Guitar Making Community - Recent Topics

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!

Travel/Small scale length guitars

Tej — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 18:21:10 +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.

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Anonymous — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 08:08:32 +0000

Monopoly go Resource Tips for Simpsons Season | U4GM

Anonymous — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 08:07:33 +0000

Advice needed for first time builder.

Rib-f — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 10:12:18 +0000

Hello.

I'm just about to embark on my first guitar build & am seeking some advice. I'm planning on building a Tele because I'm thinking that might be simpler for a first time builder & also I have a Tele already which I can compare to as I build. I'm doing this on a bit of a shoestring budget with many things I have already.

Questions:

1. I have a poplar body blank & also some 1mm booked matched maple veneer which I was thinking of using on the front. Is veneer wise to use on the top of the guitar or is it better to use something thicker to avoid tear out with the router.

2. I want to add some fake ivory binding round the body & was looking at rebating router bits. I realise that stew mac do some router bits designed for this job but they are expense (to me at least) for a first time builder & this may be the only guitar I ever build. I see other cheaper rebating bits, which I get aren't going to be as good because "you get what you pay for", but they make too big a cut for the binding I have. Is there an easy way to make them take less of a cut ? Maybe wrapping something round the bearing or packing out the guitar body to get the bit further away from the body.

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. 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 ?

Please excuse these probably basic questions, & thanks in advance.

Hi all

jamesfost60071 — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 08:37:33 +0000

Hello everyone I'm a new member, love all

Acoustic building tools

Brian Walker — Sun, 03 May 2026 12:43:35 +0000

Hi all,

I’m working towards making a start on an acoustic build (in other words, trying to build up the courage 🤣) and have been gathering some of the tools I will need.

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As you can see I’ve been making cam clamps, before I make any more, I’m just wondering if I should make some with different length of jaws. As you can see from the picture, the jaws are 180mm total length, maybe longer or shorter ones would be useful? The ones I’ve made should be a suitable length for e.g. gluing the bridge, but I’d appreciate your input before I make anymore.

Another question I have is regarding a bending iron, which I think would be a pretty essential bit of kit but I don’t want to spend a fortune on one when it might only be used for this project. Again any advice on cheaper alternatives would be appreciated.

All the Best,

Brian👍🎸😃

Getting started...

HuskyWorkshop — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 18:50:13 +0000

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Well, I had planned to be very disciplined and do most of the course material first and then start my build. That lasted 1 day before I decided it would be much more fun to cut some wood! Here's progress after a couple of days. Mahogany back and sides and a cedar top based on a 12th fret grand concert(ish) shape.

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Anonymous — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 09:45:39 +0000

New acoustic member here...

HuskyWorkshop — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 16:16:52 +0000

Hi everyone, just signed up for the acoustic build course. Quite excited to see how that goes! I've made a couple of electrics and have just finished a major rebuild on my resonator (new neck, neck stick, biscuit and saddle). The moral of this tale is don't lend your guitars to folks who might drop them! Couple of images of the revitilised Gretch Honeydipper.....

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