Guitar templates

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Gofer

Gofer

Member
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
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597
Location
Morinville, Alberta, Canada
Hi everyone,

It seems as though most of us have other hobbies than pens as well, be it photography , cars or other woodworking. I am hoping that someone could give me a little advise on templates,plans or books to help me build an electric guitar for my daughter.

While I have done a fair bit or various types of woodworking I am not an expert by any strech of the imagination. Any and all advice, ideas and suggestions would be appreciated. I have the wood for the guitar but will have to buy all the parts and pieces when the woodworking is done. BUT to do that I will have to know what I will be installing first.

I have not decided what style of guitar it is going to be yet, lots of options available.

Bruce
 
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Bruce, you might remember when I built this guitar. I got many comments and, offers for help in this thread.

http://www.penturners.org/forum/f45/kit-telecaster-61847/

I haven't seen Chris on the forum for quite awhile but Jerry Sambrook and, other guys can help. I got my kit at guitarfetish.com and, upgrade pots and, pickups too. They have many body styles and, are pre-routed and drilled for wiring. Saves you a TON of time and, labor while, leaving you plenty of work to enjoy the build.

I'm pretty sure I posted some photos in there. It's been a long time.

I wish I would have built the Strat or, Les Paul. :wink: BTW, Warmouth and StewMac are other great sites for guitar stuff. Also, USA Custom Guitars. A little more expensive but, good quality.
 
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When I was a kid my Dad made an acoustical guitar from plans in a popular mechanics magazine. :)

Grizzly has a fair bit of guitar stuff as it is one of papa grizzly' hobbies.
 
Thanks for the replies, I am going to make it from scratch rather than a kit. I have a large piece of 2" ribbon Sapple for the body with a length of exceptionally curly piece of Maple for the neck and some beautifully figured Bocote for the heads and neck support.

I was wondering if the templates are worth the money as I doubt I'll make more than one. This project will be in the works for a while, I will take my time and get the best results and save money for the components as I don't want to get low quality.

Bruce
 
Bruce, I misunderstood. I think your options are slim but, maybe you could find a template to borrow from someone or, send your slab out to be cut to shape. It sounds like a beautiful piece. Just as a thought, you might look up Bell Forrest Products and, give them a call. They may have a suggestion to help. Good luck with this project and I look forward to seeing your progress.
 
In my opinion the guitar templates are not a good investment of your money, unless you are trying to replicate a specific guitar. There are three important decisions to make when building a guitar, what scale length you want (the distance between the nut and bridge), what bridge you are going to use, and what neck joint you want. Once you have answered these three questions you can figure out all of the import and locations using some math. This is the process I used to make the guitar in the pictures below. I have not had a chance to finish it yet, free time is hard for me to find right now. One place I found very helpful when I was building this was the Crimson Custom Guitars youtube channel. They have lots of instructional and problem solving videos. If you have any questions feel free to message me, I would be happy to share everything I learned while making this guitar.
 

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You will save yourself a lot of heartache and misery if your first guitar is a kit. Building a guitar is not rocket science, but simple beginner mistakes turns beautiful pieces of wood into firewood.
 
This is the place I ordered my son's kit from....

BargainMusician.com - Warehouse Direct DIY Guitar & Bass Kits, Finished Guitars and Basses - DIY Guitar Kits

It's definitely not a weekend project. Get ready for plenty of wet sanding and priming. For spray paint, stay with just Duplicolor or you will regret it. That advice was from a friend that has been a professional guitarist and luthier for 30 years. He won't even build from scratch. He'll grab higher end bodies or canabalize or restore o"broken" guitars.
 
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