Help building a custom guitar…
(Originally posted on November 28, 2021)
How it’s going…
A short time ago Derek reached out to me through Facebook with an interesting inquiry... would I help him make an electric guitar? I do not consider myself a builder, and projects like these usually ring plenty of alarm bells. He had a body blank cut to rough shape and a homemade neck he had purchased on eBay... and some parts. Normally, I wouldn't take on something like this. There are too many variables, too many questions with hypothetical answers, too much work, and too many places to lose money. A kit or parts from a licensed parts maker is one thing, but this is something else. Ultimately, it boiled down to whether or not I could charge a fair price for the both of us and not lose my shirt in a quagmire of free labor.
How it started… I think I could’ve passed a few quarters through there.
In retrospect, it turned out to be a most rewarding project and something I'm genuinely proud of. I was given some components in, let's just say, less than ideal shape. The body was a sandwich of random woods (I'm still not totally sure what it's made of, oak, maple, and some dark brown/reddish exotic), and it was cupped like a slab-cut board left overnight on the grass in summer. The shape was rough and the sides were out of square by almost a quarter inch in many areas. The neck had its own issues: the scale length was atypical, and the neck heel was not flat or square, which would make mating with the body difficult. The fretwork was subpar, and a large-ish chunk had chipped off on the treble-side corner just below the 21st fret. I was given a single humbucker, some neck screws with a mounting plate, and an old Tune-o-matic bridge. Instead of a tailpiece to complement the bridge, Derek provided six top-mount ferrules and six for the back. He wanted the strings "through-the-body." What could go wrong?
Not cool.
Through it all, Derek was gracious and deferred to me on almost all of the design details. I have to say, this made for an easy experience on my end. While it was more work on the front end, I wasn't troubled by endless change orders and conversations about “what-ifs”. Likewise, he let me take the time to think and plan things through, to treat it like it was my own instrument, trying not to miss any details. For goodness' sake, it's a solid-body electric guitar; a coffee table with a long handle and some magnets inlaid in it. How hard can it be?!
Making a template for the neck pocket…
I've repaired thousands of instruments, built only a handful, but enough to know that the experience can be, as my friends in Boulder say, "one heartbreaking disappointment after another." The tiniest little mistake can absolutely crush you. I'm not really set up to build. I don't have the typical jigs and even some of the tools that a builder would have on hand in a typical production setting. This guitar, in essence, was a one-off custom piece, and it was important to me to get it right.
The picture to the right shows how I made a template for the neck joint cavity. I wish I had only used three pieces of scrap wood to define the boundaries, but the end of the neck was not straight. I had always used double-stick tape to do this sort of thing, until I saw all the cool kids on Instagram using the masking tape and super glue trick. Rather than one piece of double stick tape mating two piece of wood together, you can apply regular old masking tape to each surface, then join them together with a little bit of super glue. This has been a game changing technique for me, as it is much easier and cleaner to remove then double-sided tape. So much time saved! Actually, I think I picked this up first from Crimson Guitars, though I’m sure this has been an old school technique that I was just painfully ignorant of for far too long.
Ready to route the pickup cavities…
The scope of this job did not exceed the basics, Derek just wanted to be able to string it up and plug it in, and of course, make it play as easy as possible.
Here’s a look at the back… I used a test jack with alligator clips to demo the guitar for Derek. Also, I think the biggest flaw can be seen here… the spacing of the ferrules wasn’t exactly perfect, even with a jig, my bit wandered as it went through the top and out the back. I believe part of the issue was using a brad point bit, live and learn.
Happy customer, this thing rocks, but the rest of it is up to him!
If you have questions or insights about building or repairing a fretted instrument, please send me a message through my website. Or send me an email at ian@hendrickslutherie.com. I would love to hear from you!
