ChunkShift.com

    Building a custom guitar

    I’m a month late on a post for may. Given this post is about guitar building, that should have tipped me off to a scheduling issue.

    In my last post, “New muses”, I alluded to starting another guitar build. This post details a path marked by ignorance and an urge to create.

    I’m posting once a month; hit the subscribe button below to stay up to date!

    e=ignorance(ambition)^2

    The first guitar was one of those situations where your ambition outweighs your knowledge. I built at the end of summer between college and university (2010ish). It was finding out a walk is actually a hike, you’re wearing sneakers and you didn’t bring water.

    I had a guitar to copy, immense ignorance and the confidence of youth. 2 weeks with no other commitments but a hard deadline. After some late nights I had a guitar to accompany me on my first semester of university. At the end of that semester it followed me home at Christmas as the neck bowed too much and it was no longer playable.

    Two guitars lay side by side. A left handed dreadnaught style guitar is on the left. On the right the guitar I built, dreadnaught style with a cut away. The Iron Maiden, Fear of the Dark, album art is wood burned into the top and poker chips are inlayed into the fretboard.
    While I want to blame the quality of this image on old phone cameras; it’s more likely the user that’s to blame.

    While my lack of knowledge meant it wasn’t an instrument I could keep playing, it was the key to ever having started. If I had any understanding of what I was getting into I never would have started. While the final product wasn’t the destination I was hoping for; I knew I was on a path I would keep walking.

    More knowledge, less time

    Guitar building stuck with me even if I wasn’t playing for most of my 20s. I knew it was something I would do more of. I watched many YouTube videos, read forums, articles and books. 12 years ago I tried again but that was unable to finish the build when a planned move followed a few more unplanned moves.

    5 years ago I was in a position where I could try again. By this point equipped with enough knowledge but maybe a little too much ambition. I did not copy a proven design and this project would have its challenges.

    Designing anything from the ground up means you are problem solving and making decisions that might not all add up (this is why prototyping exists). I would recommend anyone considering building an instrument use a kit the first time or follow plans for an existing guitar model.

    I started stringing the guitar up after a year of building and it was obvious a mistake was made. A mistake that required cutting the neck off and starting a second one.

    Then I needed a minor surgery and I couldn’t finish it before my child was born. I worked on it a little more while on parental leave but a year off while parenting isn’t really a year off. There wasn’t enough time to finish it before I returned to work and it progress stalled completely.

    But as you know from my last post I was able to finish the guitar earlier this year. Taking advantage of the holiday season to push through to the end. My daughter now old enough to help me with some of the finishing.

    4th times the charm

    Guitar number 4 will be a solid body electric; Iterating on my ground up design of number 3. Simplifying some things to save time and changing some other things to match growing preferences as a player.

    This time strings will be steel (#3 was nylon) and there will be a conventional pick-up in addition to the ghost saddle system. Most likely a p-90 from a small Canadian company. I will move to a shorter scale length and narrower nut to match the parlour guitar (bought not built) I play the most.

    The image focuses on a 3 piece maple top with the centre piece darker in tone than the outer pieces. A red cherry neck blank and ash wood back sit next to it. The foreground is filled with slightly out-of-focus chisel set and Japanese saw.
    My new flip phone doesn’t take great pictures, but I’m trying to lean into it and improve my photography. Wasn’t that long ago that all cameras sucked, people still took good pictures.

    The body shape has evolved to improve ergonomics, playability and aesthetics. The original shape is my own design, but could have been more organic. It was also a little too big and didn’t give great access to the lower part of the neck. All things I hope to solve with the new shape.

    The neck will be a cherry variant like my last; as I have a few quality pieces I was given. The body will be ash with a maple cap; not a popular combination. A decision made because I had some maple on hand and found a piece of ash I liked at the hardware store.

    The process is the point

    I didn’t use a lot of power tools on my last build and will use even less now that I am working on this project at home rather than the maker-space. Power tools have never really appealed to me; to be honest I’m intimidated by them. No doubt they are faster in making a cut; however, they make mistakes faster as well.

    There’s physical fitness required for manual tools and larger dust that isn’t pushed into the air in the same way power tools do. It’s been harder to find time to keep fit; however, manual wood work and bike commuting sneak that exercise in.

    If power tools are your process, I’m here for that. We have limited time to get things done or maybe your profiting from your wood working. Not suggesting this is the only way, but I am noticing something.

    I’ve made a lot of choices to slow things down this year and experience things. I recently downgraded to a flip phone, went back to a manual brush and am ditching my smart watch. Most of these decisions are being made because these things are breaking and can’t be repaired.

    A benefit I didn’t expect was what a more tactile experience does for your mind. When sending a text I flip it open, use buttons to navigate (not many) and T9 a message. When I snap it shut my mind knows a thing happened.

    With AI promising to take every process off our hands so we can spend more time adoring our favourite billionaire; something really important has stood out for me. It is the fundamental flaw of the slop machines and their deranged founders; that is, the process is the point.

    Leave a comment