Designed my own electric, build pics inside.

Joined: 26 Oct 2012 Posts: 34 Location: London UK

Some of you may know I study guitar making at University. The course focuses on acoustic instruments but we have a lot of workshop time so I bought some wood for an electric to make on the side.

I was going to go for an explorer or something else but I'd also been doodling some stuff up and thought 'why not?' and set about making my own guitar, hope you enjoy the pics and I'll try to put more up as the build goes on.

It's got a 1 piece brazilian mahogany body, 1 piece american maple neck, I'm going to try and get an ebony board on there if I can get around working with it.

The original drawing I made, it came about as a kind of tele/sg/jaguar thing.

The scaled drawing. This was one of the hardest things to do; to get the guitar from a sketch to a 1:1 scale drawing that I was happy with was a bit of a bitch but I got it after a few hours.

Rough cut the body on the bandsaw, after this I cleaned it up with a bobbin sander and flat sander for the larger areas.

Truss rod being fit into the maple neck.

I was originally going to do a set neck construction so this is the neck tenon being cut to size, this is my first time doing a set neck job so I get the feeling I'm going to have to put a few bolts in there for extra support incase the fit is too loose.

[IMG]http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/a555/James_Stitt
/WP_000140_zps308b2ee8.jpg[/IMG]

I designed the headstock based off a Gibson headstock with what I like to call the Elvis crest.

Dry clamped the neck on to get a vague look of how it will turn out, I always love just leaving it like this and looking at it. Next to it is the Parlour guitar I'm making for the University degree.

Mother of Pearl headstock inlays. The stuff on the crest is the brand logo I designed; 306 as my birthday is 30th June. In the star I engraved my dads initials, he passed away a few months ago so I wanted to do a bit of a tribute thing.

This is how I left it friday. The neck is still not glued in. I cut the scratchplate from a plastic blank it's still a bit rough. The pickups are Epiphone 57CHs I think. Cheap I know but the guitar was turning out pretty expensive, I'll definitely upgrade them in future.

I'm still a bit on the fence about colours. I've been thinking of doing it a Greenburst like the ESP KH-SE or maybe a solid colour, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it!

Joined: 22 Feb 2008 Posts: 817

jstitt306 wrote:

Some of you may know I study guitar making at University. The course focuses on acoustic instruments but we have a lot of workshop time so I bought some wood for an electric to make on the side.

I was going to go for an explorer or something else but I'd also been doodling some stuff up and thought 'why not?' and set about making my own guitar, hope you enjoy the pics and I'll try to put more up as the build goes on.

It's got a 1 piece brazilian mahogany body, 1 piece american maple neck, I'm going to try and get an ebony board on there if I can get around working with it.

The original drawing I made, it came about as a kind of tele/sg/jaguar thing.

The scaled drawing. This was one of the hardest things to do; to get the guitar from a sketch to a 1:1 scale drawing that I was happy with was a bit of a bitch but I got it after a few hours.

Rough cut the body on the bandsaw, after this I cleaned it up with a bobbin sander and flat sander for the larger areas.

Truss rod being fit into the maple neck.

I was originally going to do a set neck construction so this is the neck tenon being cut to size, this is my first time doing a set neck job so I get the feeling I'm going to have to put a few bolts in there for extra support incase the fit is too loose.

[IMG]http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/a555/James_Stitt
/WP_000140_zps308b2ee8.jpg[/IMG]

I designed the headstock based off a Gibson headstock with what I like to call the Elvis crest.

Dry clamped the neck on to get a vague look of how it will turn out, I always love just leaving it like this and looking at it. Next to it is the Parlour guitar I'm making for the University degree.

Mother of Pearl headstock inlays. The stuff on the crest is the brand logo I designed; 306 as my birthday is 30th June. In the star I engraved my dads initials, he passed away a few months ago so I wanted to do a bit of a tribute thing.

This is how I left it friday. The neck is still not glued in. I cut the scratchplate from a plastic blank it's still a bit rough. The pickups are Epiphone 57CHs I think. Cheap I know but the guitar was turning out pretty expensive, I'll definitely upgrade them in future.

I'm still a bit on the fence about colours. I've been thinking of doing it a Greenburst like the ESP KH-SE or maybe a solid colour, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it!

Now thats a BUILD haaaa. unreal dude!!

Joined: 20 Aug 2008 Posts: 2182 Location: New York City

I am supremely digging the headstock shape, looks killer Cool

Be sure to post finished pics!

Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 11:06 pm

Reminds me of a Gibson RD meets Elvis headed SG, looks great Brother! Looking forward to seeing the finished product

Joined: 20 Mar 2007 Posts: 2471 Location: Ontario, Canada

Very cool man, thanks for sharing your work.

I also really like your headstock design.

Just a suggestion on the set neck/bolt on worry. Don't let paranoia get to you and ruin a good set neck by putting bolts in there. I suggest rather that if you do find that your neck joint is a little loose, simply glue on a shim and then work it down again until you have a tight fit. That will create a much better overall fit.

Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 4:40 pm

shorty85 wrote:

Don't let paranoia get to you and ruin a good set neck by putting bolts in there. I suggest rather that if you do find that your neck joint is a little loose, simply glue on a shim and then work it down again until you have a tight fit. That will create a much better overall fit.

I was thinking this when I read the post originally. If I was building a guitar, I would have made the pocket to fit the neck, not the other way around

Joined: 26 Oct 2012 Posts: 34 Location: London UK

Northwinds wrote:

shorty85 wrote:

Don't let paranoia get to you and ruin a good set neck by putting bolts in there. I suggest rather that if you do find that your neck joint is a little loose, simply glue on a shim and then work it down again until you have a tight fit. That will create a much better overall fit.

I was thinking this when I read the post originally. If I was building a guitar, I would have made the pocket to fit the neck, not the other way around

Yeah I made the tenon and then started on the body slot, but after trying to clean it up with a chisel I took a bit too much off. Definitely going to use a router next time!

Joined: 20 Dec 2007 Posts: 4913 Location: Brooklyn, NY

Cool stuff. The headstock reminds me of Esh basses.

Joined: 20 Dec 2007 Posts: 4913 Location: Brooklyn, NY

Cool stuff. The headstock reminds me of Esh basses.