Electric Guitar Build

Design & Fabrication Project

End-to-end design and construction of a custom electric guitar, focusing on woodworking, hardware integration, electronics, and final setup for playability and tone.

Electric Guitar Build Hero
Guitar CAD Design Guitar CAD Design
The Body

I started by printing out pictures of the body, neck, and fretboard as guides. I glued the outline of the guitar body to a board of white ash. I then cut around it with a band saw and with a jig saw for the smaller crevices. Finally, I went in with a rasp to get the edges down to shape.

Guitar body blank Guitar body blank
The Neck

I did the same for the neck but with a board of mahogany. I shaped the top of the neck and the back of it using sand paper.

Guitar neck construction Guitar neck construction
Adding the Trussrod

Perhaps the hardest part of the project was creating the channel in the neck for the trussrod. The channel had to be pocketed to a low tolerance to prevent long term bowing of the guitar.

Guitar electronics wiring
Making the Fretboard

The fretboard I made out of rosewood. Another difficult part of the project was making sure to cut the fret slots properly and tapping in the frets correctly. The freboard had to be radiused using a radius block, so I created the apparatus to the right to evenly radius the fretboard.

Finished electric guitar Finished electric guitar
Finish

Unfortunately, my internship at the makerspace ended before I could finish the project. My mentors at the makerspace were able to take over the parts I left for them, pocket out the body, paint the wood, and install the hardware, marking an end to this project.