first time scratcher

[D.K]

Hi all,

I have been away for a while, I got bored over Christmas and decided to change the look on a sta-1m that I built a couple of years ago. well long story short I enjoyed it so much again that I figured the wife surely wouldn't realise if one or two new guitars made their way slowly into the house ( you know, put it behind the couch for a while and only bring it out when shes not around, after 5 or 6 weeks you can pull it out and say this old thing, nah Ive had it for ages.) Anyway, I've always wanted to do a scratch build, so I started out trying to make a cheap body in case I stuffed it up, I used Tas. Oak as a centre and covered both sides in marine ply. After making a template and routing out the shape I was fairly impressed with the outcome but thought I don't really want a plywood guitar when for a little more effort I could make something much nicer. Anyway I have taken some photos of the body wood as well as the sta-1m.
With any luck I should get the body blank cut out and routed tomorrow.I have ordered a maple strat neck with rosewood fretboard from Adam but think I will try and make my own first and see how it turns out.

[D.K]

Got to love four day weekends, gives you plenty of time for the things you enjoy. Made some progress on the body today, managed to sand the body back to reasonably flat as there was three different thicknesses of timber to start with( I wish I had bought that thicknesser when I was looking at it), had a slight problem as the outside boards are softer than the inside onesso the first side I sanded back went too far which gives it a bevel to the bottom edge, only plan I could come up with was to replicate it on the top side and I am not entirely unhappy with how it turned out.managed to get the shape cut and routed out, still have a little bit of sanding to do around the concave curves. Next I will cut the binding channel for the top and bottom. still waiting for the binding to arrive, it's always the waiting that's the hardest.

[Kick]

It already is looking good! If you can do this you can certainly make your own neck

[D.K]

Thanks Kick, the neck shaping doesn't worry me its more so cutting and getting the frets done right.

[Kick]

I know what you mean. That would be my greatest challenge if I ever would build my guitar myself. Also the thingies with the trusrod is something that is a bit scary I think.

But hey, I'm not holding you of of course

[D.K]

I still don't know whether I can manage to make a good neck or not, but I am going to give it a crack. I found a guy on youtube called fletchers handcrafted guitars who did a complete strat build with seven or eight episodes dedicated to just the neck really informative. I'm sure I will be watching it a few more times while building.

[Kick]

I have seen those and they are very educational

[D.K]

fantastic builder.

[Fretworn]

This is going to look great DK

[D.K]

Managed to get a bit done today but no real progress to show for it. I reshaped the area of the body where the neck pocket will be cut out of, I just think it will be a bit more comfortable to play and there was a few issues with the template moving the first time I routed the outside of the body, I started making a template to cut the neck pocket and after finishing I realise why all the other neck pocket templates I have seen have such long fingers on the end of them, Looks like I will be starting that process all over again tomorrow. on another note, I spotted an extremely heavy piece of hardwood dunnage at work the other day and was wondering if I could use it to make a neck or at least a fretboard out of, so I cleaned up one side and hit it with some rosewood stain and some scandi oil and I think it would be very interesting as a fretbord.