Thread: about to start making my first guitar - electric guitar

The body Im assuming is something you have cut, or was it pre-purchased.

Why have you mounted a router overhead, the only time you need an overhead router is if you are going to route for binding

Apologies if you have already answered these questions before

Okay I just re-read your original post

37mm will make it a slimmer body, most electric guitars are 42mm in height teles / strats, Lps Sg's etc are about 50mm finished centre height and taper out to about 40ish on the edges.

Ideally you want to make templates when routing neck sockets and pickup cavities, this way your router can basically trace a line to any depth required

Steve

Thanks Steve,

Yes I realized it was on the thin side. It's just the size of the piece of the maple that I come by. I'll have to live with it, well for this one anyway, and see how I go.

Thanks again, Paul

When we make LP bodies we make them out of mahogany and then book match a maple top on,

Why not since you have a maple body, get a couple of pieces of wood that contrast the maple, book match them and put them on top for thickness,

You can then relief carve the top to give it some shape

Hi Steve,

Great idea, but,..!!!, I have already put a nice round routered edge around my body, stopping before I got to where the neck socket will be. Yes I jumped in a bit to fast, but these were the plans from that "Martin Koch" video that I was following.

I wouldn't have any way of removing that as I don't own a thicknesser.

Thank again, for your assistance,

Regards, Paul

Cliff I built two LP 59's and enjoyed every moment of it. Have since done other things that are not quite so expensive.
My advise go slow and if in doubt ask and use photos as this helps people understand better, a picture paints......... Take photos as you go. The second one I made was for my son so I created a power point slide show and put it to music. A priceless gift he'll cherish for ever.
Here is a link if you are inclined.

The guitar boys will tell you it get in your veins and they're right it's so satisfying.

Best wishes and good luck, you'll be fine.
Kerry

Hi all, My guitar making project has become a bit long winded, at the end of the day, hopefully I will have two, but that's another story for later on. One question at this stage please. When cutting the fret slots, from what I can see you cut them on the flat fretboard. Then after that you have to put a 12 inch radius onto the fretboard before you insert the frets. How do you maintain the same depth of the slot when you are removing timber on each side of it.

Surely the outer edges of the slot have less timber left in them and hence are shallower.

The frets I have ordered are 2.5mm thick, one of the blades on my TableSaw is 2.7mm, this would be to sloppy,..?

Regards, Paul

Oh me oh my.

The fret slot should be approx 0.020" wide, about 1/2 a mm. The tang of a fret is about 24", the crown is anywhere from 60-120" wide (1.5-3mm) approx,

The fret slot should be deep enough across the whole fretboard to allow the tang to seat fully home, so whatevere the tang depth is, you need that depth plus a tad bit more

Yes fretslots are deeper in the middle than on the edges when cut with saws. The fretboard radius should be whatever you want and still maintain the minimum tang depth required

Only cnc routed / controlled blades / end mills, have the capability to cut fret boards to a depth even with the board profile radius

Hope this helps

After sanding the radius on the fretboard, I use my fret saw with a depth stop and go over the frets slots again to put the correct depth back on the slots. You just have to be very careful to keep the blade perpendicular as you can't do it with a mitre box. Most home builders do it that way.

Hi all, Another question please. The holes for my tail piece posts (LP) are about half a mm to large, hence the posts are way to loose. What are the suggestions for correcting this problem in order to make the posts solid.

Regards, Paul

The ideal way would be to glue in a dowel then sand flat and re-drill. That would depend on whether you can get the correct sized dowel. It would need to be a hardwood. The other issue is once it's filled, would the posts cover the old filled hole so you won't see it. If you're going with an opaque finish then you'll be fine.

Stuff ups happen, best thing is to turn it into a feature, drill them oversize and use a contrasting wood to plug with, then re drill the holes the correct size

Thanks fellas, I'm still "plugging" away here,

Paul

The same thing happened to me when I built my first LesPaul, if it's only 1/2 a mm over and you're using a tune-o-matic tail piece the posts will have a little flange on top just big enough to cover it up. If you don't have the correct size hard wood dowels and you don't have a lathe to turn some, you can clamp a good sharp chisel in a drill press vice and clamp the vice to the drill press, jam an appropriate lump of wood in the chuck, set your speed to high and use the drill plunge to turn up a dowel. I have done this many time with great success. Or you can go with the over size feature thingy as suggested by simso, that'll work well too.

regards

Wal