What if you could make your signature sound? And then every note you play; it instantly hits in the heart. People would start to cry or jump for that fantastic guitar solo and tone. Your guitar playing and tone signature begin to touch every young guitar player.
That’s a dream of every guitar player. Even Jimmy Hendrix fostered this ambition. I believe you’re not beyond him, right?
But the reality is, you are practicing hard in making the tone, even if you know every technical and advanced playing style – in the end, you are not satisfied with the thing you are doing.
Maybe your pockets are full of cash, you have fame, but that’s not your signature. As a result, you get frustrated. Do you know why you are facing this?
It’s not for lack of practice, instead of a lack of proper gear. There are a lot of disputes regarding the statement I mentioned, but over everything, a gear matters.
Marty Friedman, Slash, John Petrucci are the real examples of my statement. They build their guitar based on their choice.
That is why we can blindly say, “this is slash’s solo when someone plays “Sweet Child O Mine” Now, the question is, “is it hard to build my custom guitar?”
No! Not at all, the secret of; how to build an electric guitar from scratch? It is not rocket science now. And all you need to do is; scroll and allow me to give a precise idea on the building – an electric guitar from scratch.
Because I am going to write exactly what you need to know, so, let’s start.
Success starts with a proper plan:
What does it mean to have an appropriate plan? A proper plan includes mental preparation, adequate knowledge, and gathering the right tools. Let me clear the statement.
For example, making an electric guitar is not possible overnight. It’s better to bear in mind that; some of your work may take one day, or some of the work may take two days. That’s mental preparation.
Next is gathering the right knowledge about guitar accessories. For instance, what shape do you want to make? What wood do you want to use for your guitar body? In this case, this article will help you. Just keep scrolling.
When you are done with the previous process, take your preparation into the next steps. Yes, I’m talking about collecting proper woodworking and other necessary tools.
Structure of the body part now:
If all the planning is done, your first work should be shaping the body part. To form a guitar body, some prerequisites you should maintain. For instance, decide the body shape first.
Since there are some common guitar body shapes, you can take them as references. Here are some examples: Fender Stratocaster, Fender Telecaster: Gibson SG, Gibson Les Paul. These guitars could be your template.
After selecting the body shape, my second recommendation will be selecting the tonewood. Deciding the tonewood may be a little sturdy for a newbie because most people prefer classic wood.
I won’t recommend that since there are a lot of alternatives. You can use Ashwood, Alder wood, or mahogany wood. They work fine and even produce the desired sound.
So when you are done with the selection procedure, go to a workstation and make the body shape. During the time of structuring the body shape, keep some space for the electronic parts and neck joining.
Time to make the neck:
Since you have to join the neck with the body part, let’s take a look at; how to make a guitar neck? Shaping a guitar neck starts from choosing an ideal wood. Maple, Mahogany, Rosewood is the perfect material for the neck.
After choosing the wood, it’s time to cut like the way shown in the following picture. Doing this woodwork will need full concentration. For that, I recommend you to use a neck template. It will give you accurate neck measurement.
What is the benefit of proper neck measurement? An appropriate size of the neck will help you to mark up and structure the headstock. In the next step, you will know about the making of the headstock.
Prepare the Headstock:
This is the most crucial part before making up the fret. Why? Tuner pegs and truss rod stay in this portion. So, one needs to adjust the truss rod and tuner pegs equally; otherwise, fret alignment will face a big struggle.
To avoid this sensitive issue is tough for a fresh guitar maker, in this case, the suggestion is to check the template. There are some universal measurement criteria for guitar headstock and fret marking.
Fret marking and preparation:
Next, you need to shape the fretboard. To structure the fretboard, first, you need to mark up the fret space. Then polish the entire parts and attach fret wires in the marketplace. After attaching the fret wire, it’s time to work on nuts.
Fix a nut in between the joining of the neck and the headstock part. By completing this, your technical works are done. Now it’s time to make them look better by polishing.
Join the neck with the body and install the electronic parts:
Ok, you will attach the collar with your guitar body. For that, it’s better to use screws and knobs. After doing that, install the pickup and bridge on the body. At this stage, you have to be selective about selecting the truck.
There are two types of pickups, and they are single-coil and a humbucker pickup. Single coil pickups are lighter than a humbucker. That is why my recommendation is to use a humbucker pickup. They have a balanced sound. So, after installing the pickup and electronic parts, move to the next step.
Final stage:
In this stage, you will attach the tuner pegs and strings. Then check the guitar sound with a guitar amp. Apply all the effects and see; if it works for you or not. That’s all
Conclusion:
I hope all the described points have given you a basic idea on; how to build an electric guitar from scratch? Based on this basic idea, you can move for further steps. So, let me know what points I missed here.