I Finished My Guitar.(pictures)

maxxa1221 · 09-29-2006, 04:27 PM

Well I dont know how many of your are going to remember my thread about making a guitar. http://www.pbreview.com/forums/showthread.php?t=383519
There the link if you want to see it. Well anyways I decided to go through with it. Instead of an sg or les paul style body I went with the basic strat body. It was a really fun project and I might do another one after christmas. The work was not that hard either. It was about 10-12 man hours. Most of it sanding and finish.

I started by making a template out of particle board. After making 2 perfect templates then glueing them together. Then I traced the template over the pre-routed Mahogany body blank. After tracing the template to the body, I used a band saw to cut off most of the slack; leaving about a cm of wood around the line. After that I got the teplate in the perfect spot so everything was alligned correctly. After that I rigged up the router with a flushcut router bit. The bit was not long enough to do the whole body, so I had to do 6 levels of routing moving up slightly after each one. After the body was cut out I used another routing bit to round the coners which work exceptionally well also.

Than came getting the contour of the body right. I really dont feel like explaning this step. It hard to explain withought having the body in hand. If you have any questions about it, just ask.

Then came the sanding. This step is hell. I probably put about 4 hours of sanding into this. Mostly done by hand because I didnt like the how the palm sander was playing with the edging. After the sanding was done my uncle taught me a trick. My uncle told me when done sanding, I should wipe denatured alcohol on the body, which replicates the stain youd be putting on. That way you can see if theres anything that will show up in the stain. After that I refined anything I found.

Once the body was where I wanted it I hit it with a coat of Tung Oil. Tung Oil is an all natural stain that pulls out the color of the wood. After that dried we started to put the laquer on. After 6 coats of laquer the body was dont.

I bought the neck premade so that was an easy bolt on, 4 screws. The bridge slaped on pretty quick too.Then I had to drill out the holes for the pickguard in the body. Then I had to soldier 2 wires to the jack, and 1 wire to the bridge assembly, then it was ready to put strings on.

All in all it was a really fun project, and worth while. It sounds really good too. A nice bright tone to it. It was really alot of work but atleast the work wasnt boring. I wouldnt hesitate to do another one.

excuse any spelling/grammar errors. This was a long type.

Pictures (click to enlarge)

http://www.putfile.com/maxxmaa1221/images/27440

My Own Abyss · 09-29-2006, 04:33 PM

Looks great. Maybe you could post a song or something you play with it, I would like to hear the sound myself. Good job.

kwalski · 09-29-2006, 04:34 PM

Good god man. You should sell those

DM5GUY · 09-29-2006, 06:05 PM

That came out better than expected

kjpmkjp · 09-29-2006, 06:06 PM

Looks awesome.

DM5GUY · 09-29-2006, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwalski

Good god man. You should sell those

Would be quite time consuming and expensive. But possibly worth it.

Tipp98WhisperEx · 09-29-2006, 07:33 PM

Very nice. I really like how it turned out.

cmwashere18755 · 09-29-2006, 07:37 PM

nice, saven some cash for a les paul

Fat Lard · 09-29-2006, 08:52 PM

Looks amazing. Any idea what you're going to put on the headstock? and how much did this cost you total?

spyderpilot642 · 09-29-2006, 10:52 PM

makes me wanna try making one, or doing some modding to mine, but i love my sg too much

do you know if it would be possible to somehow mod an sg to put a wammy bar on it?

Mojo · 09-30-2006, 01:34 AM

I bow to the devotion you put into that, that's a really cool achievement man.

paintballjames · 09-30-2006, 05:52 AM

nice job. im trying to convince my wood tech teacher to let us make a bass in class but that isnt going soo well. what did you use for the body??

maxxa1221 · 09-30-2006, 06:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paintballjames

what did you use for the body??

I used Mahogany for the body.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Lard

Any idea what you're going to put on the headstock? and how much did this cost you total?

I was planing on leaving the headstock. Mainly because its already finished. unless you guys say it looks terrible, I think im going to leave it. The whole project cause around $320. That didnt count laquer and stain.(my uncle already had some.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by spyderpilot642

do you know if it would be possible to somehow mod an sg to put a wammy bar on it?

Im not sure if it is. You probably dont want to mess with the bridge, so I think youd have to get a new one. Im not sure if Sgs have specific biridges. Can i see a picture (that might help)

Thanks for the replies, Im glad you guys like it.

kwalski · 09-30-2006, 07:00 AM

i have seen sgs with wammy bars, though. so you may be abel to get you bridge replaced, but it would require some body modding.

Zedthephish · 09-30-2006, 07:26 PM

for a whammy effect with an SG, just bend the strings at the headstock.

cookie123 · 09-30-2006, 11:04 PM

looks very nice, I started a les paul style one last year myself, and had a really nice paint job and everything (american flag) but me with my tendency to not finish things never finished the wiring, I really would like to finish that up one day