What are the best ways to build guitars?

[PRSfanboy46]

Hey y'all, I am wanting to get into building guitars but I am having an issue going the normal handmade route or CNC route. I as a 15 year old don't have the type of money for a standard CNC machine, but I would like a small one if I wanted too. Most guitars these days are built via CNC. However, I don't have the gear for working by hand, the most I need is a band saw table to cut. I want to build a neck and I want to do that with a spokeshave and some luthiers files. Obviously I will do it on a piece of wood from home depot for practice before I do it for real. But what is the best route?

 

[Black Plaid]

There are plenty of youtube videos on this topic by people more qualified than a bunch of dentists and brain surgeons.

 

[PRSfanboy46]

There are plenty of youtube videos on this topic by people more qualified than a bunch of dentists and brain surgeons.

Well I mean those are the only people who can afford PRS!!

 

[Dirty_Boogie]

I really think you should join the forum on www.projectguitar.com - that’s the place to learn and ask these types of questions, instead of on a PRS guitars forum.

 

[Southwest]

There are plenty of youtube videos on this topic by people more qualified than a bunch of dentists and brain surgeons.

How uncouth. One doesn't mention the hired help in polite society. Especially when they claim that twelve years of school and thirty years of practice should grant them access to one's mouth or cranium. Next they will be expecting an invitation to dinner for goodness sake. Show some decorum man!

 

[Black Plaid]

Well I mean those are the only people who can afford PRS!!

It's like asking the same group to advise you on how to go about making golf clubs.

 

[PRSfanboy46]

It's like asking the same group to advise you on how to go about making golf clubs.

Well I joined them and now I can ask my luthiery questions there and post my PRS when it comes back from the factory!

 

[toothace]

There are plenty of youtube videos on this topic by people more qualified than a bunch of dentists and brain surgeons.

Well I mean those are the only people who can afford PRS!!

Hey!!

 

[Rhythmisking]

Does having a bunch of PRSi imply that you can actually afford them? I think not!
Intelligent, dispassionate purchasing decisions have absolutely no application or relevence to large numbers of the guitar-buying public...or at least to me.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Well I mean those are the only people who can afford PRS!!

I would guess that all the tools needed to actually make a guitar body, neck, do frets, etc would cost more than a PRS. Unless you are going to hand route every pickup cavity, control cavity, etc. I can imagine doing this and not buying a body and a neck from someone who knows how to make them. But somehow, I doubt that sentiment will get much consideration.

IMO, you need to know how to mod them and work on them VERY WELL, before you start building them. Especially from scratch.

 

[jak3af3r]

If you can't make it by hand you have no business using a CNC. The first step in making a guitar is understanding extensively the materials with which you are using.

Expecting to run the same program on rosewood and mahogany with spindle speeds and cut depths unadjusted is disastrous.

My advice, having built a handful of guitars, is to start with a bolt-on. If you're starting from absolute raw material (let's assume it's properly dried) you need to thickness it with a planer, use a band saw to rough-cut the shape, attach a template and use a router table to get the outline, use the pickup and cavity template to route that, put the roundovers on, clean up the edges by hand with sandpaper or a spindle sander, clean up the top with an orbital sander.

Then the thickness, rough-cut, and routing is the same for the neck with the exception of making a jig for the truss rod. Then you have to cut the frets somehow, make your markers on the fretboard and the side. Depending on how you do the neck/fretboard determines if how/when the truss rod cutting and installation is done. After all that you need to carve it with a rasp and various sets of files. Having a neck profile gauge here is helpful to keep from any odd shaping gaps. Then you have to radius the fretboard with a radius beam, put the frets in, get all the sanding marks out, level/crown/polish the frets.

Bolt the two together and check fitment.

Then there's finishing which is done best with HVLP spray equipment.

After all that you get it strung and hope nothing warps under tension.

Honestly, it's cool to make a guitar but to get the right tools for the job requires spending private stock amounts of money and screwing up a lot of wood on the way to get something remotely playable.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Honestly, it's cool to make a guitar but to get the right tools for the job requires spending private stock amounts of money and screwing up a lot of wood on the way to get something remotely playable.

This is why I suggested starting with body and neck from people who know how to build them. Spending Any amount of money and ending up with something that sucks, doesn’t appeal to me at all. However, my Carvin Bolt T is a great guitar.

Edit, heck if you are that heck bent on building the body, at least buy the neck. Fretted. You’re going to ruin lots of stuff trying to learn how to fret slot, cut, crown, etc. which... most 15 year olds don’t have the kind of cash to pull off. (“No viable means of income...”).

Again, then I’ll stop saying this. Building a guitar from scratch, when you have no modding experience and have never even done minor repairs or upgrades to a guitar before, is like trying to build a car when you’ve never changed an air filter.

 

[jak3af3r]

This is why I suggested starting with body and neck from people who know how to build them. Spending Any amount of money and ending up with something that sucks, doesn’t appeal to me at all. However, my Carvin Bolt T is a great guitar.

Absolutely! I used another brand's neck I had until I figured out how to do one myself. And I still have a long way to go before it's perfect.

 

[PRSfanboy46]

Absolutely! I used another brand's neck I had until I figured out how to do one myself. And I still have a long way to go before it's perfect.

So a body would be better to do instead? And for building a neck, would working on like a blank from home depot be the way to go for practice then building for real?

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Absolutely! I used another brand's neck I had until I figured out how to do one myself. And I still have a long way to go before it's perfect.

A guy I knew in another forum bought good bodies and necks and he drilled the bridge posts slightly wrong, and his strings didn’t line up. He thought he was going to have to fill and redrill the bridge post holes. Basically, he ruined a body that was over three hundred dollars and after finding out that he couldn’t redrill the filled spots and drill holes almost completely in the same spot but just barely to the side of it... he ended up scrapping it and buying a new body. The irony being, they offered it drilled for whatever bridge he bought, but he wanted to do it himself to learn. He makes a couple hundred K a year though, so ...

 

[jak3af3r]

So a body would be better to do instead? And for building a neck, would working on like a blank from home depot be the way to go for practice then building for real?

Unless your home depot sells maple or something of similar strength, I'd not advise that.

A body still isn't easy. If you can get someone to do a "rough cut" where you have to do the final sanding is a hefty project for someone with no experience sanding or finishing.

The absolute easiest is to get a paint-ready body and do an oil finish and source a completed neck so you can play it when you're done.

 

[jak3af3r]

A guy I knew in another forum bought good bodies and necks and he drilled the bridge posts slightly wrong, and his strings didn’t line up. He thought he was going to have to fill and redrill the bridge post holes. Basically, he ruined a body that was a over three hundred dollars and after finding out that he couldn’t redrill the filled spots and drill holes almost completely in the same spot but just barely to the side of it... he ended up scrapping it and buying a new body. The irony being, they offered it drilled for whatever bridge he bought, but he wanted to do it himself to learn. He makes a couple hundred K a year though, so ...

I had a drill bit walk on me and break in a really nice body I had. Now I have to scrap it or plane the top and back off because it cracked both extracting the broken bits.

I have pictures of that somewhere....

 

[jak3af3r]

Here's before with the ferrule pilots drilled.


And now the disaster........

Fortunately, the top wasn't crazy expensive and I have another one I can replace it with. I'll probably plane off the back and cap that too but while I'm in there, I may make this the rest of the way hollow as it's a semi-hollow now. The sickening thing is how well I had it finished when it took the chunks out. Oh well.

 

[PRSfanboy46]

Here's before with the ferrule pilots drilled.


And now the disaster........

Fortunately, the top wasn't crazy expensive and I have another one I can replace it with. I'll probably plane off the back and cap that too but while I'm in there, I may make this the rest of the way hollow as it's a semi-hollow now. The sickening thing is how well I had it finished when it took the chunks out. Oh well.

Thats so sad, now makes me realize how hard this could be. Hand tools it is I guess.

 

[Dirty_Boogie]

Here's before with the ferrule pilots drilled.


And now the disaster........

Fortunately, the top wasn't crazy expensive and I have another one I can replace it with. I'll probably plane off the back and cap that too but while I'm in there, I may make this the rest of the way hollow as it's a semi-hollow now. The sickening thing is how well I had it finished when it took the chunks out. Oh well.

Ouch!! That must have hurt