Anyone ever make their own electric guitar?

[cockroach]

I asked this on another forum, but as many of the contributors are younger, there weren't too many responses!

(In the sense that most younger players can easily buy necks, bodies, pickups etc on line - whereas years ago, parts etc were hard to find or non existent etc)

I know many of we older chaps often made their own electric guitars from whatever we could find, beg, borrow, invent, modify etc back in the early days of playing..

In my first band in the '60's, I could count at least six guitars and basses made either from scratch or from modifying old cheapo guitars etc..for example, the bass player in my first band was left handed and where we live back then, LH basses were as rare as rocking horse manure and/or very expensive, so our handyman drummer built him two LH basses..the second one being an ambitious copy of a LH Rickenbacker bass...

Any stories (and especially photos!) of such hand built masterpieces?

[dave robinson]

I just put together two Strats from blank bodies that I sprayed' adding all my spare parts that had accumulated over the years after changing and trying numerous pickups that ended up in a drawer. I have two lovely guitars out of it and they do sound good on first playing.
It remains to be seen whether or not they are equal to my real ones that cost a fortune. Watch this space.

[Iain Purdon]

One of the most famous home-made guitars must be this one made by Brian May and his dad

Brian May's Red Special.jpg

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[Derek Mowbray]

Yes I did know someone who made his own solid electric guitar in 1960 at a place called Boston Spa in West Yorkshire he was an apprentice joiner it was his own design not a copy , but we lost touch so I don`t know what became of him or his guitar.

[noelford]

As in John's band, the bass player in one of my earliest groups was left handed and made his own fretless bass. He also carried all his gear in a trailer attached to his bike (we played only local gigs!). Ironically, when he could afford to buy a proper bass, with frets, he found it almost impossible to play having got used to the home-made fretless.

[RayL]

Age 16 I had managed to buy a second-hand acoustic from The Swap Shop, but I hankered after a solid guitar. A slab of wood was bought from the local hardware shop and I started hacking out a rough shape, based on the (unaffordable) Burns Artist in the Bell Music catalogue.

As usual, life got in the way. Homework, going out with mates, A levels and then going away to college meant that the slab of wood was forgotten

(and in the first term at college, a real Burns Artist came my way).

Thirty years later I was clearing out my Dad's workshop room after he had died. In the far corner was a drill stand, and under the drill stand was that slab of wood. He had been using it (as woodworkers do) to avoid drilling into the workbench surface.

At least it found some use.

Ray

[Terry B]

Yes! I made one in woodwork class at school in around 1960 - here it is on my bedside chair - not the best but I remember I had to work out, mark and cut all the frets which was a devil of a job!

Terry's first home made guitar c1960a.jpg

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[cockroach]

Nice one TerryB!

My first guitar I made was also at secondary school in the woodwork class...it was in 1964, and although our woodwork teacher was about the same age as our dads, he must have thought that an electric guitar was a good interesting major project for us teenage boys -who at that time (Beatles!) all wanted electric guitars and to join a band(sorry..group!)
Much more interesting and liable to be more popular than the usual projects like bookcases, coffee tables etc and the little buggers might actually enjoy carpentry and learn summat useful!!

I have no idea from where he got the design and templates etc as it was quite a sophisticated design- laminated neck through body with a veneer top to cover the body wings where they joined to the neck..

My mate the bass player in my first group went to the same school and he made one also- which he still owns!

Mine was a disaster...not having any money, but having a cheap f- hole guitar as my only instrument, I took all the hardware (including the frets!) off it and used the parts on the solidbody I was building (so I was without a guitar for nearly a year until I finished the guitar at school)...then when I finally finished it and eagerly got it home, it wouldn't play properly... I had mucked up the fingerboard etc...I was so bloody miserable, but good old dad took me into the city and bought me a proper electric guitar on HP..a Hofner Club 40...

Despite this catastrophe, I later made other guitars...but that's another story!

[nivramarvin]

Back in the Eighties I built this one with parts from Rockinger, Hannover: two pieces of mahogany for the body and a through neck with a rectangular head I had to saw in the workroom of my school.

[Mikey]

I lived and worked in Hannover in the 80s but never came across Rockinger. Sounds like I missed out!