E-Guitar making: from practitioner to practitioner

By Norbert Waldy

This book shall provide you with the basis and the knowledge to build your own electric guitar.

It has been created for beginners and for advanced practitioners, focusing on the essential.

If you build a guitar on your own, you should enjoy working with wood, sawing, sanding, refining, soldering, assembling and adjusting your masterwork.

• Language: English
• Publisher: tredition
• Release date: Mar 3, 2014
• ISBN: 9783849577063

Book preview

Each artisan needs a minimum amount of tools. This is also valid for us, the guitar makers.

To build an electric guitar, you need the following tools:

a solid table, or even better a workbench (exposed to the daylight)

handsaw, jigsaw or band saw

nut saw

sander

sandpaper with different granulation

hand drilling machine

box column drill

files for wood and metal

fret files

nut files

different screwdrivers

planes

soldering iron

tin

clamps

bench vise

cutters

radii sanding block

fret slotting template

scraper (important tool for building an instrument)

and for your own security, use safety glasses, a dust mask and ear protection.

You’ll find almost each tool to build your electric guitar in a DIY superstore.

However, there are some special tools, like:

fret file

nut file

nut saw

fret slotting template

You find them here:

www.rockinger.com

www.gitarre-bestellen.de

For electric guitars, it’s also so that : c’est le bois qui fait la musique. This French sentence means wood makes music… but not only!!!

The choice of wood has an influence on the sonority of your guitar.

Body, neck, sound board and fingerboard are mostly made of different types of wood. They should be adapted to your music style.

For this reason, I recommend you to take your time to choose the right type of wood.

Ash wood has a bright, defined, sparkling sonority with full-length sustain und power.

In spite of its sparkling sonority, ash sounds well-balanced. This is why it’s one of the most popular sorts of wood for electric guitars.

There are different types of ash with distinctive sonority and weight characteristics.

Hard ash provides a bright sonority with full length sustain while green ash is appreciated for its perfect balance between the sparkling and the warm sound.

Besides this, green ash is mostly grained.

Compared to green ash, hard ash is heavier.

Example of an ash body from: www.yamaha.com

Alder wood, soft and slightly red, can be easily manipulated.

Its sonority is rich in overtones, warm and fuller than ash. The big advantage of alder is that it is light.

Its fine grain can be perfectly varnished.

Example of an alder body from: www.yamaha.com

Maple is mostly used to build necks but also for the Gibson Les Paul top. A few other manufacturers use it for the whole body. The result: heavy