Guitar Making Community - Recent Posts

RE: Advice needed for first time builder.

Rib-f — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 20:51:07 +0000

@hortlysuch Thanks for your response. Tips taken on board.

RE: Advice needed for first time builder.

NSJ — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 20:34:04 +0000

@rib-f there's no doubt you'll make some errors along the way but yeh, it's a learning process. These days mistakes don't phase me in the slightest, I just assess the situation and come up with a plan to fix it.

Here's a live video that Mark did ages ago on carving the neck, it's a fantastic method that I use every time now. I can do a complete carve in under an hour including volute etc.

https://www.youtube.com/live/7rSiFbEZao8?si=RoFzXuvfQrelpRtj

RE: Advice needed for first time builder.

Rib-f — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 20:15:54 +0000

@nsj I hogged out the bulk of the material before hand. I worked out to angle the bit & lower it gently after the first cut . Maybe my cut was a bit deeper than it should have been. I guess all of this is a learning process. I'm just about to attempt the neck. I guess all of this is experience and a learning process. I'm actually looking forward to my next build because I know it's going to be better than this one. My long term goal is to build a Les Paul to the replace the one I sold many years ago & now can't afford to replace. Thanks for your advice, it's really helpful & encourages me.

RE: Advice needed for first time builder.

NSJ — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 20:03:47 +0000

@rib-f I angle the router and then lower it while moving, I find it pretty controllable. You can also use a forstner bit to hog some of the material out first which can make things easier. I just make sure not to go to deep with it so I can get a nice smooth finish with the router.

RE: Advice needed for first time builder.

Rib-f — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 15:47:35 +0000

13159 @nsj Thank you very much for your response. That clears up a few things. I am mainly using a palm router &, like you I have a 200mm acrylic base I have made to screw it too. I was wondering whether a plunge base would be useful for routing pickup cavities ? I was routing them in the body I have made & found a degree of unpredictability when I initially start routing the next layer down. Would a plunge base in this case make things a bit safer ? I've attached a pic of my progress so far. I'm quite pleased with it for a first attempt, but every process involved I could now do to a better standard, but I'm pleased to be learning.

RE: Hello!

Brian Walker — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 14:17:43 +0000

Hi @JojoPG and welcome to the forums👍😃

You’ve certainly chosen well in joining here, Mark’s courses are great and easy to follow and there’s a wealth of experience you can tap into on these forums. Sounds like you have plenty of enthusiasm, keep it up and remember that this thing can be addictive 🤪🤣

As for making lefty guitars, I can’t see that you will have many insurmountable problems, in fact being left handed you will probably find it more natural to work on a lefty (I did some work on a friend’s lefty Strat copy a while back and spent a lot of time wondering why everything wasn’t where it should be🤣🤣)

Can’t wait to see what you make, especially the hand painted finishes, so please share and don’t be afraid to ask questions here.

All the Best from a sunny NE Scotland

Brian👍😃🎸

Hello!

JojoPG — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 01:02:58 +0000

Hey everyone,

Joining here per a recommendation. After painting, modding and setting up my own guitars over the past year I realised there was nothing stopping me from building my own. As a lefty, all the interesting stuff has a price point that I'd rather spend developing a cool skill. £1000 for a Mustang? It would only feel worth it if I got to build the thing myself.

I'm interested in weird pickup combos, hand-painted bodies (I'm an illustrator), weird Fender designs and weirdo guitars from the 60s. As a member of gen z I'm also required to be into offsets. My general goal is to mess around building myself a couple instruments and perhaps some bodies to decorate and maybe even sell (they'd better not be strat-shaped for now lol). Among many things I'd love to build one of the Fenders that never got a lefty - the Meteora, the Sixty-Six, the Maverick, the Venus and especially a 50s-style Musicmaster, 22.5" scale and all. I've been inducted into a hackspace here in London (although I'm new here, lived in Scotland my whole life) and joined here per the recommendation of the founder. Looking forward to chatting with people. If anyone has any experience making lefty shapes (especially from righty plans); painting on bodies (as in, painting designs with a brush and traditional artists' materials - oils, gouache, acrylics, even egg tempera) and safely finishing them; wooden and metal pickguards; alternative or interesting wood sources (even if I were inclined to believe in 'tone woods', I'd still be interested in what they have to sound like compared to everything else!); or minimal plastic in builds (especially regarding paint and finish), please hit me up!

RE: MMOexp Madden 25 coins: Ultimate Guide to Top Pass Rushers

AliceCopper — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 12:38:38 +0000

Good breakdown on how much X-Factors actually matter for getting consistent pressure, and I agree Reggie White still feels absurdly disruptive. I’m curious though: how are you ranking these guys for different fronts, since a 3-4 OLB rusher plays pretty differently than a 4-3 end. Also that casino app reply in here is pretty off-topic; I’ve had threads derailed the same way after someone dropped https://redbarongame.org/ and it just turned into noise. I’ve spent more coins than I want to admit testing edge rushers in solo challenges, and the “solid performer” types often outperform the flashy cards in real games. Another derail I’ve seen was someone pushing https://fishingtimegame.net/ instead of talking scheme adjustments, which is a shame because this topic’s actually useful.

RE: Advice needed for first time builder.

hortlysuch — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 07:52:34 +0000

3. When I look at my neck side profile template the part that bolts to the body has a depth of 23mm. I plan on using a finger board glued on this snake. When I measure my Tele (maple neck) the thickness here appears to be about 27mm. This implies that the finger board would only be about 4mm thick in the centre, which when considering the radius would mean that at the edges the depth of the finger board would only be 1-2mm which just seems wrong because the fret tangs must be deeper than this. I've been looking at plans but there doesn't ever seem to be any info on these dimensions. Could anybody shed any light on this for me please ?

On this question, the 23mm measurement is almost certainly the neck shaft before the fretboard is added, measured at the heel. A typical separate fretboard is usually around 6–6.5mm thick before radiusing. After radiusing, you'll still have roughly 4.5–5mm at the edges, which is plenty for standard fret tangs. If you're only ending up with 1–2mm at the edges, I'd double-check where that 23mm measurement is taken from or whether the template assumes a different overall neck thickness.

RE: Travel/Small scale length guitars

otssaturday — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 09:15:33 +0000

Hi peeps, it's a been a loooooooooong time since I've posted here but I finally have a bit of breathing space to start a new build and was contemplating making a small travel electric. Essentially this will be a smaller version of the last guitar I made from the course but it'd be strung through body. If you've made one and there are specific things to travel guitars I need to care about please let me know snake game.

From my experience, the main challenges are making it compact while still feeling like a “real” instrument. Watch the neck joint strength, tuner placement, and overall weight distribution because a small body can easily become neck-heavy. Also think about how it will be transported—rounded edges, durable hardware, and a simple setup can make a huge difference when it’s actually taken on the road.

Good luck with the build! 😊 😊