Wolf Follower
Junior Member
- Messages
- 34
Here's the story of the only guitar body I ever made, circa 2004.
I had a free MIM Tele neck from where I had converted my Tele into a 12-string so I decided to make a body for it. Being my first venture into guitar building, I decided to try to make it as cheaply as possible. So, I completed the guitar with the Tele neck. Well, I was always a little disappointed with the sound of the 12-string Tele and as a 6-string it was my favorite guitar so I repo'd the Tele neck to reconvert that guitar. For one reason or another, I had my Warmoth Strat disassembled, one thing led to another, and this cheap homemade guitar ended up with a fancy neck! I would later end up selling it (for little more than the cost of parts) to help finance my wedding (it was a bare bones affair, lest any of you think I would sell off a guitar to pay for a bunch of fancy doileys or something).
Here are the main specs:
Alder body, crappily finished in auto spray paint and buffed smooth with Brasso
Carvin single coils
Warmoth birdseye maple neck with rosewood board and Earvana nut
Misc cheap hardware
As I recall, it was was a nice, if not particularly unique sounding instrument. The shape was not quite as I originally drew it due to a mishap cutting out the router template, but whatever. It was fun to play - the body was light and comfortable with that large edge radius. I was trying to make it nice and simple. The wiring offered a few options though - the pots had push-pull switches attached. One of them put the pickups out of phase and the other bypassed the main selector and put the pickups in series. I really liked this control scheme. Anyway, it was a fun project and a good learning experience. For the benefit of all, here were my main takeaways:
1. Drilling six large holes in perfect alignment is extremely difficult without a drill press.
2. No matter how inhospitable the winter weather, never use an electric router in your kitchen! Seriously, the thing creates such a mess that usually won't even use it in my garage these days.
3. Most importantly, one should never, ever be tempted to convert a shower into a spray booth (it had a curtain and an exhaust fan, what could go wrong?)! My wife still likes to reminisce on this debacle from time to time.
Anyway, enjoy the pics, and thanks for reading!
WF
I had a free MIM Tele neck from where I had converted my Tele into a 12-string so I decided to make a body for it. Being my first venture into guitar building, I decided to try to make it as cheaply as possible. So, I completed the guitar with the Tele neck. Well, I was always a little disappointed with the sound of the 12-string Tele and as a 6-string it was my favorite guitar so I repo'd the Tele neck to reconvert that guitar. For one reason or another, I had my Warmoth Strat disassembled, one thing led to another, and this cheap homemade guitar ended up with a fancy neck! I would later end up selling it (for little more than the cost of parts) to help finance my wedding (it was a bare bones affair, lest any of you think I would sell off a guitar to pay for a bunch of fancy doileys or something).
Here are the main specs:
Alder body, crappily finished in auto spray paint and buffed smooth with Brasso
Carvin single coils
Warmoth birdseye maple neck with rosewood board and Earvana nut
Misc cheap hardware
As I recall, it was was a nice, if not particularly unique sounding instrument. The shape was not quite as I originally drew it due to a mishap cutting out the router template, but whatever. It was fun to play - the body was light and comfortable with that large edge radius. I was trying to make it nice and simple. The wiring offered a few options though - the pots had push-pull switches attached. One of them put the pickups out of phase and the other bypassed the main selector and put the pickups in series. I really liked this control scheme. Anyway, it was a fun project and a good learning experience. For the benefit of all, here were my main takeaways:
1. Drilling six large holes in perfect alignment is extremely difficult without a drill press.
2. No matter how inhospitable the winter weather, never use an electric router in your kitchen! Seriously, the thing creates such a mess that usually won't even use it in my garage these days.
3. Most importantly, one should never, ever be tempted to convert a shower into a spray booth (it had a curtain and an exhaust fan, what could go wrong?)! My wife still likes to reminisce on this debacle from time to time.
Anyway, enjoy the pics, and thanks for reading!
WF
