Comments on: Have You Ever Built a Guitar?

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:10:48 +0000

@Mark – Sounds like a lot of work! I don’t know if I’ll ever build a guitar from a plank of wood, but I think I could handle building one from a kit and work my way up.

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:09:26 +0000

@Dennis – The guitar-building classes I’ve seen sound very interesting. Do you have personal experience with Dale Unger’s classes? They look like fun!

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:08:06 +0000

@Guitar Today – Taking an old beater and working on that seems like a good starting point, and it may be the approach I take. I don’t have the room or tools to build one from scratch yet, but I could take a beater and build it up.

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:07:08 +0000

@Rob – Building an amp sounds fun, too! That’s also something on my “Would like to do some day” list.

By: Guitar Today

Guitar Today — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:47:10 +0000

I haven’t built one from scratch but I redid an old beater from someone’s closet and got it working again. It was quite a rush.

Once I had figured out how to wire it properly I took it apart, sanded the wood and repainted it.. several times. Changed the shape dramatically and put it back together again.

I haven’t done it since but I do have a copy of a Les Paul Jr. that will eventually be a Frankenstein guitar.

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 05:10:06 +0000

I don’t have the patience to build something that requires so much precision, but I build a Marshall 18-watt combo amp a couple years ago, and it was a blast:

http://www.heartwoodguitar.com/WordPressBlog/?p=52

By: Dennis Cox

Dennis Cox — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:17:46 +0000

I have built two guitars. The first an archtop, the second a solidbody telecaster style. If you really want to do, do it right and attend a class like Dale Unger’s up to Nazarth, PA. Home of Martin Guitars

http://www.americanarchtop.com

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:35:02 +0000

I built a guitar as a woodwork project in school. Ran out of time to do the neck so was really just the body etc. I recall lots and lots of sanding to shape the body. Was a Les Paul-ish shape made from a teak like wood and a sycamore central strip.

I bought an old Palm Bay guitar neck of a mate for £20 and combining all the electrics and components the grand total came to around £40 .

It’s not a great by any means by was fun to do and at the time I only had one other electric guitar.

It’s still kicking around somewhere in the cupboard .

By: John Miller

John Miller — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:19:10 +0000

I find that when people assemble their own guitars, the results are usually something very beautiful and a guitar that plays well. I have never built a guitar before, but my uncle who is an avid guitar player has his own business where he assembles guitars at his home and then sells them to people. I find that very fascinating and it seems like something that I would love to do in the future if I have any free time.

By: Flameboy

Flameboy — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 07:53:35 +0000

I never built a guitar, but I think that this can be a good experience in the life of a guitarist, that is why I would like to have comments about it too.