How I started all of this

Rabs

In my build thread I was reminded about how I started all of this...  And I did it all very publicly with a year long build thread on the Gibson forum...

I was just looking back at it and had almost forgot..  When I did start all of this is was more just to do it, I needed to keep myself occupied during one of my many bouts of unemployment and so when I started I needed a place to actually do the work and this is what I came up with (in my tiny one bedroom flat )

http://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r588/Rabs2010/2017 work/DSC01933_zpswknf8r92.jpg

http://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r588/Rabs2010/2017 work/DSC01934_zpsh10xdzya.jpg

This was the first guitar I tried to make out of an old door 

http://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r588/Rabs2010/2017 work/DSC03869_zpsfzwq69yx.jpg

Sadly I totally screwed the neck angle up (still not quite sure to this day what exactly happened) and as you can see the string height just stupid

http://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r588/Rabs2010/2017 work/DSC03895_zps7gbxsyu6.jpg

I did try a few times to fix it but it was just easier in the end to start on a new build.. Which was a neckthrough and turned out pretty good.

So do you have any amusing stories about how you started making or modding guitars? 

Danielsguitars

Jesus that neck angle is a bit wrong
 
I'd route the body down to get the bridge lower if you could be bothered 

Rabs

customkits said:

Jesus that neck angle is a bit wrong
 
I'd route the body down to get the bridge lower if you could be bothered 

Yeah that was my first attempt about ohh 4-5 years ago now..  It was all made out of pine anyway so was really just to get me started..   Not had that issue since then im pleased to say    I came into some nice re-claimed mahogany shortly after this so this build got dumped and I just started again.

Sporky

customkits said:

I'd route the body down to get the bridge lower if you could be bothered 

Or recess the TOM (though I appreciate that horse has now bolted).

I started with a bit of rewiring and pickup swaps, then went on a build-your-own course, where, having little idea of a sensible goal, I did a Variax rehouse. Which is probably still the best guitar I've built...

WezV

I like threads like this, much more interesting than just seeing the pretty finished pics from a builder that appeared out of nowhere

i don't have many old progress pics from the start but i did start this thread when the forum opened - the good the bad and the ugly
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/116/the-world-of-wez/p1

digitalscream

Sporky said:

customkits said:

I'd route the body down to get the bridge lower if you could be bothered 

Or recess the TOM (though I appreciate that horse has now bolted).

Yep - I'd never thought of this, but @KempGuitars does exactly that here and it looks pretty spiffy.

Rabs

Sporky said:

customkits said:

I'd route the body down to get the bridge lower if you could be bothered 

Or recess the TOM (though I appreciate that horse has now bolted).

I started with a bit of rewiring and pickup swaps, then went on a build-your-own course, where, having little idea of a sensible goal, I did a Variax rehouse. Which is probably still the best guitar I've built...

Yup.. I tried both of those things..  But it was still too high..  So thus I moved on 

http://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r588/Rabs2010/2017 work/DSC03905_zpsxw4bfn4z.jpg

http://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r588/Rabs2010/2017 work/DSC03939_zps5yivp042.jpg

Was still way too high

http://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r588/Rabs2010/2017 work/DSC03917_zps9acfqbm3.jpg

KKJale

This is the first electric I ever made, back in about 1987. The godson has it now and plays it loads. It's made of one piece of teak with a set maple neck. Looking back, the idea to combine a Telecaster with an LP Jr was fairly cool for the pointy-headstock time. Oddly, I'm not sure I'd ever seen a St Blues guitar, so the similarity is possibly coincidental...

The amusing bit is that the missing bridge saddles hide a deeper woe. The teak was salvaged from the bottom of the Irish sea, where it had lain ever since the cargo ship carrying it had been torpedoed by the Germans during the first world war. This piece must have come from the end of the log, as any metal screwed into it corroded, forming a spreading crust of green. In fact, the bridge will probably never come off without major surgery…

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v348/transalp1998/aaa teak guitar_zpsb09cdoom.jpg

Rabs

KKJale said:

This is the first electric I ever made, back in about 1987. The godson has it now and plays it loads. It's made of one piece of teak with a set maple neck. Looking back, the idea to combine a Telecaster with an LP Jr was fairly cool for the pointy-headstock time. Oddly, I'm not sure I'd ever seen a St Blues guitar, so the similarity is possibly coincidental...

The amusing bit is that the missing bridge saddles hide a deeper woe. The teak was salvaged from the bottom of the Irish sea, where it had lain ever since the cargo ship carrying it had been torpedoed by the Germans during the first world war. This piece must have come from the end of the log, as any metal screwed into it corroded, forming a spreading crust of green. In fact, the bridge will probably never come off without major surgery…

That's is pretty cool for a first build (certainly better than my first attempt)...  But the story behind it is even better...  

My parents have a lot of teak furniture that im always eying up 

Ravenous

Rabs said:

So do you have any amusing stories about how you started making or modding guitars? 

I had a late 80s Epiphone Strat Copy. I wanted to put more electronics in, so I sawed right through the body at the lower half of the scratchplate, using a Stanley blade attachment - the type that goes in a regular Stanley knife!

I did all this in my student bedroom (it was the most fun that happened in there). Sawdust was absolutely everywhere.

I made up a long plastic plate to cover the long, narrow hole in the back too of course. I ended up with the controls cavity opened up to around 7-8 inches long and an inch wide - most of the lower third of the (strat-shaped) body.

I could change batteries and rewire pickups from the rear plate, without having to remove the scratchplate or loosen strings.

Wrecked that guitar - what a tit. (Still keep it for alternate tunings & stuff though.)

impmann

Well, the only guitar I've really built from hunks of wood was this:

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/45680/the-recycled-table-update#latest

It was only after I replaced the neck with a proper Tele one I realised I'd nawlsed it up a bit and the neck routing was off centre to the pickup/bridge mounting. If you look carefully, the low E string is right on the ragged edge of the neck where the top E is quite 'inset'.

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/80292/nnd-new-neck-day#latest

I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to fix this, short of buying another body if I'm honest. The pickguard alignment isn't great either... I fancy fitting a neck pickup too (I miss a neck unit and am considering a gold foil for this).