Finished my guitar.

freezed

freezed

Active member
Staff member
There have to be some guitarists on NS...

I finished the project I started last summer.

Made my own body from limba (AKA korina)...here's a picture of it when I got the blank.

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I then used a blueprint a guy from a telecaster forum made in CAD to make my own MDF templates.

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From the 1/4" MDF master template, I made 3/4" MDF working templates. I used those to route the shape of the body, the pickup holes, and the control plate holes. The neck pocket needed its own template as well. I routed the roundover, and used a drill press for all the bridge holes, string-through holes, etc.

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Then I shellacked it with amber flakes, and sprayed it with clear lacquer. I let it dry for a few months (I'm working on this project at my parents house, I was at school for a few months). I came back for Christmas break, and got to finish it. I dry-fit to make sure everything went on correctly then wet sanded and then hand polished with Meguiar's Mirror Glaze Cleaner Wax.

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Same. Don't play but I can totally respect the fact you building your own guitar. Especially a beautiful one at that.
 
thats a sweet strum box.

my drum teacher(plays guitar as well) has made 3 teles. i really want to try doing one. how much did that all cost you?
 
wow beautiful. looks kinda like my fender special edition lite ash, except mines a lot brighter. does korina have a special tone or something?
 
I don't know a lot about guitars but that's pretty amazing. and how did you find a solid piece of wood that wide?
 
My god that is a sexy guitar. have you thought about using a humbucker in the bridge slot? I hear it resonates better with softer woods like Korina. That's why the Korina Flying V is so fucking amazing sounding.

Amazing job though.Tele's are one of ma faves and yours just looks bangable.
 
It does look a lot like the Lite Ash special...I definitely had that in mind making it, I think it's a classy look.

The pickups are custom wound, from a company in Hood River, Oregon called Vintage Vibe. I definitely want the traditional tele setup for this one. If I made another one I might do a Tele Custom style, with a humbucker in the neck though.
 
Awesome! I started building a bass guitar from scratch about five years ago for a school project and put it down for a few and finally finished it (to functioning order) last winter. All I have yet to do is paint it.

I made the body out of alder since I knew I wouldn't really be seeing the grain. The neck is laminated fiery maple, purpleheart, and curly maple with an ebony fingerboard. I bought a jig to saw the frets but that was the only piece I purchased. It was a 24 fret long neck.. baller heh. The rest we shaped ourselves. The headstock is a subtle curly maple with a fiery maple cap. I was way into Metallica back then so I gave `er an explorer body style.

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Four years later:

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Hope all those pictures worked!

and congrats on yours. It's definitely an accomplishment.

 
sick with the bass, man...building your own instrument is really fun.

my dad and his friend are building their own amps right now too. so i can rock a fully homebrewed setup, haha.
 
What would be harder to make. acoustic or electric?

electrics are nice, but personally i like acoustics, such a nicer sound

class job man, nice work
 
huge props man - that tele is beautiful.

tele's are awesome guitars...#1 imo. ive got an fender 04 american tele and a brand new g&l asat classic. tele's are sweet.
 
An acoustic would be exponentially harder to build. Becuase of all the bracing required inside and the shaping of the wood, and how exact everything needs to be inside the body it would be very very difficult for an amateur to build and acoustic guitar without any background.
 
haha thats so dope. i helped make my cello, lot of hard work went into that so i bet you doing it your self was super hard
 
How much did this cost you total? I want a strat but I can't decide if I should build one or buy one and fix it up...
 
Hmmm...I would guess it came out to a bit less than $600. Not cheap, but I got to make every aspect of it custom...4-way wiring harness with tone bleed circuit (doesn't cut high freqs as volume pot is turned down), custom pickups, the neck I wanted, vintage style bridge, etc. So for the money, it was definitely worth it. However, I didn't have to purchase any tools, as my dad already had a jigsaw, drill press, router/router table, etc. So that could significantly up the price if you needed to do that though.

In any case, I would recommend making your own. It's really fun.
 
Excellent work man. How does it sound? Looks like it would give off a nice deep tone from the weight
 
It looks pretty good. Did it set up well? I've been thinking about building a guitar but I'm worried that I might just fuck it up... I think getting a beater and just modding the shit out of it would be good practice and maybe a little confidence booster for the real thing.
 
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