Indy Guitar Builders

If you want to build your own guitar yourself, and you don't know how or where to begin, I know a guy. Pictured here is a promo shot.  This is my 52 Reissue Tele that we used for an example shot.

Jerry of Indy Guitar Builders

Here is my teacher Jerry Brown.  He makes his own guitars.  Mostly acoustic, but he wants to do more electrics as time goes on.  He is a good teacher. 

Body and neck rough cut

Here is me with the rough cut of the body (still pinned with top) and the neck.  Jerry, my teacher has pretty steady hands, but maybe the burryness of the picture was due to the subject matter. 

Body Cut

This is the cut of the telecaster.  I did the body part but the "cutaway" part was best left to my teacher.  Turning that piece of wood was trickey. 

Sand saw

This is the band saw.  Quite a machine.  A ribbon of steal going around two large wheels.  Reminds me of a old moving projector.  Two reels and film.   While I was cutting, the blade broke.  Jerry said it was pretty common and that he has the break spot welded so the blade can be re-used.  The sound of a metal blade breaking while your hands are near is pretty frightening.  After a new blade was installed, I went right back to work. 

Tracing the shape.

Top and body were "pinned" together.  The template was traced on both pieces. Because the body back is what is seen, you have to reverse the body from the top.  This is so you get the desired part of the wood showing.  By pinning the two pieces together, you only cut once and thus keep from misaligning the two pieces. 

Joined, Sanded body

This is the clear Telecaster template we are using.  This shape is traced on the body.  Sounds simple, but at this point you really want to see the position of the shape against the wood.  You want to note the lines and patterns in the wood to begin to imagine how the guitar will look.  This is where the personalization of the piece starts.  The best analogy I can use is like going to the Grand Canyon.  When you see pictures or hear of descriptions, you hear yea, its big or very beautiful.  But actually being at the rim of the Grand Canyon can you only appreciate the magnatude of what you are looking at.  Same true for a simple piece of Swamp Ash.  Yes it is just wood, but I see much more.

top final sand

This is the 1/4inch ash top.  We are gently sanding by had to make sure we have a smooth piece.  We will sand more once we get closer to dying and staining etc.  It is really something to manipulate a piece of wood.  Like clay, or an artists canvass, you begin to really own the work.

Drum sander

This is a cool machine.  You put the wood in and gradually feed it into the machine.  You rotate the wood each time and carefully lower the drum closer to the wood before beginning a "pass".  Both the top and body were sanded.  Now it looks like one piece.  After doing all this, I can't look at a cabinet door, or desk top without trying to see how many pieces were joined, glued, sanded etc.  

Blued body

Once the pieces were joined, we then began the process of sanding the top and body.  Here is the finished body joined and clamps removed. 

Body Sanding

To join the two ash body pieces took some work.  This is a sanding table.  Once we had a correct fit, then we glued and clamped the pieces.

Ash top

After ripping 1/4 inches from the ash pieces, the next part was joining the top pieces together.   That is pretty difficult.  We did this by hand. So I learned how to plane wood with a plane, and even a razor blade to make sure both pieces join together perfectly.  You also have to make sure you look over the piece of wood to see what grain patterns you want.  You get to know wood.  Once the two pieces fit, then you glue and clamp. Once that is complete you sand.  Then you can hardly see the joint.  The picture here is the ash top. 

Work ara

This is the work area.  Several word working tools that are being used.  A band saw, routers, sanders and several hand tools.  Routers are scare little things that force your attention.  I have gotten used to using a band saw.  It is really interesting how you turn a piece of wood while making a turn.  Patience is not my strong suit.  However when your fingers are near a blade it kinda teaches you to go slow and pay attention to what you are doing.  I like that part.  That is worth learning.