Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey everyone i recently finished up my first guitar build. I'm still in college and i decided to take on the challenge of building a guitar from scratch during my winter break. I got most of my supplies from stewart macdonald (they're great) and did all the work in the shed behind our house. I'm new to the forums but i hope to contribute! Since this was my first build, i had to do a good amount of research and experimenting to get everything right, but i finally got it. I wish i had visited this site earlier- there seems to be some very knowledgeable people here.
My main reason for posting this up here is to get feedback and to answer any questions you all my have about my build. Feel free to ask!
I will put up videos of how the guitar sounds later.
specs:
24.75 inch scale, seymour duncan pearly gate in bridge, fender humbucker for neck, gotoh 510 bridge + tailpiece, grover tuners, mahogany neck, flamed maple top w/ mahogany body.


the finished guitar!

planning/ drawing out everything(rough)

gluing the matchbooked maple top

cutting out the body on a bandsaw

finished cutting out the body

routing the top to the right thickness


routing pickup cavities


routing/drilling holes for electronics cavity



sketching the top-carving pattern

routing the top to the pattern

sawing out truss rod pocket

shaping neck w/ bandsaw



shaping neck w/ spokeshave

test-fitting fingerboard




used a dremel router attachment to rout out cavities for inlays (had to go in w/ an exacto knife to clean it up)

primer (used the wrong kind at first)

i finally used some rustoleum spray primer and it worked pretty well

used some gloss black nitro from stewmac to paint the back black. 2 coats

used black stain from stewmac mixed with water

sanded middle with random orbital sander to get sunburst effect


ready for spraying lacquer



after some rubbing + buffing

wiring up the pots w/ a mock cardboard cavity (tip i learned from stewmac)

back of guitar w/ clear acrylic covers i made

Nice Job Raymond and welcome to the OLF

You did a good job and should be real proud. Is it for you? How does it play and sound.

_________________
Ken

Im still in the process of fine tuning it - theres some fret buzz when i bend the high e string so ill go and level the frets again. it sounds pretty good. ill post a video later. yeah this is my guitar, but since i am on my summer break i am thinking about making another one and perhaps selling it

thanks! i had two years of woodshop which helped a lot I also used the book "make your own electric guitar" and various other online sources