I would like to present here how I built two electric guitars. This could prove useful to any newbies still confused about certain aspects of building. Lets start with the materials.
Here is one of the quilted maple tops.
The bodies are made of American Cherry left over from another project. The necks will also be American Cherry and quarter sawn.
Here is the design of the guitars. They will be a Paul Reed Smith type carve with a 25" scale length and twin humbuckers with PRS switching system.
I`ve strengthened the body join using beech biscuits.
Jointing the maple top.
Gluing maple top.
Gluing body.
After the top is glued to the body, it is marked with a plastic template ready for bandsawing.
Drum sanding body.
Here I`m hand planing the body angle. This starts just before the bridge down to the neck joint including the horns. This angle is governed by the bridge hardware I will be installing. On this guitar it was 4 degrees.
Next I routed out the pickup cavities and neck mortice. Wedges were required on this guitar to obtain the 4 degree neck angle. These were fixed with double sided sticky tape as were the routing templates.
Guitar two`s body was lightened with blind holes drilled with a sawtooth bit.
The recurve area defined with a safety planer mounted in a drill press.
Routing the binding channel on guitar two.
Plastic binding fitted.
Planes used to form the recurve around the guitars.
Rounding the back edge of the guitars with a round over bit in the router.
Carving a rib relief on guitar two.
Routing control cavity.
Cutting the plastic cover plate.
Cover plate in recess.
A body completely carved.
On to the necks. Scarf joint glued.
Thiis is how I reinforce the peghead scarf joint on my guitars. When the peghead shape is cut threre is still wood crossing the scarf joint to reinforce it.
Thicknessing the back of the neck.
Gluing peghead veneers.
Scribing peghead inlays. I lightly glue the inlay with super glue to hold it and when finished scribing I release the inlay with asatone.
I rub chalk into the scribed inlay prior to routing with a Dremel tool.
Inlay glued and leveled.
Finished peghead shape.
Alligning the neck with the body.
Neck carved.
Slotting the finger board on table saw.
The slotted fingerboard.
Finger board inlays installed.
Fretting tools.
Installing frets.
I jigged up in the neck jig for doing the fret work.
HVLP spray gun for finishing the guitars with Colortone water base finish.
Guitars drying.
The red burst guitar after several coats of sealer.
The red guitar was fitted with Libby Fralin humbuckers which were expensive. I decided to save money with the blue guitar, (which will be mine), and make my own pickups using SewMac humbucker kits. I purchased the Shatten pickup winder to do this and wax potted them using my hot hide glue pot.
The finished guitars.
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