Anyone made a Strat body from scratch?

axisus

I’ve made three guitars thus far and I have to say that I am insanely happy with how they have turned out - way beyond my expectations. Here’s the thing though, I’m a massive fan of the tele shape and they have all been tele shaped. The Tele is a pretty easy body to make, cut the shape out and run a router around the edges.

I’m a big fan of strats, and really feel that I need to have a go at making one, but the thought of making the body worries me. I can’t envisage getting all the shaping good enough with my less than amazing workshop/tools.

How hard is it? Am I asking for a world of pain or is it reasonably achievable?

Any tips?

Sporky

Most of it is the same - bigger radius on the edges of course.

If you're lazy you can just skip the tummy cut and forearm contour, but they're not mad tricky.

The forearm contour is probably easiest for me with a plane. Work out the angle you want, then just keep shavnig until you're there. The advantage of a plane is that you know it'll be a flat surface.

The tummy cut is a bit more complex; I've seen it roughed with a bandsaw but that takes careful co-ordination that I lack, so I've usually done it with rasps/microplanes and a sanding drum.

There are probably better ways.

Corvus

If you can make a Tele you can make a Strat no problem. Don't need much of anything fancy, a roundover bit and weapons of choice for the arm & gut cuts. A rasp, scraper & sanding will do it, whatever. My first one was with surforms & sanding.
If having a trem as is only right & proper in the eyes of the gods of rock & roll, a router bit to reach down in the block bit.

Kalimna

For any contouring/forearm/belly cut I have done, a combo of various rasps and sandpaper has worked very well, and surprisingly easily. Unlike much of the body shaping (e.g. pocket routing, control cavity routing), it really doesn't matter too much if the shaping is off a little bit - you can always shave off a little more (within reason) until it looks/feels right.
Go for it, and perhaps aim for a timber that is more close-grained and more forgiving, like mahogany or alder.

Adam

Danny1969

I made one out of blockboard years ago, just drawed round a real one for the shape and cut it out with a jigsaw. For the contouring I used a sander. For the pickup holes and control holes I used a drill and chisels. 
It didn't look great but played well enough

stephen.wood125

For the contouring I saw a great Crimson Guitars video where they used an angle grinder with a flap wheel and were able to very nicely 'carve' out the body contour.

It's actually a video about improving a cheap kit guitar. About 5 minutes in you can see the technique used.