Thread: Advice on my first build

how bout a LP junior with p90's
flat top mahaogany
killer guitar

i am a uni student who is also from sydney, so i could probably help you a bit (saving money was fairly important for me). you can see my sirst in another thread. i wouldnt suggest making a copy, i find its much better to make something original, but thats just me. you can get a good sized piece of one piece mahogany from gillet guitars in botany. its a good sized piece that has been thicknessed so you dont need to do much at all to get it smooth. they are 90$ i did that for my first guitar and was happy with it. you can get some stripey ebony fretboards from them too, they are 22$ with an additional 22$ if you want to have the slots cut for you. they also have fretwire, which is aprox 10$ for a guitars worth.
im working on my second at the moment, and i picked up some wood from anagote timbers in marrickville. i got some walnut, which is a bit pricy, but i found a piece that was not very usable for most things, but was fine for a guitar as i worked around the defects (a knot and the thickness was tapering off to the sides as you go down the board). all that meant is my glue join wasnt in the middle of the guitar. you can also get some silky oak which looks very nice and is quite cheap(as far as guitar timber goes) supposedly it sounds pretty nice, but i havent heard it. for my next guitar i think this will be the way to go. they also have mahogany, rock maple and maybe a few others. i dont know if they have qld maple, which is a good substitute for mahogany. if you go to anagote you will most likely have to glue 2 pieces together. the rock maple they have would be suitable for a neck if you find the right side. the neck and the body should be under 100$ if you dont get something too expensive for the body. for a budget guitar silky oak would be a great wood for the body, probably be able to pick up a piece for under 50$ from anagote, or atleast that was the guys estimate was. rock maple would be suitable for the neck.

as for tools, most things you would have at your woodwork room. some things you wont have is nut files. if you use a bone nut you can easily get a groove with a small v file and then notch some feeler gauges (used for setting gaps in spark plugs) using the same v file to make a saw pattern and use that to file the nut slots to size. when you notch it you will pull some metal away from the centre so clean up the edges to ensure the slots arent too big. i didnt do this but made sure i used a size smaller as i didnt consider it, and it worked fine, but there is no harm being careful. for the larger slots (the ones larger than the largest feeler size) you can put sandpaper around the feeler gauge. use a fine grit (i used 400) and measure the tickness with some vernier calipers or similar, should have some at school. make sure you use something a bit smaller as opposed to a bit bigger, as you cant add bone. the feeler gauge set is aproximately 15$ from super cheap auto or similar.


you may have some issues getting the correct shape after the bandsaw without using a template you can follow, and i dont know if you would have the tools to follow one at school. i used a jigsaw and a big router bit to get close to the shape then spent quite a few hours with coarse sandpaper getting the curves nice and smoothe. might be a good option, but you will have a bandsaw which will be much better for this as it will have vertical cuts around the curves.

your money issues will probably rely on getting the hardware adn pickups reasonably cheap. if you know anyone with a broken guitar, thats not a bad way to get these parts. i have been buying the parts from ebay, and the hardware comes to around 100$ when ordered from america. you can get some pretty decent hardware for good prices. if you want a tremolo that will be more expensive though. i am going to make my own pickups on this guitar i am working on now, which will save a fair bit of money, and i have enough winding wire for 20 dingle coils or so. thats not a bad option, if you want to know where i got the parts just ask. ive said too much.

Hi,
wow, thanks for the long reply =]. where abouts in sydney are you located?
i'm in strathfield atm.. do you know of any exotic timber merchants?

i have plans for (a diagram) of a telecaster, stratocaster, a les paul, a SG and a flying V.. which should i start out with?

i will be getting the hardware and electronics cheap, because i thought i can just replace them along the way.. i have the electronics and hardware from a dodgy stratocaster copy.., but i dont like the machineheads..

where abouts is anagote? is it close to a train station? or perhaps a bus stop?

silky oak sounds like a great option. which traditional tonewood is it close to?, is it figured? is that why they call it silky oak? would it be bookmatched?

what are some other examples of figured cheapish wood?

how did you finish it? if silk oak has a lot of figure, then i thought i'd just lacquer it. but i'm wondering how to apply it. perhaps an airbrush? or will just a fine paintbrush do?

i'm more looking for high figure in the body then anything else, so i am happy to put most of the money into the timbers, as i can probably upgrade the hardware and components after... so what are some highly figured cheap by comparison timbers?

thanks

Hey ftssjk
If you want to see what silky oak looks like on a Les Paul check out the link
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...light=les+paul
Ive been very slack of late with this build
I hope this will give you some idea
dayvo

davyo, that looks incredile.. how did you inlay the abalone on the fretboard?


i have some plans of a les paul, how do i print them life size on the printer?

the gold hardwear really shines with the silky oak. have you decided how your going to finish it?

Check out these links. They may be of some use to you with your build
http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/
http://64.22.114.21/cgi-bin/WebX
http://www.simnettguitars.co.uk/bb/
http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/default2.asp
http://www.guitargear.net.au/discussion/
http://guitarnuts2.proboards45.com/index.cgi

Apart from owning an original copy of Melvyn Hiscocks 'Make your own Electric Guitar' (A lot of builders refer to this book as the bible of guitar building, so if you have any spare money to buy a copy do so), I found A LOT of info from the above forums

If the plans and your printer allows you to 'TILE' the image/picture you may be able to print it out on 16 x A4 pieces of paper
Most of the plans I have that I can tile and print to full size are approx. 800kb to 1mb .pdf files
I hope the above info is of help to you

On the colour of my build Im still deciding, but it will be finished in nitrocellulose lacquer
dayvo

i live in west pymble, kinda near north ryde. anagote is in marrickville, not near the station either from memory. if you can get someone to drive you it would be good as you will probably have to get a plank and glue it together, so it will probably have a fair bit of length, making public transport quite difficult anyway. you may be able to get them to deliver it, but you would want to see it first anyway.
silky oak has a very nice grain pattern. almost like scales ona fish/reptile, not sure of the sound but id imagine it would be somewhat similar to alder or something like that. ive seen ite brightness described aproximately the same as alder, otherwise im not sure.

Dayvo when are we going to hear "How high the moon" played on that instrument?
Great work!!

thank you for those links danyo!


danyo, i know that the plans i have can tile, but i'm not sure how to tile the printer.

its an epson c61.

is it in page scaling?

Page scaling -
none
Fit to printer margins
Reduce to printer margins
multiple pages per sheet.

is it, print as an image?

In order for your guitar to work, you absolutely must have the right Volume Knobbs.

Most people only have Knobbs that go to 10.

I am making up vernier indexed volume knobbs that go to 50 - so it will be so super loud that I will automatically be a Rock God by default.

This is the way of the enlightened.
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Originally Posted by ftssjk

thank you for those links danyo!


danyo, i know that the plans i have can tile, but i'm not sure how to tile the printer.

its an epson c61.

is it in page scaling?

Page scaling -
none
Fit to printer margins
Reduce to printer margins
multiple pages per sheet.

is it, print as an image?

i know this is a bit dodgy but it should work fine. if you plans are in an image median, i put it on one image on paint then drew 2 lines from either corner of the image, and then was able to get the exact centre. then you can grab the centre and crop to one of the corners, the will give you exactly one 1/4 of the image, you can put that in word and do the same with the rest and then print the 4 parts of it in the same way. just make sure thyey are all the same size and it will come out right. you will have to do a bit of experementing to get it to the right size though. thats what i did, but it was only an outline i did by combining different images of guitars and some freehand stuff using paint.

Originally Posted by 2shane

I am making up vernier indexed volume knobbs that go to 50 - so it will be so super loud that I will automatically be a Rock God by default.

This is the way of the enlightened.

Indeed! But I'm surprised your even bothering with numbers below about 48, doesn't sound like you would ever use them?

I wonder why Shane even bothers with a volume knob. Do away with any tone and volume controls on the guitar and wire the pickups straight through to the power grid sucking stack of amplifiers and the stack of quad boxes so high you need a council permit to put 'em up.

mmm and since when has loudest meant rock god? more likely idiotgod since no band would hire you cause the band wouldnt get work cause the councils wont hire them cause... hello dipstick its too bloody loud! so much for loud = rockgod

mind you since he will probably say well Im gonna make em go up to 50 on the guitar (a bass from memory) and everyone and everything else will just have to convert to catch up cause Im a rockgod... and I'll record so it wont matter what the council says so there... but then the stereos cd players and mp3 players ahem only go up to??? oh thats right 10

But hey!! hes a rockgod so its all good right? RIIIGGHHHT!!

black_lab... wouldnt the printing out work if you made it print as a banner? or perhaps poster? just thinking here

Dayvo!! you checked your pms lately?