I've wanted to expand upon my meager guitar inventory (an Affinity and a cheap acoustic from who-knows-where?), but I've been pondering making my own. Due to my...lack of ANY knowledge of basic guitar mechanics, I need some pointers. What should I start with?

Start by getting a copy of this, and reading it a few times:

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Thanks, I've heard glowing reviews of this. But also, I'd like some firsthand advice. Have any?

Are you intending to "assemble" a guitar using off-the-shelf parts or do you plan on building an instrument totally from scratch?

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

MOST LIKELY from scratch, though I'm no master carpenter. Definitely want a sturdy fingerboard, what's the best wood for that? Ash, Maple, what?

Fretboard lumber is usually a tight-grained wood such as rosewood, maple, ebony, pao ferro, and others with non-porous properties.

You might take a look at the Stewart-McDonald website. They sell some acoustic dreadnaught kits that take the customer through shaping and forming a body, fretboard/neck lamination, bridge placement, the entire gamut of luthery. But solid woodworking skills, familiarity with numerous adhesives, and many specialized tools are required to assemble such an instrument. I've built many Strat clones over the years but my efforts consisted of merely assembling factory-made parts into playable guitars.

Best of luck, HTH

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Hi Shamrock: so much, yes. Too much for a post on a forum. Enough to fill a book - in fact, enough to fill three or four books. Twelvebar named Melvyn's volume, and it is the ideal place to start:

http://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Own-Ele ... 192&sr=1-1

Melvyn is excellent, however, he doesn't cover everything. You need some additional books, because the detail always runs out just where you want it most, and each one covers things others are missing. So I'd also strongly recommend Martin Koch's book:

http://www.amazon.com/Building-Electric ... 192&sr=1-4

That one is a a bit idiosyncratic in places, but he has all sorts of clever real world solutions to problems you encounter as you go along. Very useful.

And then you need Martin Oakham's book. It again covers some things the other two don't and is also by far the best illustrated guitar building book:

http://www.amazon.com/Build-Your-Own-El ... 192&sr=1-3

However, that book devotes exactly one picture caption at the bottom of a page to the entire topic of guitar finishing, and the other two don't go into much detail either. So when you get to the stage of spraying your finish you need Dan & Don's book, the bible on the subject:

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Finishing- ... 615&sr=1-1

And if you plan to make your own necks (and why not?) you'll need to know how to fret them. Dan has a book on that too:

http://www.amazon.com/Fret-Work-Step-St ... 702&sr=1-2

That's a lot of reading. If you start this project without learning plenty of stuff about it first you will go badly wrong. Buy those books: they'll save you many tears.

There is also plenty of good information to be found on this very Forum, and luckily Forum user The_Nutter has brought it all together into one convenient index for you. Follow the links in this thread to tap into more experience than you can shake a stick at:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=43152

There. That lot will keep you busy.

Cheers - C

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If you want to get your feet wet first, you could certainly buy a kit from any of a number of manufacturers.

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2002 mim Telecaster
Jimmie Vaughan Stratocaster
Mexican HSS Stratocaster
6 non-fender guitars
2 kids (not for sale)
1 wife (uh....no comment)

excelent idea right here and you will not spend more than an affinity

Now that you've suggested it, I will definitely look into a kit FIRST. And thank you HTH and Twelvebar for advice! Keep it coming, everyone!

first you need to start with a budget in mind.
do make a note, building a guitar from scratch
will in no way save you any money over buying
a guitar off the shelf.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Likely true.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

ive seen a lot of this type of situation.
unless you have some connections and
the majority of the supplies already on hand,
you cant even expect to come close honestly.
most people why do this they do it not to save
a few bucks but to try their hand at the craft
and with great hopes their passion and emotion
will come out in the very end for all to see and
for creator to feel. sure they start off
"for the challenge of it", but somewhere along
the way things change and emotions take over.
ive never experienced this myself, but ive talked
with several who have built their own. you can
see the pride on their faces and the emotion in
their voices as they present their "masterpiece".

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Okay, I'm on a VERY tight budget (read: whatever I make at my summer job w/ minimum wage), so what is the CHEAPEST kit I can get that will still be worth its cost?

depends on where you are really if you're in the US there is this really cool site that i recommend but i can't advertise it so google "byoguitar" and you should get it... you can expect it to be between 100 and 250 dollars depending on what guitar you want to build