How to Design Your Own Guitar

When we start to design a guitar, we begin with all the things we know - every guitar has a centre-line and everything else is measure from this

So this is the starting point for any drawing or build, and needs to be right - in this first pencil to paper lecture, I show you how and why

Accuracy is really important from the start - whether you plan to build the guitar or not - I show you a few useful tips to getting the line in the right place

In this lecture I explain the importance of the nut. We will explore a few of the options, and how this relates to your design

Here I explain the mathematical mystery of scale length, and the position of frets on the fretboard.

To save you a little time a Fret Calculator for Microsoft Excel can be found in the resources for this lecture.

For drawing purposes, marking the scale length is as accurate as we need to be, but this doesn't account for intonation

Lecture 26 in Section 4 gives more info about intonation

The width of the neck is determined by your choice of nut and bridge - In this lecture I will explain how to mark the bridge E-E spacing and use that to mark out the profile of the fretboard.

For more information on bridges see Section 4 lecture 25 "Guitar Bridge Options"

If we were to build this guitar a choice has to be made at this point between 2 different headstock styles - angled back or parallel.

This choice is influenced by the neck construction style but for the design we just need to know if it is a 3 a side or 6 in line style.

For more info check out Section 4 lecture 21 - Neck Join Styles and lecture 22 Parallel headstock

I mention patterns again here also - check out the PDF "Patterns" and the lecture 12 on how to trace those patterns

The next job is to mark pick ups and you need the patterns to do this job - this lecture explains how to use tracing paper and transfer the outlines to your design

This is a longer lecture as it demonstrates how to trace, and specifically shows step by step addition of pick ups to the design

There is a brief tutorial on pick up choices but much more detail can be found in Section 4 lecture 27 "Pick Ups"

You should definately look at this lecture if you would like to have something other than 2 humbuckers on your design

Body shape is one of the most varied parts of a guitar and often the first thing that people focus on when they think of guitar design

The beauty of a working drawing done in pencil, is that once the other decisions (in previous lectures) have been made, the body can be designed to taste...and altered and developed

Even after the drawing is complete you can continue to develop the shape - if you design your own I recommend you live with it for a while before you go ahead and commission or build the guitar. That way you can continue to refine your design until you are sure you are truly happy with it

The longest lecture of the course so far, will take you through a combination of tutorial about the type and location of the controls - including what controls, where to position, & Marks recommendations- plus how to mark them accurately on the design

It isn't just about the positioning on the front of the guitar - there are decisions to be made about rear cavities which house the control electrics

I will demonstrate how to create a custom control cavity, or you can use the PDF pattern provided

In this lecture I summarise different aspects of guitar body styling - ie the additional shaping that is applied to the body by carving.

It always helps to plan where that shaping might be to avoid problems down the line

I demonstrate how to represent the different choices of body styling on your drawing

They may look small, but a guitar without fret markers can be difficult to play - in my experience most people can manage without markers on the front, but need them on the side. We don't mark the side dots as we are not drawing a side elevation.

It is useful to mark strap pin locations - this can be tricky on single cut guitar body shapes as they are often on the back of the guitar

With any job its always worth checking what you have done before moving on to the next - even in a paper exercise . This lecture runs through the main checks but with a view to the design being used as a plan for a build

Congratulations! I hope you enjoyed the course and found it useful. Now you can go ahead and have fun designing yours!

Don't forget to watch all the bonus lectures as there is much more info there. If you have any further Q's please don't hesitate to ask or start your own course discussion.

Build Your Own Guitar is now LIVE and you can find the all the links I refer to here in the final section Resources: Where to Get Stuff - Useful Links.

Neck Wood: Recommended neck wood for your first guitar - What makes a good piece of wood - Quartersawn Wood - 'Bolt on', 'Glued in', and 'Thru' neck blanks - 'Laminated' necks - Fretboard Blanks - Premade Fretboards

Body Wood: Recommended body wood for your first guitar - Body blanks - One and Two piece blanks - Caps - Figure - Bookmatching - Fake Binding

For basic design purposes, the neck style is not important but if the guitar is to be made it is. This is the longest lecture and I explain the 3 main styles plus some variations, and what those choices mean for the design

This is commonly used for bolt on neck guitars - I explain the difference and show you how to modify the plan

Everything you need to know about truss rods

What they are, what they do and why they are important - and some basic options

A guitar bridge comes in many different shapes (and several colours) and whilst they may all be fixed to the body in different ways, essentially the bridge is there to hold the strings at the body end

For the design all we need to know is the location and the rough size of the bridge so we can ensure that the mounting screws/posts are in the correct place and clear of control cavities

I recommend a wrapover with 2 posts for the simplest design or build.

Why are bridges always positioned at an angle ? Intonation is the answer and is explained here

Alternatives and options for pick up choices and layouts - includes how to modify the design

Binding, coverplates and their use including common materials

This bonus lecture has little or no bearing on your drawing, but is the final piece of the guitar building jigsaw

The finish you choose will have a massive effect on how long the guitar build will take - here I explain some of the different finishes and techniques used to apply them

All the basic patterns you will need, based on my recommendations, to complete your design.

These are the same patterns used to make templates for building the guitar in the next course.

Some links I hope you will find useful - Please don't forget to 'complete' this lecture so you can get your 100% completion certificate!

'1st draft' of Tools for Guitar making...I will keep this list updated - please let me know if you spot anything missing or wrong...