Making Electric Guitars

It's been a long time since I blogged about a guitar. It's been a long time since I finished a guitar. This one really doesn't need much in the way of how I did it. It had a few twists and turns along the way, but for the most part, if you read my first couple blogs about how I built the first guitar, it's relatively the same. The first couple blogs also have lots of pictures taking you through the steps of the guitar's creation. This blog is just going to have some pics of the finished product.

I made this guitar at the request of my brother, who saw my first two guitars and decided I might have a little talent as a luthier. He works as a dispatcher for the police department and said he was watching some of the cops come in and out and noticed their badges and how the shape might lend itself to the body of a guitar. He asked if I thought I was ready to move on to something a little more complicated, and since I'm always up for a challenge, I took him up on the offer.

My first guitar was basically just a new body and pickguard. I left all the components where they started and just used the old dimensions of the old guitar I took apart to make a new body out of oak and a new pickguard out of poplar. Then it got slapped together and voila, I had a guitar. Some of the people at work saw this and didn't need a second guitar to decide I made something neat and a co-worker brought me in a picture of a BC Rich Draco and his son's old guitar and asked if I could use the old stuff to build a guitar to look like the Draco. So guitar two went from copying to copying with a twist. Instead of the actual body, I had a picture of the body. The guitar I was given was a knock off strat so it had three knobs, a switch and three single coil pickups. The BC Rich Draco has two humbuckers and one knob as far as I could tell from the tiny printed picture I got. The twist, instead of putting two humbuckers and a knob in from the back of the guitar and leaving the front clean, I had to put three single coils, three knobs a switch and on top of that, a through bridge with tremolo bar which kept me from even thinking about putting the electrical components in from behind.

Well, after that, and the comments I got on the second guitar, I started thinking I might be able to do this as a side hobby with income potential. My brother on the other hand, was thinking open my own business. His plan was to get the badge guitar and show it off at work and get me some orders to buy some better tools and get the business going. This was over a year ago. Did it take me a year to finish his guitar? Yes, but I finished it twice!

Working on this badge guitar, which brought a whole new level to my building. I still had a basic shape for the guitar body but that was it. I decided to try and use a layout similar to a les paul. Two humbuckers, two volume pots, two tone pots, a switch up in the corner, bridge and tailpiece, and everything in from the back. The badge also has a round blue center and I wanted to figure out a way to capture that aspect of it. I knew I would have to do some woodburning, which I hadn't done since I was a kid and got my Jr. woodburning set for Christmas. I found a site online, Delvie's Plastics, that had some really neat mirrored acrylic plexiglass and ordered a piece in blue to use as the blue center. I also ordered all the components for the guitar, including a neck, and some tools to do the wiring as I would have to actually solder on this guitar from an awesome site I found that I'm already getting a cart together for my fourth guitar, GuitarFetish. Now this place has some great deals and I'm so glad I found them.

Broken Guitar Body

The reason the badge guitar took so long and got finished twice? First, things at work changed and for some reason, everyone was told that there was to be no personal stuff at work and no working on projects on breaks. That took away some building time, but that happened when build number one was almost finished. The first guitar came together much more quickly than I thought it would. Within a month I was coming close to completion. I would get a section done, then step back and decide if I was going in the right direction and what needed to be completed next. I was moving right along and was determined to be finished in time to carry the guitar with the family on our trip back home for the Christmas holiday (2011). Then disaster struck. Drilling the final hole in the guitar, the hole for the jack, I was using a spade bit and when the tip punched through the routed out spot for the pots, as spade bits often do, it bound up. Unfortunately, the drill was fully charged and had enough power to break the guitar body and crack it in three different directions. I felt terrible, not just that I had ruined it so close to being finished, but that there was no way to have it ready for the trip.

Broken Guitar Body With Center

In the end, I did my best to glue it back together. I finished the final hole. I sanded the cracks and glue as best I could and put a few coats of poly on it. I put all the electrical components in and put on the neck, but I didn't do any soldering, and carried it to my brother to show him what I had hoped his guitar would look like. He was still excited and even asked if he could keep the guitar. I told him no, because I wanted to bring it back with me and use it as a template for a rebuild. I didn't want him to have a new guitar that was all glued together and you could still see the cracks.

The new year came in (2012) and I figured I better get started on rebuilding the guitar, but it was just so hard. From coming so close to being finished to starting over from scratch. And even worse, now it seemed more like a job than a hobby. I felt like there had to be a reason it broke, maybe it was meant to break because it just wasn't right anyway.

First step was to print out a life sized copy of the badge to draw a new body shape from. Then I decided instead of a solid piece of cypress, which I used for the color, but was a little unhappy with when I put the poly on it anyway, I used two pieces of soft maple that I would rout out separately and then glue together closer to completion. Once the body was cut out, the project just kind of came to a halt. It sat there and other projects around the house moved ahead in priority. I couldn't work on it at work, I had already built it once and I just couldn't bring myself to work on it. Then my brother made plans to come down and visit for fourth of July and I thought, OK, I've got about a month to get in gear and get this guitar done. I finished the pool deck, rebuilt the fence from hurricane Irene, and now I could buckle down and have it ready for him to take home after his vacation.

Old Body, Life Sized Printout, New Body

Side View of Badge Guitar

Every time I got ready to work on it, something would come up, or I would make something come up and just not work on it. I think, looking back now, that I was scared I would screw it up again and just have to start over. Time passed, Independence Day grew closer and closer and the guitar was no closer to being finished. By the time my brother came, I had a couple routs in one of the two pieces and that was all. He didn't seem as disappointed as I was, but I'm pretty sure he just hid it well. He left and the project moved back to the back burner as summer was in full swing and pool and lawn were keeping me busy when I wasn't at work. Fall came and I decided that I just needed to push through my fear and finish this guitar. Instead of trying to do it all at once, I set aside one hour every Sunday to work on it and take it easy. It started slow, I started slow, but soon I was making real progress, until I had glued the two pieces together and was back to the jack hole. I borrowed a different type of drill bit from a millwright at work, held my breath, and made the final hole. Once that was finished, it was like a giant weight lifted off my shoulders. I did some final sanding and just waited for a warm weekend to seal the body.

Badge Guitar

With the guitar body routed out, and four coats of poly on it, it was time to put the neck on and begin the process of soldering. One thing is for sure, I definitely need some practice at soldering. It took three and a half hours to solder all the electronics together, and I did all the solders inside the guitar, rather than doing as many solders as I could on a workbench and just the final connections inside the guitar. Either way, it was finished! I headed to Washington, NC to PC Sound for some strings. The people there were great. The owner of the store was there working on a Saturday and was very helpful. I had brought the guitar to make sure I got the right type of strings and he gave me a couple pointers for my next build and was just an overall great guy. Thanks Ken! (Kenneth Braddy, owner). Once I had the guitar strung up, I held my breath and plugged it into the amp/tuner I bought from GuitarFetish and strummed. I tested the two volume knobs, the two tone knobs, I pushed the switch up, back to the middle, down, middle again. Success!!