I'm nearing completion on my first ever scratch build after putting together a bunch of Partscasters and kits over the last couple of years, and the one thing I've learned above all else is there's rarely any mistake that can't be recovered from. For example, in my current build, I realised too late that I'd drilled out the holes for the bridge screws and the string channels about half an inch too far forwards, rendering intonation impossible. For about thirty minutes I though all my work was wasted and I'd have to scrap the body. But then I realised I had some hardwood dowels going spare. A bit more drilling, a bit of Titebond, and it's sorted. The body's now painted ready for clear coating. That's just one of the blunders I've made along the way, but I've yet to make one I couldn't fix or work around.
Absolutely, this is one of those lessons that's helpful to learn early on! Of course there are a few project-killers, but 95% of mistakes are fixable. Especially if you're painting the guitar, you can get away with murder!
Good video Sean. The single best thing I ever did was make a test guitar out of cheap pine. The hardware can be removed and used on the "actual build". This allows the builder to do everything without procrastination or stress because it just does not matter. Then when you make the "actual" guitar from expensive timber you will know what you are doing.
Be patient is probably the number one thing I've learnt over my journey, especially with paint and lacquer! Alway have some wood filler in the workshop and as echoed in the video and comments, very few mistakes can't be fixed, and we all do and will make um...
The best tool investment I made for sanding was a Wen portable Oscillating Spindle Sander. For $65 you can use it by hand to sand the curves and tight spots or mount it upside down to the bench with the included mount and use it like the standard table top verision and it takes up as much space as a small belt sander or hand held planer.
My first scratch build guitar was a neck-thru, carved top semi-hollow body two humbucker beauty, made of Bubinga, with a Padauk thru-neck, a 24 fret ebony fingerboard, handmade bridge and tail-piece, brass nut and handmade wooden pickup rings. It was a major challenge and took most of 2 months to complete. The only mistake was choosing Padauk for the neck. It warped slowly over a year and became unplayable. I had to cut off the neck, route out a pocket and glue in a Mahogany neck to recover this project. I did manage to save the ebony fingerboard from the original neck-thru piece. Padauk is beautiful wood, but the grain is often not entirely straight, and it is not generally dried well when you purchase it. Best to store it for a year or two, before you cut to shape.
Just finished my first ever build, a strat style. Had a blast building it, really helped me relax. Truss rod placement was a bit of a mystery to me, I made a mistake of putting the groove to far down the deck I think it should have been closer to the nut, but it works and I can just get to it with an Allen key, but I’m really happy for a first effort. Thanks for another great video.
You'll be famous one day! Way to go and don't stop building. You take giant leaps with each build you attempt, whether the build is successful or not. The key is finding your joy in it. It's a worthy struggle. ✌
I always put the truss rod starting underneath the nut. I find that's the best location in terms of access for adjustment. It's far from the end of the world though, if it works then happy days!
I'm so glad when talking about over complicating your build you said "And now you have a new addiction." I started out thinking I'd just build one. Flash to a few years later I may have 30 with 3 more in the works and none of them are good enough. Keep chasing that dragon. Solid and real life advice in this video man.
I don't think I know anyone who "just built one"... There's always something else to try or something else to make or something to improve etc. Best of luck with yours!
As I'm literally building a jazz bass for my dad...these tips....really gave me things to "look out" for..i appreciate the insight from someone who "knows better"...cheers sir
WOW.. Sean .. love the way you look at things.. reminded me of Dr Maya Angelou one her wisdom words; always do your best, and when you have done, do even better. Thank you for your kindness and sharing your skills and valuable experiences, and please do accept our gratitude and appreciation best regards from the UK peaceful blessings ☮️ 🙏🏼👍👍
Good advice although I would add that random orbital Sanders leave random scratches that can show up when staining/finishing, I always final sand by hand with the grain
I'm a guitar player of 45 years and have been repairing electric guitars for maybe half that time. My biggest challenge for the limited work I perform is answering advice questions. I need to separate my personal preferences from the knowledge I've gained over many years. For myself, I enjoy working and building guitars almost as much as playing them. Great content, thank you.
It's very difficult to separate preference/prejudice and actual impartial advice, for sure. I feel like I'm pretty good now at delivering advice, but also making my preferences clear and the reasoning behind them if/when appropriate. Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate it!
I'm doing my 2nd kit build atm for GGBO, and so far in my limited experience I'd agree with most of those. I was definitely guilty of some of them prior to starting the current build as I was planning something way too complicated. The original plan was a Tele style but had an inlayed top and back, requiring loads of routing and making custom templates and I had barely even used a router before. Fortunately I've been able to change course to something much more achievable that retains the key features I originally wanted. Speaking of routing I did my first proper routing on the project last weekend to make the Tele cavity bigger so that it will fit all the electronics I want to use. I was super nervous about it but I took it slow and careful, and it turned out great. I'd suggest that anyone starting out first makes at least 1 kit guitar. It's a much simpler way to start out. But don't get the cheapest 1 you can find. I did that for my 1st build by getting a £65 Strat kit. There were so many issues that made the whole project far more complicated than it needed to be. Fortunately I was able to get round those and the guitar plays fine now but in hindsight I would've rather paid a bit more for a better kit without those issues.
I'm glad to hear your routing went well! I remember being terrified whenever I had to rout anything on my first few builds. That and making the templates... oh boy that was not fun. I agree with the kit idea. Kits teach you an awful lot and you start with something that should be made properly off the bat. Maybe not with a super cheap one though! It's no fun patching someone else's mistakes...
I haven't made mistakes as i haven't started. I just started woodworking in october. Two of my coworkers build or have built guitars. I want to start and came here to get some extracrirricular backgroudn
Best of luck when you take the plunge! I hope it turns out great first time for you, but don't get disheartened if it doesn't. My first few builds were maybe half a step up from firewood when I was done with them!
I think the most basic mistake of the beginning builder is a lack of focus down to the level that's required to take the build to completion thru all the mistakes. Take heart. It's a learnable skill. Keep building!
Thanks for the great advice. I gravitated to #2, and my first build was a kit (T-style). Best choice for me because it introduced me to the basics of electric guitar design. Now nine builds later, I’m able to work on my own design, both body and headstock.
Thanks for watching! Kits are fantastic learning tools and can really help to ease you in to the craft. Plus, you don't have to spend a fistful of cash to buy all of the machines required to build it
Thanks for all this information, it really does help a lot... Although I won't follow some advices but just because I'm stubborn, because I really agree with them... You're awesome, keep up with the great content!
One additional comment regarding sanding/achieving a smooth surface: A few very well-known violin luthiers have said that, after sanding, a very sharp and well-burnished steel scraper can be helpful in achieving a smooth surface, especially if the grain patterns of the wood are not always parallel to the sanding surface. Random orbit sanding is helpful; there are, as mentioned in this video, areas which are too small to use that tool. One thing that has been important to me is making sure that the wood I'm using is dry enough. I live in Oregon where the air moisture is about 10 - 12%, which is sufficiently dry for my work. Wood will acclimate to the air moisture of where you live, so while having, say, a piece of wood that has been kiln dried to 5 - 10% may change over a month or two to the air moisture content in your area.
Scrapers are fabulous, I love them! They will always give you a far superior finish to the wood for sure. And great point about wood moisture content. It's something that can be very easily overlooked
@@AwenLutherieCustomGuitars Thank you for your reply to my comment, Awen. Whenever I write anything as a reply to a video/comment regarding a given group (Traditional Luthiers, etc.), my writing is of my experience only, and what has worked for me doing the luthier work I do. Scrapers (which, in my beginnings as a luthier, seemed counter-intuitive: "Why would anyone want to scrape something?" Well, with experience and good instruction comes knowledge, and I have used sharp scrapers for years, especially for work in areas which are not large enough to permit larger hand or power tools. That said, I have seen the benefit of using random-orbit sanders for my work also. Thanks again, David Burham
I think people rush hand sanding and that's why there are scratches left, need to go up through the grits removing the scratches from the previous grit each time? And truss rods, all the ones I've had are 9mm, maybe that's why companies like jackson and ibanez can make such skiny necks? My first was a bit chunky but I've been going thinner now, usually about 20mm at the first or so.
Yes it's a combination of rushing the process, but also just the nature of it I'm afraid. With any kind of sanding you need to move up the grits to ensure a good surface. Truss rods can vary of course. You can get slim ones or chunkier ones. The cheaper ones tend to be chunkier though. We had a few of them in work that inadvertently ended up with us having more skunk stripes than planned!
I am all set up to take a 3-month course in the fall at crimson and I have been a luthier apprentice for about a year now with a few builds under my belt. I am planning on building 2 of my original designs(one being an altered telecaster styled build, another being my interpretation of one of my grandpas original design. For my third build, I have had this idea of making a guitar based on an Ibanez SC-500n which is a solid body, bolt on neck, nylon string electric(active electronics)with a classical headstock and bridge. I know have my spec sheets ready to go, but I want to be the most prepared I can possibly be to start on the right foot. I will be making some of my inlays at home and make several drawings of my builds with measurements. Is there anything else I can do to set myself up and be even more prepared?
My first neck was carved from an old 2 by 4. . Best way to start, had it been expensive wood it would have stressed me out by the mistakes I made. It’s wood luckily and it’s fixable.
If it works for you, that's what matters at the end of the day. There are several hardwoods out there like beech or sapele that are better choices to learn neck carving and are similarly priced to construction lumber. Pine just doesn't work the same, so I feel the learning experience is lessened.
Not rushing I think is the hardest part. 3 guitars in and I can finally take my time and do it right. There are no less than 100 different ways to screw up a guitar build so thinking about what your doing and not rushing is paramount. A guitar lasts for a crazy long time, do it right.
Agreed. Rushing was absolutely one of the biggest of my issues to overcome. Especially when it came to finishing, I always wanted to just get strings on and get playing! Learning where to slow down was one of the best things I learned
What? So you think that making a carved top les paul with better upper access, roasted alder body with roasted flamed sycamore top, 44 mm to 58 mm width spanish cedar neck with edurnneck style asymmetrical profile, wrapped in hand layup unidirectional and +-45 carbon fiber sheets, conus radius freboard with SS frets as a first guitar is not a good idea?
![[Gegagedigedagedago] NEW Help Gegagedigedagedago Nugget escape from Nikocado Avocado Challenge](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hJWnwRC2Fz8/mqdefault.jpg)
![[UNCUT]"ทนายตั้ม" แฉยับ! ความลับสวรรค์ ใครคือ "บิ๊กเทวดา" ของบอสพอล l คนดังนั่งเคลียร์ l 15 ต.ค. 67](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ru9fpSaUwdA/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm nearing completion on my first ever scratch build after putting together a bunch of Partscasters and kits over the last couple of years, and the one thing I've learned above all else is there's rarely any mistake that can't be recovered from. For example, in my current build, I realised too late that I'd drilled out the holes for the bridge screws and the string channels about half an inch too far forwards, rendering intonation impossible. For about thirty minutes I though all my work was wasted and I'd have to scrap the body. But then I realised I had some hardwood dowels going spare. A bit more drilling, a bit of Titebond, and it's sorted. The body's now painted ready for clear coating. That's just one of the blunders I've made along the way, but I've yet to make one I couldn't fix or work around.
Absolutely, this is one of those lessons that's helpful to learn early on! Of course there are a few project-killers, but 95% of mistakes are fixable. Especially if you're painting the guitar, you can get away with murder!
Good video Sean. The single best thing I ever did was make a test guitar out of cheap pine. The hardware can be removed and used on the "actual build". This allows the builder to do everything without procrastination or stress because it just does not matter. Then when you make the "actual" guitar from expensive timber you will know what you are doing.
Be patient is probably the number one thing I've learnt over my journey, especially with paint and lacquer! Alway have some wood filler in the workshop and as echoed in the video and comments, very few mistakes can't be fixed, and we all do and will make um...
"Just remember, pressure is for balloons and tyres" :D love it!
Going on my first build. Great advice! Thank you
Good luck! The start of agreat adventure!
Great advice. But I miss watching you build your guitars. You are a true craftsman.
Thank you! Don't worry, build videos will be coming out every second week.
The best tool investment I made for sanding was a Wen portable Oscillating Spindle Sander. For $65 you can use it by hand to sand the curves and tight spots or mount it upside down to the bench with the included mount and use it like the standard table top verision and it takes up as much space as a small belt sander or hand held planer.
An oscillating spindle sander was also my first real "machine" purchase. What a godsend!
My first scratch build guitar was a neck-thru, carved top semi-hollow body two humbucker beauty, made of Bubinga, with a Padauk thru-neck, a 24 fret ebony fingerboard, handmade bridge and tail-piece, brass nut and handmade wooden pickup rings. It was a major challenge and took most of 2 months to complete. The only mistake was choosing Padauk for the neck. It warped slowly over a year and became unplayable. I had to cut off the neck, route out a pocket and glue in a Mahogany neck to recover this project. I did manage to save the ebony fingerboard from the original neck-thru piece. Padauk is beautiful wood, but the grain is often not entirely straight, and it is not generally dried well when you purchase it. Best to store it for a year or two, before you cut to shape.
Just finished my first ever build, a strat style. Had a blast building it, really helped me relax. Truss rod placement was a bit of a mystery to me, I made a mistake of putting the groove to far down the deck I think it should have been closer to the nut, but it works and I can just get to it with an Allen key, but I’m really happy for a first effort. Thanks for another great video.
You'll be famous one day! Way to go and don't stop building. You take giant leaps with each build you attempt, whether the build is successful or not. The key is finding your joy in it. It's a worthy struggle. ✌
I always put the truss rod starting underneath the nut. I find that's the best location in terms of access for adjustment. It's far from the end of the world though, if it works then happy days!
Thanks for the info, will do in future👍
excellent tips, just about to make my first scratch build so will take this on board, thanks.
Best of luck!
What a lovely video, by a truly lovely bloke… thanks Shaun 👍🏼🎸
I'm so glad when talking about over complicating your build you said "And now you have a new addiction." I started out thinking I'd just build one. Flash to a few years later I may have 30 with 3 more in the works and none of them are good enough. Keep chasing that dragon. Solid and real life advice in this video man.
I don't think I know anyone who "just built one"... There's always something else to try or something else to make or something to improve etc. Best of luck with yours!
As I'm literally building a jazz bass for my dad...these tips....really gave me things to "look out" for..i appreciate the insight from someone who "knows better"...cheers sir
Best of luck, I hope your dad loves the bass!
Every. Damn. One. All of them.
Great video. 👍
WOW.. Sean .. love the way you look at things.. reminded me of Dr Maya Angelou one her wisdom words; always do your best, and when you have done, do even better. Thank you for your kindness and sharing your skills and valuable experiences, and please do accept our gratitude and appreciation best regards from the UK peaceful blessings ☮️ 🙏🏼👍👍
Thank you for the kind words! I hope I can help in some way
Good advice although I would add that random orbital Sanders leave random scratches that can show up when staining/finishing, I always final sand by hand with the grain
Thank you, Sir. Good and useful advice.
I'm a guitar player of 45 years and have been repairing electric guitars for maybe half that time.
My biggest challenge for the limited work I perform is answering advice questions.
I need to separate my personal preferences from the knowledge I've gained over many years.
For myself, I enjoy working and building guitars almost as much as playing them.
Great content, thank you.
It's very difficult to separate preference/prejudice and actual impartial advice, for sure. I feel like I'm pretty good now at delivering advice, but also making my preferences clear and the reasoning behind them if/when appropriate.
Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate it!
@@AwenLutherieCustomGuitars My pleasure Sir.
I'm doing my 2nd kit build atm for GGBO, and so far in my limited experience I'd agree with most of those. I was definitely guilty of some of them prior to starting the current build as I was planning something way too complicated. The original plan was a Tele style but had an inlayed top and back, requiring loads of routing and making custom templates and I had barely even used a router before. Fortunately I've been able to change course to something much more achievable that retains the key features I originally wanted. Speaking of routing I did my first proper routing on the project last weekend to make the Tele cavity bigger so that it will fit all the electronics I want to use. I was super nervous about it but I took it slow and careful, and it turned out great.
I'd suggest that anyone starting out first makes at least 1 kit guitar. It's a much simpler way to start out. But don't get the cheapest 1 you can find. I did that for my 1st build by getting a £65 Strat kit. There were so many issues that made the whole project far more complicated than it needed to be. Fortunately I was able to get round those and the guitar plays fine now but in hindsight I would've rather paid a bit more for a better kit without those issues.
I'm glad to hear your routing went well! I remember being terrified whenever I had to rout anything on my first few builds. That and making the templates... oh boy that was not fun.
I agree with the kit idea. Kits teach you an awful lot and you start with something that should be made properly off the bat. Maybe not with a super cheap one though! It's no fun patching someone else's mistakes...
Thanks for the pick-me-up, friend.
Thank you for the advice.From Toronto Canada.!
My pleasure, I hope it proves helpful in some way!
Great words of wisdom.
They were some excellent tips. I'm hoping someday that I can afford a course and you can show me more in person at crimson.
Thank you, and I hope to see you in person some day
I haven't made mistakes as i haven't started. I just started woodworking in october. Two of my coworkers build or have built guitars. I want to start and came here to get some extracrirricular backgroudn
Best of luck when you take the plunge! I hope it turns out great first time for you, but don't get disheartened if it doesn't. My first few builds were maybe half a step up from firewood when I was done with them!
Excellent points! Thank you for putting this out.
Thanks for your vids. If you have time, please do a vid on how to find and implement the neck angle.
Thanks for watching! Neck angle is absolutely on my list, don't worry.
I think the most basic mistake of the beginning builder is a lack of focus down to the level that's required to take the build to completion thru all the mistakes. Take heart. It's a learnable skill. Keep building!
Absolutely. I think a lot of people don't realise sometimes what's ahead of them and can get overwhelmed by it all.
Great video man, though we don't drink much tea here. ;-)
Thanks! You guy sshould definitely drink more tea. Everybody should!
Thanks for the great advice. I gravitated to #2, and my first build was a kit (T-style). Best choice for me because it introduced me to the basics of electric guitar design. Now nine builds later, I’m able to work on my own design, both body and headstock.
Thanks for watching! Kits are fantastic learning tools and can really help to ease you in to the craft. Plus, you don't have to spend a fistful of cash to buy all of the machines required to build it
Some real good advice.
Thanks! I hope it might help
Love this video!!!
I agree 100% with all of these 🤣 I'm also guilty of all of them!
Thanks for all this information, it really does help a lot... Although I won't follow some advices but just because I'm stubborn, because I really agree with them... You're awesome, keep up with the great content!
Thanks for checking out the video! I wish you the best of luck with your own builds
One additional comment regarding sanding/achieving a smooth surface: A few very well-known violin luthiers have said that, after sanding, a very sharp and well-burnished steel scraper can be helpful in achieving a smooth surface, especially if the grain patterns of the wood are not always parallel to the sanding surface. Random orbit sanding is helpful; there are, as mentioned in this video, areas which are too small to use that tool. One thing that has been important to me is making sure that the wood I'm using is dry enough. I live in Oregon where the air moisture is about 10 - 12%, which is sufficiently dry for my work. Wood will acclimate to the air moisture of where you live, so while having, say, a piece of wood that has been kiln dried to 5 - 10% may change over a month or two to the air moisture content in your area.
Scrapers are fabulous, I love them! They will always give you a far superior finish to the wood for sure.
And great point about wood moisture content. It's something that can be very easily overlooked
@@AwenLutherieCustomGuitars Thank you for your reply to my comment, Awen. Whenever I write anything as a reply to a video/comment regarding a given group (Traditional Luthiers, etc.), my writing is of my experience only, and what has worked for me doing the luthier work I do. Scrapers (which, in my beginnings as a luthier, seemed counter-intuitive: "Why would anyone want to scrape something?" Well, with experience and good instruction comes knowledge, and I have used sharp scrapers for years, especially for work in areas which are not large enough to permit larger hand or power tools. That said, I have seen the benefit of using random-orbit sanders for my work also. Thanks again, David Burham
Hand sanding... Find a nice spot outside in the sun, put on a good podcast or some music, and just zone out. It's like meditation, just messier!
It can be super relaxing and lethargic for sure... Just make sure not to leave any annoying scratches across the grain!
@@AwenLutherieCustomGuitars the worst is that you only really see the 120 grit scratches when you're done with 320, so then it's back to square one!
I think people rush hand sanding and that's why there are scratches left, need to go up through the grits removing the scratches from the previous grit each time?
And truss rods, all the ones I've had are 9mm, maybe that's why companies like jackson and ibanez can make such skiny necks?
My first was a bit chunky but I've been going thinner now, usually about 20mm at the first or so.
Yes it's a combination of rushing the process, but also just the nature of it I'm afraid. With any kind of sanding you need to move up the grits to ensure a good surface.
Truss rods can vary of course. You can get slim ones or chunkier ones. The cheaper ones tend to be chunkier though. We had a few of them in work that inadvertently ended up with us having more skunk stripes than planned!
I am all set up to take a 3-month course in the fall at crimson and I have been a luthier apprentice for about a year now with a few builds under my belt. I am planning on building 2 of my original designs(one being an altered telecaster styled build, another being my interpretation of one of my grandpas original design. For my third build, I have had this idea of making a guitar based on an Ibanez SC-500n which is a solid body, bolt on neck, nylon string electric(active electronics)with a classical headstock and bridge. I know have my spec sheets ready to go, but I want to be the most prepared I can possibly be to start on the right foot. I will be making some of my inlays at home and make several drawings of my builds with measurements. Is there anything else I can do to set myself up and be even more prepared?
My first neck was carved from an old 2 by 4. . Best way to start, had it been expensive wood it would have stressed me out by the mistakes I made. It’s wood luckily and it’s fixable.
If it works for you, that's what matters at the end of the day. There are several hardwoods out there like beech or sapele that are better choices to learn neck carving and are similarly priced to construction lumber. Pine just doesn't work the same, so I feel the learning experience is lessened.
Not rushing I think is the hardest part. 3 guitars in and I can finally take my time and do it right. There are no less than 100 different ways to screw up a guitar build so thinking about what your doing and not rushing is paramount. A guitar lasts for a crazy long time, do it right.
Agreed. Rushing was absolutely one of the biggest of my issues to overcome. Especially when it came to finishing, I always wanted to just get strings on and get playing!
Learning where to slow down was one of the best things I learned
As always, lovely
Thanks!
Is being a luthier dangerous? Can I cut the wood by hand or do I need to use a ban saw or something?
3. That’s why I have an internal flamed maple strip under my truss rod…
it's a tone strip, don't let anyone tell you otherwise!
What? So you think that making a carved top les paul with better upper access, roasted alder body with roasted flamed sycamore top, 44 mm to 58 mm width spanish cedar neck with edurnneck style asymmetrical profile, wrapped in hand layup unidirectional and +-45 carbon fiber sheets, conus radius freboard with SS frets as a first guitar is not a good idea?
I Absolutely bite off more than I can chew. It's faster to go slow than it is to redo