Hi everyone. I wouldn't consider myself to be an aspiring luthier. Rather, I have some daft design ideas for a custom guitar, and on my budget it looks like some assembly will definitely be required. I've never used woodworking tools in my life, so this will be interesting.

I'd like an instrument that sounds decent both amplified and acoustic, so I'm guessing an archtop would be the way to go. I think I saw a recommendation somewhere that newbies should steer clear of hollow body kits - any thoughts on this? If I were to build the body from scratch I could understand the warning, but it looks like with these kits the hard work has mostly been done.

Also on that note, I understand the archtops come with a solid block under the soundboard to mount pick ups etc onto. I'd be doing a custom order without that bit and only F holes and neck pocket routed to preserve the sound board (floating neck mounted humbucker with knobs on the pick guard). I imagine I'll run into trouble with the need for some kind of bracing in place of the solid block - or would I be good to go as is?

I have a heap more questions which might be better asked in other forums, but figured this might pass for a brief intro and help me decide if I'm barking up the wrong tree by starting with a customised GR-1SF.