Building guitars is much like playing them; you're always learning and your mistakes inform you better than your successes, but repetition breeds technique and technique aids consistency. That being said, there are a number of things I wish I knew when I built my first guitar, so here goes, maybe it will help others to avoid a few pitfalls on their first attempt.
In the most general of terms, making each stage perfect (or as perfect as it can be) before moving on to the next is the best bit of advice I can give. Having to work around a not quite straight body when grain filling or buffing out paint becomes very difficult, so lets start from the beginning and take everything in turn.
Firstly prepping your body blank. Getting the exact thickness and a perfectly straight and level surface at this point makes everything that follows easier. If you have a slight bend or some dips and hills then when you come to routing neck pockets and applying finishes you'll be setting yourself some serious challenges.
Cutting the body shape. Before even drawing the outline, mark your centre line, everything from this point forwards will be based on that line, including the body outline.
If you're working from a template and intend to use a template router bit to even up the sides of the guitar then take the time to make the edges of your template perfectly smooth. It is far easier and quicker to prep a plywood or mdf template perfectly than it is to sand down bumps on the edge of the guitar after the fact.
If you're binding the guitar body, cut the binding channel about 1/3 mm too shallow so that the binding is a hair higher than the surface of the guitar. It takes seconds to sand
flush with the body, but if you try to measure the binding exactly and end up with a channel just a hair to deep then you're in for some serious sanding or more likely, buying a thicker binding!
For the neck pocket, if you're using a router template, fit the neck into the template so that its snug before starting. You can add layers of tape to get the exact fit. But remember to add tape to both sides of the template evenly so that the centre line is still exact. The neck should be snug but not tight for a bolt on neck! A very tight neck pocket can give you issues fitting the neck after painting and may even cause finish cracking over time as the wood expands and contracts.
Routing the pickup and control cavities is much easier if you remove as much material as possible before routing. Forstner drill bits are invaluable here but be careful when measuring the depth and be aware of the length of the point on the end of the drill bit, it will likely go 4-5mm deeper than the hole you're cutting.
Drilling the holes for strings or a bridge becomes much more precise if you do with the neck temporarily attached and the high and low 'E' strings mocked up with twine or cotton. This can be validated by double checking against the guitar centre line for perfect alignment.
Round over all your edges before finishing or painting. Paint will stick far better to even the slightest of rounded surfaces, such as edges of pickup and control cavities and reduce the chances of cracking or issues later.
For the purposes of this post I'm assuming you may not be making your own neck for a first build. Taking the time to mask off your fretboard pays dividends when levelling and crowning frets and using a fret levelling beam as long as possible eliminates the opportunity for mistakes. Likewise a nut file set also makes the fine tuning of your setup much more precise.
The finish on the guitar is only as good as the prep! This means that any imperfections in your surface will be reflected in the finish, irrespective of what type of finish you use. Taking the time to prep the body for finishing always takes me far longer than the finishing process itself. I always plan on gain filling twice because there will be a couple of
spots that I miss and prepping in good light is a key to success.
For this post all I'll say on finishing is that irrespective of what finish you're applying, thin coats and patience are always the key to a great finish. However when it comes to cleaning binding, nothing works better than a razor blade stuck into a wine bottle cork. You can set it at the perfect distance and run along the binding to peel off any paint or finish that has bled across the binding. I find that no matter how well I mask the binding it can never be as perfectly sharp as shaving with a razor blade.
When soldering parts, I find that a spare piece of plywood to hold all the component on top of the guitar body is the best way to avoid any scratches to your precious new paint
or finish and assembling the whole guitar on a towel has also proved vital.
Finally, its always a good idea to plug in the guitar and do a quick test to check the pickups and switching work as planned before screwing everything into place!
While I'm not going to admit how many of these mistakes I made in my first build, hopefully this may help some of you to avoid at least a couple. But my main piece of advice; enjoy every moment of the build, its a wonderfully therapeutic experience and one you'll remember each time you play your new pride and joy!
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