Step 5

This next step was very difficult. I had to align the neck to the body...exacly. The neck couldn't be glued to high, or low, not to much to the left or to the right, and not to far forward or to far back. That is if it was to be played properly and on tune with no buzzing of the strings. Of course I didn't get it exact because some of the strings buzz. Other than that, after it dried and settled, and with four screws drilled into it, this neck would not be going anywhere.

Step 4

I ordered the frets (the thin metal wire-like things that go on the neck) off of eBay. I then pre cut the slots in the neck, and inserted them gently with my finger. Since most of them were only going in half way I got out my hammer. I tried hitting them softly so as not to damage them, but sometimes it couldn't be helped. Most of the frets beyond the 15th cause the strings to buzz which is why you should always use the right tool for the right job. Then, for extra support when installing the guitar head to the neck, I drilled a hole on the end of both the head and neck, so that a steel dowel could be glued in to them. Once every thing was glued, the only step left was to glue the head and neck to the body (there's no feet), and string it up.

Step 3

After that, I glued the back part of the guitar on. So that finished of buiding the body of the guitar. I started cutting the guitar's neck out of a solid block of oak. I then stood by my dad's sander and sanded the neck for about a half an hour to get just the right curve. Then I drew a design for the head. I cut the design out and placed classical guitar tuning mechanisims inside the holes(which I should not have done.) If you know anything about the tension on the tuning mechanism you know why I should not have done this. If I go and skip a few steps of building the guitar to stringing it this is what happened. As I tightened the strings tighter and tighter the tuning device was bending more and more. I should have known this would happen. Esspecially since the tuning device was plastic.

Here, The saw's blade isn't even visible because it is so thin.

Step 2

Before I could glue these peices together I had to attach the bridge which holds the strings in place. I drilled six holes in it, and glued a very small wooden peice with 6 notches in it on to hold the strings in place. Most of these peices on other brand guitars are plastic, but mine was wood to give it a mellow tone. I measured all the distances and marked the exact location of where the bridge should go. Then I glued the bridge to the board and fastened an oak brace on the opposite side to stableize the guitar from literally ripping apart under the tension of the strings. Shown above is a side view of the guitar.

Step 1

I'm guessing you might want to know more about my guitar I've built pictured near the bottom of the page. After all how many 14 year old kids get to build there own guitar. When I started out building it I had no idea what I was getting into. With limited wood, and very few tools, along with very little knowledge of how to construct a guitar I set out to accomplish my goal. At first I started building the guitars body out of a 1/8 inch sheet of wood lying around in the garage. I used my Gibson Epiphone as a template and drew my design on 2 pieces. One for the back and one for the front. Then I cut out the circular sound holes. In bettween these peices I placed 5 oak curves to take the shape of the guitar.