How to Make an Electric Guitar

Is playing the electric guitar your ultimate dream? Every guitarist knows that the perfect instrument is difficult to find on store shelves. We drool over custom guitars, but never have the cash for a fully hand-made instrument. Fortunately you can build your own guitar relatively inexpensively and without expert skills.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Pre-shaped guitar neck with frets installed
• Pre-drilled guitar body
• Guitar bridge
• Guitar tuners
• Guitar neck attachment
• Pre-wired guitar scratch plate, pickups and controls
• Brush-on guitar wood stain
• Brush-on or aerosol guitar lacquer, or tung oil

1. Plan your guitar and purchase wood and hardware. It is important to have your dream guitar completely planned in your head before you begin working on it. What will the body wood and shape be? How many frets will the neck have? Make sure that the neck you purchase will fit the body's neck socket, and that the holes drilled for the guitar bridge will correspond to the intended scale length. The body's electronics routing should match the number and size of pickups you plan to install. Also plan the finish color and type.
2. Fit the square end of the neck into the routed slot on the body and make sure they fit together snugly. If they are very snug, use sandpaper to shape the guitar neck, but be careful not to let the fit get so loose that it shakes!
3. Secure the neck to the body using the neck attachment screws. Insert screws into pre-drilled holes and tighten. Check the neck to make sure it does not move in the body slot.
4. Apply guitar finish. If you choose to stain your guitar a certain color, apply as many coats of stain as necessary to achieve your desired color, allowing each coat to dry before adding another. Sand the guitar once again and apply several top coats, spraying evenly over the body. Sand the guitar using progressively smaller grit sandpaper, and finally buff the guitar using a soft cloth until it shines.
5. Attach the guitar bridge to the body. Align the bridge with the holes drilled into the body and insert the screws into each hole. Be sure once again that everything is aligned, and tighten the screws.
6. Install the pre-wired scratch plate and electronics. Once again line up the screw holes in the scratch plate, taking care to fit the controls and wires underneath into their proper routed cavities. Screw the scratch plate onto the body.
7. Attach the guitar tuners to the peghead. Normally each tuner has one screw. Insert each tuner into the hole, rotate so that it will not interfere with tuning the others, and screw it down.
8. Take your new hand-made custom guitar to a local music shop and have a set of strings installed and a complete setup done. When you get it back, plug in and enjoy your unique instrument!

Tips & Warnings

• Know lengths and measures of guitars.
• Instead of purchasing each component separately, look at buying a guitar kit, which still allows a great deal of customization.
• Lay the guitar neck, body and hardware neatly on your work surface. This will make is easier to stay organized during the building process.
• Cover the guitar fretboard in masking tape to avoid getting finish on the frets and wood.
• If you decide to use tung oil as a top coat finish instead of an aerosol lacquer, sand like normal and apply four to six coats. After each coat wipe off the excess and allow to dry for at least 48 hours before applying the next.
• Go slow. A misaligned screw can destroy the entire guitar body.
• Do not try to install strings and play without a full professional setup. This process requires advanced training, and without it your guitar will not be enjoyable to play and may be damaged.