Newbie in Perth

[martin_smith]

Thought I'd pop my head up and say "hi" after a bit of lurking and reading through the many great threads here. If there's one thing I've learned from this forum, it's just how much I really don't know about building a guitar

I'm based in north Perth, and have done a bit of tinkering before - put together a "kit" electric 12 string using parts off ebay, and bodged my way through a Variax transplant. Now I'm looking at having a go at building something from scratch.

Thinking I'll probably start off with something simple like creating a Telecaster style body to get my head around making templates, carving a body and applying a finish, but using a pre-built neck as I think trying to carve a neck might be a step too far on my first build! Would anyone have any recommendations where to source body blanks, considering this will basically be a first attempt test run? Not sure I should hit the good stuff until I have at least a vague idea of what I'm doing

As my woodworking skills are pretty basic (though I've learnt a lot just from reading this forum and at woodworkforums.com), I was wondering whether it's worth attempting a short woodworking course, and if anyone knows of any that are worth doing? Or, should I just dive in and get the sawdust flying?

Anyway, just thought I'd introduce myself, before delving through more anzlf.com wit and widsom.

Thanks in advance,

Martin

[Allen]

Welcome to the forum Martin.

Building anything is really not all that hard if you just break it down into steps that you can get your head around and more importantly get that step right. So as to your question about a woodworking course is that you might get something out of one, but in my experience they really aren't all that great and most unlikely to give you much insight into what you will really want to learn.

Have a plan you are going to follow and study it very carefully. Break down the list of parts that you are going to need to make and keep in mind the relationship that they have to other parts of the instrument. This is usually the hardest part for people to understand. It's not just a body and a neck, a fret board and a bridge. They all have strict sizing and spacial relationships and alignments in order for the entire package to work as an instrument.

Then dive in is my advice. If you make a mistake, don't get discouraged. Learn from that mistake and more importantly learn how to get yourself back on track by salvaging the piece if possible. Every one us has them. And sometimes a piece of wood just fights you from start to finish no matter how good of a builder you are

[woodrat]

Hi Martin....Welcome to the Forum!

I really cant add a word to Allens advice so +1 from me.

Go for it!

John

[Tod Gilding]

yes Welcome Martin, I only have a few builds under my belt, but I can say that you may be surprised regarding making a neck, it is not as hard as I initially thought, and the satisfaction you get from producing it is amazing, just follow Alllen's advice and you will be fine, I'm sure

[kiwigeo]

Rather than do a woodworking course consider doing a guitar making course. There are a few to choose from around Australia..and New Zealand. I believe Perry Ormsby in Perth is one builder who runs classes. He's on this forum so drop him a PM or give him a call and I'm sure he can help you out.

[martin_smith]

Thanks for the warm welcomes and the advice Allen, sounds good to me

Careful planning and preparation with lots of research is definitely how I'm approaching this, I'm a software engineer by trade, so know the importance of these things on any project.

The concept of how everything works together fascinates me, which is one of the reasons I'm having a go at building my own. I figure the best way of learning this is to actually experiment with different woods and components.

Perry's course does look awesome, and I've started saving with the plan of
hopefully being able to attend one next year.

I see Peter Martin has some "seconds" necks for sale, so I might grab a couple of them for practice

[Kamusur]

Bite off more than you can chew and then chew like hell, good luck

Steve

P.S. Another one bites the dust

[ozziebluesman]

G'day Martin and welcome to the forum. Great advice from Allen. I too spent two years researching and reading anything I could get may hands on regard guitar building. I jumped in the deep end and built two weissenborns first up from scratch and that was the best learning curve for me. The forum has been a great help for me and there are many fine builders here who will go that extra mile to help out with any building issue.

Cheers

Alan

[vandenboom]

When I developed 'the yearning', I felt the same way as you about my skills. I found a local woodworking club that had a couple of groups - one of them was into making small intricate boxes. I stayed with that group for about 6 months. Made 3 small boxes and it taught me a lot, in particular how to use a router, which I had never used before. It didn't cost much and gave me the confidence to then go for it. I then bought an acoustic kit from LMI (unserviced) to see what all the bits looked like and Cumpiano's book and went for it. Frank

[simso]

Welcome,

Im in perth, you have a choice, you can obtain wood blanks and carve one up yourself or you can start with a kit guitar first.

The beauty about a kit guitar is its designed for someone starting, it comes with build plans / ideas / guides, when youve built one of these then you could do the same again but this time carve your own body.

Either way its your choice your call, perry offers a very good course if you are serious about building one with a luthier and you want to use his tools.

Steve

[kiwigeo]

Steve is a Perth repair guru and he has guitar kits available: http://www.ultrainspections.com/Guitars.html