I Want to Build a Guitar

I already know some of the specs I want and I can figure that out as I go. I’ve always loved the Gibson SG body shape but I have small hands and short fingers so I need a thinner neck and a shorter scale. I also prefer more flat fretboards. Overall I’d build one with

22 frets.
24 inch scale.
18 inch fretboard radius.
3 single coil pickups arrayed in the style of a Stratocaster (I know they’d be closer together with a shorter scale so it wouldn’t sound like a strat per se, but similar enough).
On/Off switches for each pickup as opposed to a 5-way switch.
Phase direction selectors for each pickup.
Thinner body for lighter weight.
Cherry wood except for the fretboard, again for lighter weight.

That’s about it for now. I know some of the tools I need to buy but this will be a very long process for me. As I’ve said I’ve done woodworking before but I’ve never made a guitar, so this will be a step upward in skill that will probably require a lot of screw-ups before I finally get it right.

I suggest you do a quick search for any Luthier's that may be in your area. Here where I live in Clearwater FL we have Augostino Guitars which are well known world wide. Mostly classical and acoustic but has built custom electrics in the past. I've been in Augies workshop many times and it's amazing. I bet if you contacted them they would be helpful for any info you might need.

Thank you!

For the neck I’m going for the fender style that isn’t bent back just to make it easier on myself lol. At a future date I may make one with an angle. What I mainly want from the Gibson SG is the body shape itself and the neck accessibility.

I wasn’t really sure whether I was going to do a set-neck or a bolt-on neck, which was easier versus more reliable/durable in a guitar. I saw one guy make a one-piece guitar and I was absolutely STUNNED. That is not ever going to be in my skill set.

It might be beneficial to attempt a kit first rather than a from-scratch build in order to get a feel for what is involved in just the assembly/setup aspect. There are a few tools required to do the best setup possible. A set of allen wrenches to set the saddle height (not required for a LP or SG) and to set the neck relief. Possibly some feeler gauges in-order to set string heights when filing nut slots. A soldering iron for electronics wiring. Peterson makes a strobe-tuner app ($10) that is good for setting the bridge intonation.

Finishing wood usually turns-out about as well as the work someone is willing to put into it. I would say that patience is required for any aspect of instrument building.

As far as the pickups and electronics, there are plenty of less-expensive manufacturers (like GFS, et.al.) that make decent strat pickups. There is really no need to spend $300 on a set of strat or tele pickups.

Please keep us posted on your progress!

Ocean:

This is mostly nostalgia for me, but you might be interested in some of the guitar making things described in the links at the bottom from Vintage Guitar Magazine.

Too bad the timing is way off, but if this forum existed back in the early/mid 70's, which would have been impossible since there was no internet back then, I might have been able to help you out with some stuff. I actually had no idea what was available to me at the time!

I had a summer job while I was in high school, and one of my tasks was to find resonance points in speaker cabs. My electronics teacher set up the gig for me. I really didn't know what the cabs were for, or who they belonged to, but I figured they were for guitar amps. These were pretty small ones. I had a list of a few things I could do to the cabs to see if anything would change or get rid of the resonance(s) then document what I found for each one. The design of each one was different. Sometimes I would spend several days on one cab as a challenge. My labor rate was dirt cheap, so nobody cared about time spent.

I didn't know till several years later that these things were candidates for production or the name of the company. At the bottom are two links from Vintage Guitar Magazine talking about the amps, cabs, and guitars that this company made.
The owner's name was Charles Eilenberg who later I became friends with and did some other work for him sometime while I was in college. The article mentions their move to solid state preamps. I did the circuit board layout and some other design stuff on one of them. I don't know how many versions they had.

I didn't know how big his operation was, can't believe I never went to the factory. I didn't play the guitar so I just took things for granted. In any production operation there are always some items that are damaged or have electronic problems. Charles was a nice guy once you got to know him so I probably could have had my pick of stuff that was written off as junk. Collect enough junk and with some time you end up with a working item if you understand the designs. I was offered one of his bass guitar's once, in excellent condition, but I didn't know what to do with it! Somebody beat me to the "regular" guitar. He would have probably let me dig through his dumpsters and I could have come up with a LOT of pieces that some guitar builder could use.

After they closed down I was offered some of their woodworking equipment - for free. It was a huge room full of stuff. Some of the stuff required 3 phase power, which I didn't have at home. No telling what kind of special tools I took a pass on.

Anyway doesn't help either of us now, but sometimes you just don't know what you've got till it's gone, so the saying goes.

I've kicked myself a number of times since then.

Anyway, the articles:

www.vintageguitar.com/1895/alamo-guitars/
www.vintageguitar.com/1816/alamo-guitars-and-amps-remember-the-alamo/

Check out Warmoth & StewMac DIY kits