5 December, 2018

Aimee Rivas

Chris Timm

ENGR 1600

Construction of the Electric Guitar

A Guide by Aimee Rivas

This extracurricular assignment for my generals has been a real ride for me compared to
my past semester classes. I jumped into woodworking and machinery with regret that, despite the
interest, I would fatally hurt myself at a high personal and financial cost. As the semester comes
to a close, I can proudly say I've come out of the classroom with an expanded knowledge on
guitar procedures and a fully functioning electric guitar. With all my knowledge gathered in one
entry, this is an easy guide to make a fast guitar of your very own.

What you'll need to start: A guitar construction kit.

You could make a guitar body and neck from a block of wood, but the easiest route would be
buying a guitar construction kit. This kind of kit goes around for $120 and includes a guitar body
type, neck and fret board. These kind of kits will also typically include the following essential
items for building your electric guitar:
5 December, 2018

2 Pickups, pickup rings, and screws

A bridge with saddles, bridge screws,

The nut

A Truss rod and neck plate

Tuning pegs and hardware, a string tree

Volume and tone knobs, toggle switch

Strap buttons

An Allen wrench and additional wires

And electronic components

There's the option to further customize your electric guitar with accents such as a pick guard or
fancy fret dots as well.

Before you start:

Because this is an engineering and woodworking task, it's important to know the lab safety to
best churn out your expected product instead of seriously injuring yourself in the process.
Always keep safety goggles on hand when shaping a piece of wood. Wood debris is easy to
generate and easy to get into the eyes and lungs. It's also important to not wear loose clothes or
have your hair hanging, as this is a potential hazard around running machines. Proper use of
wood sculpting machines and tools is essential, too. Make sure work area of machine is clear and
saws or sand belts are in the machine properly. Treat every machine as if it were on and do not
engage with any machine if it feels unsafe.

Step 1: Sculpting the guitar body

Always plan on the look and type of guitar

before constructing. Electric guitars come
in all shapes and sizes, with deviations of a
regular guitar or a hollow body - this guide
is constructing a hollow body. The guitar
needs to be sanded using a belt sander to start. A belt sander is a large sanding machine that runs
very fast. Place the bottom of the guitar against the sander, along the grain of the wood, to sand
off the rough wood work. Flip over the guitar body until body is evenly sanded. To get harder to
reach places, sand with a sanding spindle, that comes in a variety of sizes.

Create a round over on your guitar with a router. Turn router on when you're ready to use it, and
place just a few centimeters away from the edge of the wood. Go with the grain of to wood and
5 December, 2018

go at a good pace as to not burn the wood. Apply for the front and back of body. Hollow body
guitars require temporary support on the back as the hole covers nearly the whole back.

Typically, you can add arm rests and belly cuts to your guitar for more ease and access, but the
hole in the hollow body limits those additions.

Step 2: The Hole in the room

The hollow body has a big cavity in the back for the electronics, as opposed to a regular electric
guitar. In order to close that up, you need to stick in extra wood support on the back walls for the
back cover to have something to drill into. Shape the wood to the contour of the back wall with
the belt sander, super glue on the wall and clamp the wood until stuck. When ready, pre-drill the
back plate through the wood pieces for the end of the project.

Make sure body is sanded smooth with a 120 grit to start, then a 200 or 300 grit for finish.
5 December, 2018

Step 3: Neck Assembly Pt.1

Cut out a headstock style for your guitar. Rough out the shape on the headstock with a pencil.
Here, it's important to make relief cuts on the sides of the design to give the blade an exit when
making complex turns for the headstock.

I went with a classic design! Sand the head stock all

over to smooth it out, especially the side, which has
two bumps on it. *Note: You should always smooth
everything on the guitar, so it looks more
professional.

Sand off the small tab at the bottom of the neck first. It's best if the neck and fret board are
completely level, so mark along the neck and fret board with a pencil and sand them on a sand
block. *Note: at least the edges should be flat.

*Extra: Mark down the fret dot locations before attaching the fret board to the neck.

The fret dots placement: 3rd fret, 5th, 7th, 9th, two
dots on the 12th fret, 15th, 17th, 19th, 21st.

Best way to go about this is measure the center

with a ruler, corner to corner; mark with 'X' for the
center. *The 'X' flattens out towards the bottom.

Separate the 12th fret in half and measure an 'X' on

the corners of the half.

Press the fret holes, quarter inch diameter, with a

drill press, which you adjust up and down into the
fret board. Drill 8th of an inch deep.
5 December, 2018

The placement of the fret board is very important to the sound of the instrument. Temporarily
place the neck in the neck slot and the bridge on the lined up holes on the body. *Note: if the
neck does not fit at all, sand down the sides until it fits in snuggly. The distance from the high E
saddle on the bridge to the 12th fret on the fret board should be 12.75" (should be about equal
length in half sides.) Mark these locations (top, 12th fret, bottom) to remember. It's okay for the
fret board to have a little over hang at the bottom.

*Extra: add a bevel to the top of the fret board for the strings to roll off of. Not too far to cut into
the nut slot.

Slide truss rod into the neck. If it does not fit in properly, widen or deepen the hole slightly. The
truss rod should be flush or a little lower than the neck. Reposition the fret board on the neck and
clamp it down to the marks. Drill in registration pins for gluing point of reference. Drill with a
1/16 drill bit (small), one on the top right side of the first fret line, and one on the left side of the
20th or 21st fret line. Don't drill very far *Only drill as far as the screw is, usually.

Glue the fret board to the neck with Titebond 1 glue. Glue around the truss rod twice (don't
overdo it.) and on the sides of the fret board. Glue should be thin, not too clumped together.
Press the fret board on the neck. Adjust alignment to the marks, then the registration pins will
keep it aligned. Put a block of wood in-between the pins, and two pieces of wood outside of the
pins. Allow for the pressure and glue to stick for 20-25 minutes. *In the meantime, pre-drill the
bridge holes and neck plate holes- 3/32 drill bit for the bridge, 1/8 or 9/64 for neck. The overall
length of the bridge area to the nut should be 25 1/2 inches. *Be sure to lubricate the screws with
wax.
5 December, 2018

Step 4: Neck Assembly Pt. 2

The glue should be dry by now and the fret board should be neatly aligned to the neck. Scrape
dried excess glue from sides of fret board with a blade. Scrape towards you at a 30 degree angle.
After wards, sand the entire neck again with a 120 grit to start and a 220 for finish. Your hand
should be able to slide over the neck and fret board seamlessly.
5 December, 2018

Step 5: Adding the fret dots in

Use an Acrylic based rod (black or white) for the fret dots. Super glue the fret holes and stick the
rod to stand in the hole. Glue should set in 30 seconds. Surround the rod with paper to protect the
fret board from getting scratched, and saw off the rod at the base (do this for all the fret dots.) A
fret dot chunk will be in the fret hole and ready for a radius.

Step 6: Neck Assembly Pt. 3

The neck and fret board need to

be straight and flat. Turn the
truss rod with an Allen wrench
clockwise to raise the middle, or
counterclockwise to drop the
middle. Clamp the neck to a
table and run it over with a
radius and coarse paper. Sand
vertical, grip the radius block
and brush fingers along neck;
push with your leg muscles.
Alternate sanding from top to
bottom on both sides of neck
(20 to 25 times going over.)
Sand the bottom extra times, as it is wider and needs rounder edges. The whole process will take
about 30 minutes, but fret dots should be flushed and the neck should be level.

Step 7: Installing the frets

Begin by sawing the slots with a slot saw (.015 size) to open it (1 or 2
times should do it, unless there's a piece of wood uncut in the slot; Cut
it out.) Check fret slot depth with a depth square, 10"-14" side, double
lines; The double lines should sink completely into the fret slot to be
clear.

The frets come from a fret wire- they need to be wiped off from all the
oil; wipe until completely clean. The fret wire needs to be bent and
rounded, so wring it through a spinner machine, barbed side up, back
and forth until rounded. Cut the fret wire off at an almost parallel angle
and place into the slot (Fret wire should be hanging out slightly in the
slot.) Rest the neck on a neck call and hammer in the fret wires (starting
at the middle and then the edges; don't smash the fret board, but hit with
5 December, 2018

pressure.) It's best to place the fret wires in

every other slot, particularly as you go down
the neck, as placing them right by each other
will make it trickier to nip off the overhanging
fret wires. Nip all the overhanging wires
parallel to the board and closest to the board as
you can. File the fret edges flat to the board so
that you don't hurt your fingers running them
down the neck. Rotate the file at a 45 degree
angle after for a fret bevel. Deburr the fret wire
edges with a file if too sharp. Buff frets with
600 grit sand paper on the sides for a finish.

The straightness of the fret board and fret wire

have an impact against the strings and the
sound of the instrument. You can check if frets
are level with a straight edge. Rock it over 3
frets; if there is a rock, hammer in the frets
until all frets are even. If hammering doesn't
push the frets deeper, crown it with a file.
Finish any scratches on the frets with 400 grit
sand paper or a soft file.

Step 8: Jack Hole and Wire Run Drilling

This is where drilling gets tricky. In order for it to be an 'electric' guitar, you need to drill a hole
for the jack to connect into. A good place for the jack is typically the bottom corner, seen in the
picture. Mark location of jack hole and use a big drill press machine. This is a two person job:
one to keep the guitar clamped and positioned, and one to lower the drill into the mark. Go in
slowly, the progress faster, moving in and out of the hole to clear away wood shavings. Drill
through to the back of the guitar (you can see it easily in hollow body guitars.) *Alternatively,
you can drill the jack hole if you have a drill
with a bit the size of the jack hole.

3 Drill Hole Maneuver: There are 3 extra holes

that need to be drilled carefully and accurately.
1st, drill a hole between the bridge pocket and
the control pocket. 2nd, drill a little hole by the
bridge holes into the wood on the back of the
guitar (seen in the picture on the right.) [this is
where the ground wire will go later.] 3rd, drill a
hole between the two pickup pockets. Start drill
5 December, 2018

above the wood, and as you drill in, lower the drill bit to be straight. Don't drill to far past the
second pocket.

Step 9: Soldering and Wiring

This is the second and also dangerous tricky part. You'll need a soldering iron, lots of solder,
denatured alcohol or acetone, paper towels, and wires to set up all your electronics. Preheat the
solder iron; crank it to 6, and make sure you have a damp sponge to clean off iron. You'll need
your volume and tone knobs, your 3 way toggle switch, the fuse and capacitor, and some wires
provided in your guitar assembling kit. Arrange for the two knobs and switch on top of a box to
be where they would be when placed into the guitar, to ensure a good wire distance between each
electronic. Rough the iron pieces with acetone and wipe off. Begin carefully by touching the
solder to iron. Smoke should climb from the iron, indicating the solder has melted off. Apply the
iron to tone knob on the top for the solder to melt on to the knob. Let it cool naturally.

Cut some wires and expose the ends of the wires with special pliers. Hold the bare wires up with
clippers as to not burn yourself from the solder. Apply the solder and iron to the wire so that the
wire has melted solder on it (preheat the wires with solder.) The wire is ready to be soldered to
the knobs, just bring the wire to the soldered knob and solder them together. The goal is for all
the electronic wires to seem as if they were always attached to the knobs and switch.

Here is a rough diagram of what the wiring

should look like *Note: The soldering is not
done in the guitar, it is done outside of it.

The tone knob goes at the bottom hole and

will have the most wires connected to it. You
need to solder the capacitor wires on top of
the tone knob; Solder a wire between the tone
knob and the volume knob (through the
hoops on the far left;) Solder another wire to
the output jack- You'll need to connect the
two by a fuse seen at the bottom left of this
picture.

The volume knob needs to have a wire

soldered to it from the third hoop on the far
right. The second/middle hoop will have a
wire soldered between the volume knob and
the output jack on its tip.
5 December, 2018

The toggle switch will have four wires running

from it: The red wire gets attached to the back
hoop of the switch and solders on top of the
volume knob. The white wire attaches to the
middle hoop of the switch and solders to the first
hoop of the tone knob (so there will be two wires
soldered to the hoop.) The black and white wires
come from the pickups; the white wire will have
to wires sticking out- they will be soldered
through each hoop of the switch on either side of
the middle hoop. The black wire needs to be
exposed and twisted together. Clean and rough
toggle switch and create a solder pool on the side
just like on the tone and volume knobs. Solder the
black wire to that side.

It's vital to know the distance between the knobs

and the toggle switch, to take into account the
length of the wire and how everything will
ultimately be soldered.

*You can solder the ground wire once

guitar is finally ready to be fully
assembled.
5 December, 2018

Step 10: Last of the Pre-drilling

You'll need to prep the tuning pegs before finishing. The tool
pictured on the right opens up the tuning peg holes. Twist the
holes gently, and occasionally check to see if the tuning pegs fit
through the hold snuggly yet. Line up all the tuning pegs through
the holes and mark where the screws will go on the headstock.
Do a pre-drill with a 1/16 drill bit. It's important to try and get
this right the first time. *Try to get all pre-drilling done by this
point, including tone holes, toggle switch hole, bridge holes
(only the bottom row,) strap button holes (optional.)

Step 11: Finishing

There are many different ways to apply coats of paint to your

custom electric guitar. You could spray paint it, which would
require fresh spray cans, a spray can measured difference
between paint and guitar, and an oscillating motion over the
guitar body (hardest to reach places first, which would be the horns/neck pocket area.)

You could stain the guitar, which would apply a paint coat that still leaves the wood design
visible, just painted.

In my case, my guitar is all natural looking with 2 or so clear coats to retain the wood and look
slick. After the coats dry, you rub off any dust particles trapped in the paint, then apply 2 or so
coats of lacquer to the wood (a hard, protective coating to keep instrument body safe and stylish.)
*Lacquer takes 2 weeks of 2 coats to fully dry, so that's important to take into account of time
management with your guitar.

Additionally, you could wet sand the guitar body after several coats of clear finish. Take a 1000
to 1500 grit sand paper, wet it with hand soap and wet the guitar a little first, and "sand" lightly
in small circles. This process will cut through the clear coat, but stop if it's sanding away the
paint. Lighter pressure on the sides of guitar. Typically level the guitar with 1000 grit wet sand
paper and re-sand it with the 1500 grit.

For extra shine and finish, you can buff the guitar body with 'cut cleaner' and 'swirl remover.'
Use a rag and wipe in small circles over the body (it should feel hot using this chemical.) Use the
'swirl remover' for finish.
5 December, 2018

Step 12: Quick string holders

The back of the guitar has 6 holes in it. This is

where the strings will go, but first, you need to
put in the metal thimbles/barrels in the holes. Put
your guitar body on a towel or blanket and
hammer them in individually. This helpful to
keep the ball end of the strings hooked into the
guitar.

Step 13: Pickup Assembly

After the guitar body and neck is sprayed and finished, assemble the pickups and how they'll sit
in the pickup pockets. The pickups will require two pickup rings (one's tapered and one's not.), 8
screws (4 are long, 4 are short.), 4 main screws (one on each side of ring.) and 4 springs (one on
each side of ring.)

For experimental and custom reasons, the neck pickup and bridge pickup will be switched than
typically done (bridge will be on top, neck will be at bottom.) *The thin pickup ring goes to the
neck, the tapered one will go to the bridge (thick side should face bottom.) **The line of screws
in the neck pickup should face upward, while the line of screws on the bridge pickup should face
downward (in the special case of the reverse pickups, pretend the bridge is the neck and vice
versa, and assembly them as such.) Take a pickup ring and put the 2 of the 4 long screws
through the holes. Slide the springs underneath on the screws and mount the ring on the pickup.
Screw the screws down ward through the pickup hole; this will keep the ring and screws locked
around the pickup. Place both pickups in the pickup pockets. *Take the wires coming from the
pickups and slide them through the hole in the pickup pocket; it should come out on the backside
close to the top (and also in this case, close to the toggle switch.)

Screw the pickups into the guitar with the 4 screws on each corner. The long screws go to the
tapered ring, the short ones go to the flat ring. Once screwed in, the pickup height is able to be
adjusted at will. The height of the pickup effects the sound of the strings vibrating on the
instrument. You'll want the pickup height to be fairly above the rings for quality sound.
5 December, 2018

Step 14: Officially putting in the electronics

Put some copper tape over the holes of the volume and tone knobs;
This is used for reducing humming or radio interference. Poke the
knobs through the copper wire- they'll stick out through the front
like the middle picture on the left side. Hardware like washers and
bolts come in handy for this part of the construction. Place the
washer down first, then twist the bolt on the knobs until tightened
(you can use a wrench to tighten it easier.) *Do the same with the
toggle switch in the picture on the right.

Place the actual tone and

volume knobs over these
ones. (it's included in the
guitar construction kit.)

Solder the ground wire to tone knob and run it through the
bridge hole created in step 8. The ground wire will poke out of
the hole (just go as far as the exposed wire.) Place the bridge
on top of the wire and screw in the bridge.
5 December, 2018

Step 15: Stringing the guitar

*First, slide the nut in the nut slot.

How to string the guitar (using D'Addario nickel wound strings)-

The strings vary in thickness and note, but typically they are color
coded by a ball bead hanging off the end of the string. You'll pull the
strings through the back holes in the guitar. Be gentle and slow in
pulling the strings through, and make sure the saddles on the bridge
are not blocking the hole for the string to come out of.

Start with the 6th string first, as it connects

to the bottom tuning peg and will make
stringing the rest of the strings natural. Pull
the string all the way through the hole until
bead is caught in the thimble/barrel.
Measure how much slack to put in the
string by putting your fist under the string
and pulling it towards the tuning
pegs/headstock. Where the string rests on
your fist, the piece of string past the tuning
peg will get bent, and you'll only wind up
the string between the saddle and each
specific tuning peg. Turn the tuning peg to
show the hole and pull the string through
the hole. Hold up and pull the string and
push it down against the headstock with
one hand and turn the specific tuning peg
away from you to get the string winding.
The string should wind underneath the
hole/string in hole. 2 to 3 wounds should be
enough for the strings. Clip off the hanging strings from the top with wire cutters.

Do this procedure with the remaining 5 strings. *It'll be faster/require less winding when you get
down to the thinner strings. Add a string tree to the headstock. It'll be two screws holding the
string tree on top of the strings. This effects the tension of the strings sitting in the nut (This is
optional as well.)

After your guitar is strung, you'll probably need to raise or lower each saddle on the bridge for
better intonation. Intonation is reflected by the distance between the saddle and the nut. The 12th
fret of each string should match the open note, and that can be fixed with the saddle height.
5 December, 2018

Step 16: The back plate and the finishing touch.

Once all electronics are in and the front of the guitar is screwed in and strung, you can go ahead
and screw in the guitar back plate (the hollow body requires many screws in comparison to the
two screws in regular electric guitars.)

*You should test out the pickups/electronics before officially finishing. The volume and tone
knobs should be noticeably going up and down with the sound. The toggle switch should switch
between pickups. The pickups should make some noise when you tap them.

And the electric guitar should be all finished!

In retrospect, constructing a guitar takes hours, sometimes weeks, to accomplish, but the steps
and tools are easy to handle, and I feel just as capable of making another electric guitar.