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Making A Guitar Body PDF
Making A Guitar Body PDF
In the last article, before I started discussing the difficult it might be to find a slab wide enough for the
ways to make a guitar neck, I mentioned a couple of body. For most guitars, you’ll need a piece at least 20”
important items. I’d like to touch on these items once long, 14” wide and 1-3/4” thick. Length and thickness
again before you fire up the power tools. usually aren’t a problem, but the width can be. I have
First, I can’t stress enough how important it is to found it is hard to locate boards wider than 9 or 10.”
follow not only a good plan, but also the correct order To solve this problem, it will be necessary to
in which the project is completed. It’s very important pickup a board around 40” in length and at least 7”
to carefully think through each task and how it relates in width. That way, you can cut it in half and glue
to the ones that will follow. For example, if I wanted the two pieces together side-by-side. You can also
to install decorative binding around the top edge of the triple the length if you are unable to find a board wide
body, it would work best to do it before attaching the enough, just be aware you’ll have to glue up three
neck. Now some of you may be wondering what the pieces instead of two.
heck I’m talking about. That just goes to show how If you decide to go this route, you’ll need at
complex the process can be. If you dive into a guitar- least three 24” bar or pipe clamps to ensure a proper
building project without following a carefully planned bond. Also, I recommend high quality wood glue like
schedule, you’ll wind up with an expensive mistake. Titebond II.
The second important item is safety. Woodworking Before going any further, you’ll need to decide
can be uncomfortable and even dangerous if you fail if the guitar you’re building is going to have a
to take the proper precautions. Always wear safety bookmatched, decorative top like quilted Maple or
glasses and hearing protection. Avoid loose fitting similar. A bookmatched set consists of two figured
clothing, tie back long hair and get rid of any
jewelry that might get caught in a power tool.
Read all of the manuals for the tools you’ll
be using and follow the manufactures safety
recommendations. Remember, like I said in
the last article, if you destroy your hearing
or lop off a finger or two, that guitar you’re
building won’t be of much use!
Okay, with that out of the way, we can
focus on carving out the body.
This first step in making the body of an
electric guitar is preparing the blank. If you
purchased or are planning to purchase a ready
made blank, just sit back and relax while I
explain my method for making a blank to
those who’d rather save some money and do it
themselves.
In the third article of this series, I
discussed how to purchase wood for building It may be necessary to glue two thick boards together to
an electric guitar. If you’ll recall, I stated how get a blank big enough for a guitar body.
COPYRIGHT 2009 www.eguitarplans.com
than the one before it. Try not to cut out
too much with each pass, or you’ll risk
tearing out chunks of precious wood.
Should either of these methods pose a
problem for you, another alternative is to
hand plane the edges. Only attempt this
if you are confidant in your skills with a
hand plane.
Once you have the edges nice and
square from one end of the board to the
other, you’re ready to glue and clamp.
Start by placing a long sheet of wax
paper on your workbench. This is done
to prevent any glue from contacting the
bench. Next, place one of your boards
onto the wax paper and make sure the
Stretch a length of thread from the nut center to the square. If the neck is
straight, the thread will pass directly over the heel center mark.
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Carefully trace the outline of the heel where it
Neck Pocket Depth.
overlaps the body.
It’s All About The Angle.
There are two things to consider when determining the
neck pocket’s depth. The first is how high off the body you
need the fretboard to be. The second is whether the neck will
need to sit flat in the pocket, or at a slight downward angle.
Both of these factors can be decided by having an accurate
plan that shows both the height of your bridge as well as the
nut on the guitar’s side view. By drawing a line from the nut to
the bridge saddle, you can get a pretty good idea of the string
action you’ll end up with. If the string is going to be too high
off the frets, you can raise the fretboard by decreasing the neck
pocket’s depth. However, be aware that doing this may increase
the distance between the bottom of the strings and the pickups.
An alternative would be to keep the fretboard low to the body
and angling the neck a couple of degrees so the headstock is
A simple jig is all you need to rout the neck below level. In most cases, an angle of -2 to -3° is sufficient.
The nice thing about modern bridges is the saddle height can be
pocket. adjusted if the angle is too great or not enough.
I have found that regardless of whether the neck will be
flat or angled, the pocket is easier to cut if the bottom is kept
flat. If you need to angle the neck down a bit, I feel it’s better
to plane or sand the bottom of the heel at an angle so that when
the neck is inserted into the pocket, it will automatically assume
the correct downward slope. To do this, the angle you generate
should be in the opposite direction of what the neck will
ultimately need to be. In other words, the back of the heel will
be slightly thicker than the front where the neck exits the body.
This will cause the neck to angle down toward the headstock.
The reason I like to do it this way is because I can
gradually plane or sand the heel—periodically test fitting it into
the pocket—until I get the angle I need. Other builders like to
the body to your workbench. Next, clamp two long, cut the angle as they rout the pocket, but if you don’t get perfect
¾” thick, straight edged boards on each side of the on the first try, you’ll have to adjust the angle by removing
pocket so they cover the lines. Then, clamp another more wood from the bottom of the pocket until you get it right.
But if you have to shave the bottom of the pocket more than a
board with the same thickness to the body, between couple of times to get the correct angle, you could end up with
the two parallel boards so that it just covers the heel a pocket that’s too deep for your neck.
line. The idea is to use these boards as a guide for
routing the edges of the pocket. I recommend you An angled neck means low string action.
position the boards so the pocket will be almost
too tight for the neck’s heel to fit into. You can, and
probably will, need to sand the sides and back of the
heel in order for it to squeeze tightly into the pocket.
A tight fit will mean better tone and sustain.
Now you can rout the sides and back of the pocket A flat neck may result in excessively high string action
with a top-bearing pattern bit like the one you used to
rout the top edge of your guitar’s body. Also be sure
to set the router’s plunge depth to what will be needed
for the pocket. When doing this keep in mind the
router will be sitting on top of the ¾” thick boards, so
you’ll have to account for this added thickness when You’ll need an accurate plan to determine neck angle.
you set the depth. You could always guess based on the standard of between
When you finish routing, you’ll notice where the -1.5° and -3°, but if you’re wrong, it could be impossible
to fix.
Use your plan to make the template(s) for your Use two templates for the control cavity. One for
control cavity. the cavity itself and one for the recessed shelf
that will support the cover.
Predrill the cavity with a Forstner bit. Use the templates to guide your router when
finishing the cavity.