Getting Wood

A Mahogany Tree
The Before Picture

Well, after gently goading myself that I'm a wimp, I've decided that I should really have a go at making a guitar body from scratch (I'll get on to necks later, I think, as that is a whole canna-worms).

So, after a bit of a YouTube session, a close reading (glazed stare) of Melvin Hiscox' "How to Build a Guitar For Numpties" book, I've kinda realised that I actually know about 80% of it.

Which may sound odd given that I've been building these Jooky things for a while, but it came as a surprise to me. In fact the gap in my experience is the chopping bits out of wood part, which I guess is fundamental, so I figured it was time to address such shorty comings.

So, in the interests of sanity, I realised I had a choice. I could either...

1. Spend some time contemplating what is to be done. Study the various techniques and philosophies. Practising on matchsticks, twigs, splinters etc. slowly building up to a Uke, a mandolin, a mandola, before reaching for a guitar sized block of wood sometime in 2032.

/or/

b. Get some wood and draw a vague outline, chop bits of wood off it so that I can release the guitar within. Get some other bits of wood and repeat until it looks OK. Convince myself that that was what I wanted to do it in the first place. Smile and find inner luthierness.

Obviously, being a serious and good man, there is only one option to be taken.

OK, so what do I need?

Well, I have a jigsaw for the outline, a router to finesse the edges and chop out the pickup/neck/control cavities and lots of sandpaper.

That's a good start.

What I also need is some wood to practise on, some proper wood once I've got the hang of it. And there we are.

One other thing I realise I need is a set of templates for the routing of the various cavities. I should probably try and make my own, but I figure that my CSE 2 in Technical Drawing was probably an over-achievement at the time and I won't have done anything but go downhill in the 30 years since then, so....

There is of course the slightly sticky part about deciding what I want to build, but I'm sure I'll think of something. I still fancy something teardrop shaped or maybe Rickie-inspired, but we'll see.

So, there we are. A bit of shopping, a few more splinters to cope with and we should get somewhere.

Well, got to be tried init?

Not quite sure what we will end-up with, but how bad can it get?

And maybe I'm being optimistic about finishing a guitar before the end of March, but you never really know until you try these things and anyway, I work sooo much better under presh. Sometimes I even start.