Before I start messing with real timber I decided to do an experiment with MDF just to see if I can make a body from scratch. I knew MDF was going to be heavy so I made hollow and then got a bit creative. Here's the result.
I was expecting it to still be a bit heavy and possibly unbalanced but I got lucky. It feels very similar to my favourite guitar, a factory-made Fender Strat.
The purple finish on the back is a DIY candy I made using liquid dye mixed with clear acrylic lacquer. Worked out to be about $30 per litre and I only used half a litre on this guitar.
Heaps cheaper than the $140 per litre I used to pay for candy paint from the shop and now I can mix'n'match my own colours. The liquid dye is dirt cheap at $1 per 10ml and you only need a few drops per litre of clear paint.
Finally after giving up trying to find a cheap drill press big enough to fit a Telecaster body I decided to make myself a jig for drilling the string-through-body holes by hand. I think it turned out okay.