Hey Guys, I thought it was time to get back on the horse (saw horse that is). I’ve got a Pitbull neck but wanted a project to test my skills/sanity so I thought I would try a scratch body this time.
I know that pine is probably not the first choice for a guitar body, but wait, IT GETS WORSE!
If the pinnacle of guitar making is to make a body out of one piece of tone wood imagine how embarrassed I am to tell you that I have no idea how many pieces of wood are in my build.
The original idea come to me after Lyn’s brother gave me some leftovers from his home reno. I ended up with a 900x400 sheet of laminated pine, 18mm thick. Sooo, 2 pieces glued together would give me 36mm, but still not thick enough for a Tele body. As the pine sheet had already started to warp I decided to sandwich a sheet of 9mm marine ply between 2 outer layers of the laminated pine, figuring that the marine ply might give it some strength. Time will tell.
I accept that this whole project might be a massive fail, and even if I do manage to complete the guitar, it will probably sound rubbish. But at least I’m going to give it my best shot. Plan B will be to scrap the guitar and use the hardware on a decent body. I figure I've got nothing to lose except what's left of my sanity.
Oh, and one last thing, I WILL NOT BE USING ANY POWER TOOLS. This will be built on my back patio using hand tools only.
Next job will be to cut out the body shape on all 3 pieces of wood and glue together. Stay tuned.
Cheers
rob
Pic 1. Before cutting out the body shape I thought I had better cut a neck pocket. Cutting well inside the lines. (You can always take more away but it’s a lot harder to put some back). Just to clarify, the neck pocket and pup route “floors” will be the middle ply layer.
Pic 2. Neck pocket finished, nice snug fit.
Pic 3. Starting the P90 cavity. For the small drilling jobs I used an "egg beater" drill for the larger holes I used the brace and a spade bit.
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