First Guitar Build

[diablochris6]

While pryde set the bar super high with their 000 acoustic build (from scratch!), this feels feeble in comparison, but I am quite proud of my first electric build.  Here ya go...



I started putting this together in February.  I picked up the body, pickguard, and most of the hardware from Warmoth.  The body is alder, and I added a neck contour for better access to the higher frets that I will rarely use.  I stained the body with a red mahogany stain from Lowes.  The binding is actually not binding but unstained wood, similar to PRS style guitars.  The trouble with the Warmoth body though was that the edges were rounded off, preventing me from just using masking tape.  Instead, I picked up some liquid latex from a hobby store and using masking tape and a little freehand, I painted the stripe with a paintbrush.  After it dried, I stained the body a few times and then peeled off the latex.  The outer layer is nitro.  Some parts of the "binding" are uneven, but you will never see those pics.  The pickups are Seymour Duncan vintage stacks, and I coil tapped them using a push-push volume knob so I can get a raw Tele single coil sound.  There is a middle pickup cavity underneath the pickguard for the day when I get a wild hair to embrace my inner Bret Mason.  The neck was purchased from olivewoodguitars on ebay.  I was wary of buying a neck on ebay, but it ended up being extremely nice for under $150. 

There are plenty of flaws in the finish, but overall, it looks and sounds great.

[jimilee]

Let me just say that looks fantastic!!! It's a great feeling isn't it?

[murdog47]

Looks great! Can't wait to finish and post mine that I've been working on since February also!

[croquet hoop]

Kudos for doing a masked binding on a Tele, especially with an alder body (which can really be a pain to stain)! I love the look of this Tele.

I've also got a Warmoth Strat in progress, but I shied from finishing the body myself (and there's no way I could have done something as good as what the guys at W did).

[pryde]

Hey I think it looks nice. There really is no wrong way to build or finish a personal guitar. Being inventive and creative with what you have is what its all about really.

One of my first go's with finishing was a sunburst finish on a warmoth body, turned out quite awful really so a few years later I sanded it back and refinished with a much better result after more experience was gained.