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.
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I don't know all the required steps, but if there's a particularly expensive or exacting step involved in creating a part, that would be one I'd consider buying pre-made. Also, you don't want to make the job so daunting that it seems impossible, because then you'll just stop.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jef to a point. My thought is that you try and either get too frustrated then buy the pre-made. Then you have the worry about screwing up, well, try it out on a dummy body out of plywood or something. You won't learn to do it if you don't try. Take it one step at a time and you will do just fine.
ReplyDeleteI sort of agree with both of you. As far as these "extra" parts I'm looking at handmaking - no individual step is so daunting that I don't think I could handle it. Nut-making, for instance, is just putting a curve on a piece of bone and then filing slots in the right place when you get down to it.
ReplyDeleteThe part of it that looks somewhat daunting is actually monetary. For example, a ready made nut (shaped and slotted) is around 5-8 dollars. The 12-piece "basic nut-making toolkit" is 194.
What I don't know is how many of these tools are absolutely necessary to performing good work. Most of the tools in that set are specialty files, vise grips, and saws. I'm wondering if I can't achieve good results with less specialized tools.
I have a book ordered on building solid-body guitars, though. I hope it has a list of recommended starter tools.
Anyway, my initial diagnosis seems accurate. Either I get my guitar to a playable condition quickly, or I spend more money and time to learn everything I possibly can.