How handbuilt is handbuilt?

So, I have a bit of a dilemna.

I need to figure out exactly how far I want to take this project. See, in addition to advice and some confidence, Bill also gave me a copy to the Stewart-MacDonald catalog. If you don't know already, Stew-Mac is one of the major suppliers for luthiers and instrument repair.

I have had a long-standing fascination with catalogs since I was little. We used to get the Sears catalog in the mail, and I remember carefully reading over every description in the thing and circling all the stuff I liked. Most of it was toys, of course, but I still read all the descriptions for the power tools and small appliances. It is a habit that I apparently have carried with me all these years, because I've spent an inordinate amount of time with the Stewart-MacDonald literature.

Anyway. I find myself wonder exactly how much time I want to put into this instrument. There are many, many pieces to learn. The more I tackle now, of course, the better off I'll be... but the depth of work involved looks overwhelming.

I could buy ready made pickups, nuts, necks, bodies... or I could learn to wind my own pickups, shape and slot my own nut (and I've already decided to build my own body and neck, obviously). The trade off is, of course, that each step I decide to take on by hand puts the completion date further and further back... nevermind the possibility of doing something incorrectly and ending up with a less-than-ideal instrument.

Ultimately, I think it's worth it - I'll never know everything about a guitar or whether it's worthwhile to do everything by hand until I do it myself. I also have to consider business at some point. If I ever manage to establish a business building and repairing instruments, I imagine that repair work is going to be a much more frequent occurrence than someone commissioning a new guitar.

Additionally, I'll end up with a stable of tools to use for later projects. So, I think (as of right now, anyway) that I'll make as much of the guitar by hand as possible.

Meeting the Mentor.

So, first things first.

I have one follower. Hi Mom (EDIT: Make mine a double. Hi to you too, Lindsay).

I also asked a question in the last post and got exactly one less response than I have followers. To express that as an equation: Number of Answers = Number of Followers - 1.

For those of you who are even worse at math than I am, that equals... zero.

So I have an idea that I'm basically just speaking to myself on this thing. Whatever. I will march bravely onward, telling the walls on my room and them Internets how the guitar build is going.

I've made a couple of trips out to Clayton since the last post. The body of El Kabong is now roughly shaped... meaning, if I stop this project RIGHT NOW, I would have a Stratocaster-shaped cutting board:

None of the cavities have been routed yet, nor has the neck pocket been started. I basically got as far as Keith's help alone could go before we wandered into completely unknown territory. We got right up to the border and then...

I called Bill Allen. Bill is the mentor I referenced a couple of posts ago. He invited me out to his home in Smithfield, so I jumped in the car... and drove to the grocery store.

Then I drove home to unload the groceries, then drove out to Smithfield.

Bill is an extremely nice guy, first and foremost. Secondly, he has built about seven guitars and repaired many others. Third, he plays bass as his primary instrument, which earns him bonus points in my book.

Bill had a look at the work we'd done so far and informed me that it was off to a really good start (whew). We looked at the plans, he gave me a tour of his instruments, then a little advice on next steps.

So, basically... I have to finish shaping the body first. Maybe you can't tell from the above pictures, but that body is monstrously thick for a guitar. It currently sits just a hair under two inches thick, which is almost half an inch too much. So, that needs to be trimmed, and then I'll look at carving the contours into the back and sides to make the thing, you know... comfortable to play.

This also includes routing the cavities for the electronics - all those weird shapes you saw in the templates where the pickups and wires go. I've decided to wait on that until I actually have the hardware in hand - most Strats have their pickups mounted to the pickguard, and I want mine mounted to the wood itself. So, I'll have to adjust the plan slightly.

Now, another topic...

FAIL.

Well, not completely. I made my way back out to Clayton today for more work on "El Kabong" (working title). Two steps forward, one step back.

I finally located and paid a visit to a hardwood seller in Raleigh. Let me say first that Capitol City Lumber is exactly the kind of lumber yard I had hoped to find. They carry large quantities of any hardwood I could ask for: Bubinga, Cocobolo, Mahogany, Wenge, Pao Ferro (actually, not Pao Ferro. Nevermind.), Maple, Swamp Ash... seriously, the list goes on. Even better, they'll happily cut you a single board length as long as they have at least six feet of board left over.

Buying lumber this way is a little odd. It involves math and being finicky (which sounds exactly like the normal way of buying things, now that I think about it). Here's a breakdown:

Step Uno: Walk in, look around in a confused manner (as if to say, "Where is all the wood?") until somebody notices I look lost. Get directed to front counter (actually in the back of the store).

Step Dos: Talk to man at front counter. Get a price sheet. Ask where the wood is. Get directions (Go to the hardwood building).

Step Tres: Walk out of the building and try to find the hardwood barn. Stop in first building because, you know... there are piles of wood in there. Oops. That's all pine and moldings. Locate hardwood building (denoted by a large sign that says "HARDWOODS.").

Step four is the interesting one. I had to ask for an explanation on the price sheet, because there are about five different prices for each type of wood. It goes like this: Each wood is offered in several thicknesses. For some reason, they are all described in "quarters," so if you wanted, say... a 1.5 inch thick board, you ask for six quarters. Additionally, the price is higher for wider boards. Then you tell them how long the piece you need is. The guy does some math to figure out how many "Board Feet" you're getting (the formula is LxWxH/144 or 12, depending on how much wood you're buying), hands you a ticket, and you go pay for it while he cuts it up.

Whew.

Long story short, I left with a 30-inch long piece of nice maple (about 1.5 board feet, I think) for my neck, for about ten dollars.

Then I made my way out to Clayton. Keith and I decided to go ahead and get some prep work done for the guitar body and finish up the template I started last week.

First problem: For the body blank, I need a piece of wood about 2 inches thick, 19 inches long, and 13 inches wide. Keith didn't have a single board that was wide enough, so we decided to glue it up.

So, here's where worrying starts. Wood glue is actually stronger than the wood itself when applied correctly, so I'm not concerned about the body falling apart. I am curious, however, to see how having a glue joint in the middle of the body will affect the overall tone.

Anyway. Joining wood is a common task, so I was glad to get the practice. On to the neck pattern.

I have never been so upset over an eighth of an inch. Last week, Keith cut out the body patterns. This week, I wanted to have a go at the bandsaw. I knew that I wasn't going to cut it (pun intended) on the first go-round, so I practiced. I took plywood, drew random lines on it, then tried to follow those lines with the blade. I got pretty good at it after about 30 minutes of practice, so I decided to go ahead and tackle the template.

Monkeys could have done better straight lines. I was back and forth across the lines inside of three seconds of cutting. I decided to go ahead and finish cutting it out just for practice, then took it to the sanders (more for fun than anything else, since I had already screwed up).

I sanded it down on the sides (no big deal), then went to the float sander to finish the top... and ended up de-plying the plywood. Basically, I sanded so unevenly that I removed several patches of the top layer of wood. I still brought it home so I could compare it to the body patterns.

So, I really need to practice on the bandsaw. At least I only screwed up a piece of plywood... but I really have to slow down and focus of the details. I think that's going to be the case throughout this project.

Now then. Since I know some of you are reading this, I have a question for you:

If you were to design a guitar, what kinds of specs would you ask for? Materials, pickups, neck profile/radius, body design? I'm just curious.

Day One: Baby Steps.

The first guitar has been officially started. Sort of.

I guess I should say that the preliminary steps have been taken. As a first step, I went to Kinko's to have my plan printed out at full size. The plans are nice and detailed, and... in metric. As much as I hate multiples of ten, I decided that it wasn't a big deal since the plans were drawn at a 1:1 ratio. I probably will end up converting the units to Imperial measurements, just because I love America.

In my online research, I found a company that sells templates for several popular guitar models. Like this:

They also want 63 bucks for a guitar-shaped clipboard. I do really like the idea, though - so that in case any of you readers like the way this turns out, you can pay me to build you one (Ha). So, the first task was to build some of these suckers.

The easiest way to do that would be to just cut out the plan and trace around it - but obviously, I'll be needing the plan later. So, the first step was to trace out the guitar using a lightbox and some newsprint:

That part wasn't too difficult. I can draw a little bit. Here's a terrible picture of the finished tracing, glued up to a piece of plywood:


Incidentally, the board is a piece of an old show booth Keith had named "Santa's Workshop." Maybe this isn't quite as amusing to you, but the idea that I destroyed a piece of Santa's Workshop to make a guitar is pretty funny.

So. Traced, glued, and ready to be sawed. I am not proficient at using a bandsaw (yet), so Keith was kind enough to do the cutting. I took the cut pieces and sanded up the edges real nice like:

I've found that a certain amount of finesse is needed for sanding. I did a much better job with the second pattern (the one you see in the picture), so maybe there is hope for me learning how to do this woodworking stuff after all. Here's a picture of the finished body templates - we didn't have time to get the neck portion finished up.

Next week, I'll be finishing the neck template and beginning work on the body.

Spinning the wheels.

Manufacture and building are not the same thing.

I'll let that sink in... it took me a while, but I'm over the shell shock.

Ready?

"Manufactured" is everything you've bought.
"Built" is that antique table you got from your grandparents in the will.

See, that little distinction was tripping me up. I've been researching every little scrap of information on building instruments, and trying desperately to outline the process of guitar making, just so I'd know where to start.

Here's what I figured out:

There is no clear starting point beyond a block of wood. Sure, there are things that need to be done for each instrument... but the method is up to me.

Woodworking seems to operate that way. You figure out how you want to do it, and if it doesn't work then you try something else. If it DOES work, you remember how to do it so you can do it again later.

I like this idea. A lot. It's hard to reconcile this trial-and-error way of doing things with math, though - shapes are just geometry with the math done for you.

Still no contact from my maybe-a-mentor, by the way. I tried to call him, but he was out playing music - which seems like an appropriately objectivist sort of a hobby. This is looking great already, and I still haven't even touched a piece of wood.

Silver lining.

So, yesterday was a pretty rotten day for Keith. His dog, Scout, had to be put down. She was an old dog, and she was maybe the nicest dog I've ever met. I'm gonna miss that puppy.

Keith has one employee. He's not really even technically "employed" by Quality Woodcrafts, since he doesn't actually want to get paid. Robert (I think) is his name. He just comes over while his wife is at work so he can get out of the house and do something he likes doing.

Well, Robert (I think) noticed that Keith was in a foul mood, which is understandable. He managed to convince Keith to get out of the house for a while, so they went to visit some family member of Robert (I think)'s.

This gentleman, as it turns out, is a luthier. His name is Bill - that one I'm sure of. He builds acoustics, electrics, mandolins... all by hand, from start to finish.

So, I guess this one does have a silver lining. For me, at least.

Bill and Keith started talking, and the subject turned to guitars. Keith mentioned my interest in learning to build instruments, and Bill told him that he would be happy to speak with me and answer questions, and also invited Keith and I to come visit his workshop. He even volunteered to work with me in Keith's shop.

Long story short - I may actually have a mentor. Effing Awesome.

Meat and potatoes.

So, that's enough exposition and sappy stuff. Let's talk about where I'm going with my plans.

I initially planned to build a classic Les Paul style guitar (like the one pictured below ) - which has a body constructed of mahogany with a carved (or arched) maple top and a set (or glued-in) neck.

I went to a few luthier supply websites and priced out all the parts, hardware, materials, and electronics. It came to a grand total of around eight hundred dollars (although, I found a much cheaper place to buy wood, so I could probably drop a hundred or so off that estimate) which sounds bad... until you consider that buying a Gibson Les Paul costs around two grand.

I've decided to change my plan, though. I'm going to hold off on the Les Paul for a while and build a Stratocaster-style instrument first, like this one:

There are a couple of good reasons. First, the Strat is still a damned fine guitar. Secondly, it's a much simpler design. Stratocasters have a one-layer body with no arch-top, and most of them have a bolt-on neck. Bolt-ons are the easiest kind of neck joint to deal with. Third, most Fender guitars were designed with easy manufacture in mind - which also means cheaper to manufacture, particularly compared to Les Pauls.

Also, Strats are usually made from Alder or Poplar wood bodies with a one-piece maple neck. Keith works pretty much exclusively in poplar for his toys, so trying to find a "deal" on more exotic woods won't be a concern.

Lastly, even though I've decided to go in first on a "practice" build, I'm still going to end up buying a lot of tools for the project... tools which I will keep and re-use.

There are trade-offs, sure. Poplar is, as far as most luthiers are concerned, an "ugly" wood, at least based on what I've read. All that means is that I'll likely end up choosing an opaque finish that doesn't show much grain. I won't get much practice with inlays or bindings (decoration) on this kind of instrument. Same goes for routing. But because the materials for this project are much cheaper than the stuff for the Les Paul, I'll get to dive right in. And I won't be nearly so worried about making mistakes.

My initial impressions are these: Body work will likely be the easiest. Everything I've read on neck design, construction, and joining make me cringe a little bit - but I'm sure it'll make more sense when I have the neck blank in my hand. Wiring electronics is something I've never really done before, but I don't think it'll be too difficult. Decorating is going to test my patience.