't immediately awesome. You'll be planning the second before you ever get done with the first, and you can always tweak these things to make them better.

[Chad McCormack]

Some people may laugh at this, but here goes: Match the lower bout width to existing classic designs (Strat or LP, for example). Make the shape your own by all means, but lock that lower bout dimension to one of those classics. This way, if you want to put your work of art in a hard shell case after months and months of building and finishing and set-up, etc., you'll have a nice snug home for it in a readily available case. If you get out-of-the-box with your dimensions, you'd be stuck either gig-bagging it or building a custom case for it.

[Ryan Sanders]

Thanks Dan I'll get that book, it seems melvyn and some other one by a guy name Oakham are the most recommended so I'll probably get both just to compare. (I like to be overly thorough sometimes haha). I also have no illusions that the first guitar I build is gonna be hung up in an art museum so I don't think discouragement will be a problem . Thanks also Chad, I hadn't even thought of that. I just measured my design I drew up last night and if I had gone and cut the body out it would've been just a few inches too big for my case. Glad you helped me catch that before I started the project!

Sincerely,
Ryan

[Chad McCormack]

No problem, Ryan. Good luck! And keep us posted as you progress. It's a TON of fun, and I bet you won't be able to stop at just one

[Eric Baack]

No problem, Ryan. Good luck! And keep us posted as you progress. It's a TON of fun, and I bet you won't be able to stop at just one

no kidding!! I built my second guitar less than a year after my first and have plans for a third eventually. number two is way nicer than my first build too

[Beate Ritzert]

But even the first one might sound great. And sometimes even imperfections contribute to the character of a self built instrument, similar to the traces of age. (Luckily we DIYers do not need to sell our builds...)

[John Sonksen]

figure out what scale length you want to use, what kind of tailpiece you want to use and how many frets you want. From there you can figure out your neck angle, neck joint, head stock angle and design and how much to carve the top (if any). I would recommend getting all of your hardware pieces before you cut anything, that way you don't get halfway through and realize you've made a critical miscalculation and spend a bunch of time getting real creative fixing it (or alternately screwing it up worse). Once you figure out these things do a full size drawing of a face view and a side view so that you understand how it's all going to fit together before you build, and you'll save yourself a lot of confusion.

[Gordon Bellerose]

I've read the Melvyn Hiscock book, and it is not bad.
I would recommend another book even more. It is called: "Electric Guitar Construction" by Tom Hirst. It's available through stewmac.
This book really is aimed at 1st time builders, and takes you right from step one to the final finished product.
It really is the best one I've read.

[Ryan Sanders]

Thanks guys. I ordered the build your own guitar and another one a friend of mine recommended today. Next payday I'll take a look at that one from Stewmac, especially if it's aimed at first timers. Is it Ok to mix and match different styles of hardware (obviously I want to keep the finishes the same) or if I pick one style of a guitar do I have to use everything the manufacturer does to make it sound right? This sounds like such a silly question for me to ask now that it's out on paper but if it does matter I don't want to sink a few hundred bucks into hardware only to find out I can't use one part with everything else. And I definitely will keep you guys posted as I move forward. It's starting to feel a little less terrifying to me now that I know there are places like these with people who are willing to help. You guys are awesome.

Sincerely,
Ryan

[Mark Swanson]

As long as you plan the ergonomics and the functional design of the guitar to the parts you want to use, anything is fair game. You'll get good help here and it will help if you make your questions as specific as you can.

[Eric Baack]

don't know if I'd use black walnut for a fingerboard. It tends to dent pretty easily. the standard fretboard materials are used because they tend to be hard and are resistant to decay.

[Alan Tobler]

"Unfortunately I'm feeling overwhelmed now, there's so much information out there on the internet and some of it can be confusing to plebeians such as myself."

I know the feeling Ryan. Although I've built a number of electrics in the past I recently started on some acoustics which is a whole different animal. But as mentioned above, start with a good plan. MIMF is a really good resource with a lot of good info.
As far as your build goes the most critical thing you will want to address is intonation. You can build the most awesome looking guitar ever seen on the planet, but if the intonation is off it will never sound right. So make sure your measurements are exact when laying out the scale.(Nut to bridge distance, fret layout , centering the neck, etc...) As Mark mentioned you can use whatever hardware you want, again just be very critical of your measurements.
I would use alder or mahogany for the body and the maple you have for the top, as a solid maple body would be rather heavy. I agree with Eric, I would use a different wood for the fingerboard. If in doubt, check the Janka hardness scale. Every fingerboard doesn't have to be ebony or rosewood. I'm using mesquite for some of my acoustics. My last electric has cocobolo for a fretboard. With electrics you have a little more freedom with your choice of woods.
Good luck on your guitar!

[Eric Baack]

for setting up your intonation, stewmac has a great online resource

http://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator

they even list the bolt hole positions for a number of bridge setups. I used it on my 2nd build and the intonation was spot on with the saddles not getting too close to the edge of their adjustment range.

[Ryan Sanders]

"If in doubt, check the Janka hardness scale."

See, that right there shows me how much I thought I knew about this! lol. I'm going to have to google that. I also didn't think about how heavy the maple is. :/. About how thick do you think I should make the top Alan if I was going to cover an Alder body with it? I really like the look of cocobolo but I'm not familiar with it's properties. I saw some pictures of it though and it's a gorgeous wood so definately thanks for the idea on that. Also thank you Mark and John for the information. I think it'll go quite a bit smoother once my books get here. You guys are all very helpful and nice people. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to help give me a little guidance.

My next question is, has anyone ever worked with Osage Orange in a guitar before? They use it to make bows and its extremely rot resistant and dense. I have an 8/4 X 7 X 8 1/2 board of it. I was thinking of milling that down and trying that for the fretboard. After a few years the bright orange gives away to a really pretty dark brown if it's finished correctly but nobody online really talks about using it in guitars. What do you guys think?

[Eric Baack]

be sure you wear proper lung protection while working with woods though. Some of them can cause some nasty reactions. I believe Cocobolo is one of them.

for the maple cap, do you plan to carve it at all? for a PRS type carve you are going to want at least 5/8" thick. For a flat top you should be fine with 1/4" thick stuff.

One thing you can do is hollow out the alder body some before gluing the maple on. Check out videos on youtube, there are plenty.

[Ryan Sanders]

Ya I haven't come across a wood yet that affects me but my dad can't work with a couple exotics because it gives him a rash so I'll for sure be taking precautions when I cut. I'm probably going to do that little slant you see on the bottom of strat style bodies, I'm not sure what it's called but I'm going to try to keep it as true to the one I have right now hanging on my wall. (Except for the fact that my ex bought me a lefty flip and I'm right handed, that's kinda what REALLY inspired this whole project haha) I found a few really good vids on youtube, now I just gotta find a way to run internet out to my garage so I can hook up my laptop out there so I'm not constantly running back and forth. I lose my train of thought too easily these days. Thanks again Eric

[Warren May]

Welcome to our addiction, Ryan You're right that there is a lot of information out there but, then again, there are lots of ways to build a guitar and as long as it plays well and you like the looks, it's all good. I see a lot of really nice looking guitars with unconventional hardware matches, like a Tele control plate on an LP Jr. shaped guitar with a Strat trem and SG type body contours. (See the Cort Zenox for a neat combination of design features).

Are you planning an arm contour or tummy cut as on a Strat? You can put a tummy cut on almost any guitar but the arm contour cut is a little different. You would either have to put a thick cap on or shape the body and apply a veneer that you can bend. The first approach will leave you with a join on the side where the different woods meet and there are several ways to either hide it or you can leave it visible, maybe a contrasting piece of inlay wood. The second approach requires some way to glue and clamp the veneer, vacuum clamping seems to be a popular choice for that.

I've build a couple of bodies from soft maple for the back and added a cap of nicely figured wood. They are a little bright compared to mahogany and other woods but acceptaple.

[Eric Baack]

you could probably do the arm relief cut with a 3/4" cap as long as your cut doesn't get down into that.

[Bob Gramann]

I have built several acoustic guitars with back and sides of Osage Orange. It's one of my favorite woods. I have one with an Osage Orange fingerboard and bridge. It looks quite distinctive. It has been stable since I completed it in the fall and I expect that it will wear better than a rosewood fingerboard.