1.) The first thing you’ll need to do is draw the guitar to scale. This doesn’t have to be an entire 3D drawing, but a large enough flat picture on paper drawn to scale, preferably of the head and body of the guitar can help speed up the design process.

What the luthier (fancy name for guitar builder) has to do first is create templates of both the neck and body of the guitar. These are made out of plywood or sometimes perspex, kind of like a flat version of the guitar that’s going to be created.

2.) You need to know beforehand exactly what parts you want on the guitar, as those measurements are crucial to the design of the guitar. An electric guitar builder can’t even think about starting on a guitar before all the parts are right there with him or her.
Acoustic guitar builders have less of a problem with that, seeing as there are less parts to worry about.

3.) Find a guitar neck that you like the feel of and try find out the measurements, like fretboard radius, neck thickness and scale length.

The best electric guitar construction method

There are three basic electric guitar building methods to consider. Mostly a good luthier will have this pretty much figured out, but surprisingly enough, there are some differing opinions.

The three methods that are most commonly referred to are bolt on neck, glued in or set neck, and neck through body construction.

In my opinion there is only one choice, and that’s neck through body construction.
This means that the neck runs all the way through the body, and the sides are glued on.
Second choice is a set neck.

Some luthiers will do something called a deep set neck tenon, which is half way between a set neck and a neck through. Not a bad compromise at all.

Good wood equals good tone

There are many good woods to use on a guitar, my favorite is African Mahogany.
A good idea is to do some proper research, the best kind being to listen to some of your favorite guitars and see what wood they used on them.

Guitar tone is a very personal thing, so no-one can tell you what to do there.
An experienced luthier will have a good grasp of the tonal character of various woods, so tell them what you want and they should know what to do.

The value of a personalized custom electric guitar is something that’s difficult to quantify. I’ve always said that any good guitar is worth more than the money you pay for it.

There are so many steps in building a guitar from scratch it blows me away every time I look at my work. It is a very humbling process that has to be broken into small doable pieces. This has been such a bonding experience for the two of us. He has guided me through every twist and turn.

I wanted to build a guitar from a tree that was grown in the US. There are so many woods from all over the world that are perfect for their sound quality, but I have a huge passion for things done as locally as possible. We decided that a cherry wood guitar would suit me well, so we got big block and cut out my main pieces. Once they were the right dimension we put them on the thickness sander. My back was glued from two pieces like the pages of an open book. My sides were shaped on the bending jig after been soaked and heated. I put this all together with bracing on my back to give it strength. During this time I also cut and shaped my neck.

The last few times I have focused on my top. After book matching this also, I put in my Rosette. This was one of the finest most careful wood work I have ever done. I wanted something simple yet elegant and unique. I decided I would incorporate wood into the pattern by tying it all back together with the fret board. I choose king wood for my fret board because it looks so amazing and there isn’t many local options for wood dense enough. So my Rosette would also incorporate a small piece of king wood that would flow into the rest of it. I was quite amazed at my final product. It looks so neat and has my own characteristic style.

This week I worked on making braces. This process of “voicing” my guitar is one of the most exciting. If this is done well, all my hard work will come to a beautiful finale. My dad just kept saying, “Sven think sound”, if I had the feeling and intention of unbeatable sound that is what I would get. Once my braces were cut and shaped, I glued them all on with a large jig designed specifically for this process. I bent dowels and used that tension to hold the braces in place.

It is an amazingly intuitive process. This has been one of the most challenging aspects for me. I am a really thinker and planner. With this project I have had to let go of my constraining ideas and logical thoughts to open up for feeling the entire guitar and wood that is in front of me. By using this creative technique I can tell the difference it has made. Flowing with the process and paying attention to the slightest detail, is what will make all the difference in the end.