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GMC Forum _ CHILL OUT _ Diy Guitar Building Project

Posted by: Beat Zbinden Mar 5 2021, 05:17 PM

Todd advised me to write this report.

Inspired by Darius Wave, I also wanted to build an electric guitar myself. I am a trained electrician. Has been on the road as a service technician for years and has worked in maintenance for a food company for the last 4 years. So my professional career has nothing to do with guitar making. In my free time, however, I always worked with wood a little. I've done a lot from remote-controlled model airplanes to self-made kite surfboards. My workshop is also set up relatively well.
I then bought the book by Martin Koch (E-Guitar Maker) and more or less learned it by heart….
The bigger problem was where I can get the wood from. In Switzerland there is this strict CITES regulation (cites.org). It is very difficult to import all woods that are endangered by "extinction".
Then I found the company tonewood.ch and swisswoodsolutions.ch. I then ordered the wood from these companies.
At Stewmac.com I bought one or the other tools, stencils and accessories.
So far I've built two guitars.
The necks are made of maple
The body is once spruce and maple top and once ash with ash top. All woods are thermally treated. This makes them more of a caramel color.
The wood is raw. It still has to be trained and planed. The body and neck were milled using templates. Body is in two parts.
The neck was taped together with a scarf joint. This means that the grain direction is retained.
The typical neck breaking of Gibson guitars should be avoided.
The fingerboard is also completely self-made. Fret slots were also sawn with a jig and template. Fingerboard ground to radius. Glued to the neck and then bent, press-fitted and straightened frets.
There are special milling cutters with the correct dimensions for bindings. These are glued with acetone.
Milling for electronics, pickups and the neck pocket were also made with templates.
The neck and body are glued.
I made the finish once with stain and oil and once only with oil. The oil is rubbed in with 400 grade wet sandpaper. This closes the pores in the wood. The oil dries out completely. At the end it was waxed. My guitars have a satin finish.
By the way, the oil and wax is from Birchwoodcasey True Oil.
The decision to use EMG pickups was actually because this company offers pre-wired systems. Install and plug together. There is very little soldering. All components fit together.
So I have now installed the EMG JH «HET» set and the EMG 57/66 set. Later I will certainly use other manufacturers as well.
Then there are the Kluson MK6 machine heads and the TonPros LPGM02 tailpiece.
I am amazed how good the guitars sound. The playability and the height of the strings to the fingerboard are also extremely good. As a comparison, I have my different Ibanez guitars.

The video with sound examples will follow soon ...

 

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