been looking at some home build guitars on here, and id love to do one myself. seems to be lots of great shops to buy bits from in the US, but does anybody know of any UK shops that are similar and worth using ? if not i guess ebay is the only way.

ideally, i would want a thinline telecaster based guitar, probably with a single coil at the bridge and humbucker at the neck. natural finish (figured top would be a bonus), maple neck, large strat type headstock. neck profile/shape like my MIM standard strat. with a bigsby trem bridge.

i would need to buy a fully routed body as i dont have a router, and also a fully constructed neck (shaped headstock, frets etc). i have a few questions though.

1. i would like to add the body contours of a strat, how much meat is there on a thinline tele body, or is it a total no go ?

2. how difficult is it to add binding to the body ? how is it done ?

3. would wanting a bigsby trem be a nightmare if i brought a pre-routed tele body ?

4. would i be able to sculpt the heel for better fret access ?

5. if i brought a blank and borrowed a router, how difficult is it to get all the routing right, and in the right place ?

i have other electrics based questions, but ill save those for when/if i get to the point i need to ask them.

Not terribly difficult, but you need a router. If you're buying the body already you could probably get a bound one, but its starting to sound like the first thing you should buy for your guitar is a router.

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Rated "M" for meaty.

hmmm, ive been looking around and i was sort of under the impression building your own guitar would work out cheaper than buying one made. like buying a kit car, or flatpack furniture. but quickly pricing bits up on a couple of UK sites ive found, just the wood is already proving more expensive than buying a modern player thinline tele.

assuming i can get a router, which i probably can, is it a 'black art' routing bits in the right place so the bridge is the right distance from the nut, etc etc ?

In all honesty, it's going to work out as expensive as buying a custom guitar. It will take longer and won't be as good.
To be blunt about it.

On the plus side. If you're patient you'll have a lot of fun and learn a lot.

Yes routing is difficult.
Yes adding binding is difficult
You probably won't be able to add strat contours to a thinline. If you somehow manage it, you won't be able to add binding. Unless you are a woodworking genius or pretty special with a paintbrush and paint the binding on.

You could just contact someone like http://www.felineguitars.com/ and have them build you exactly what you want. For a similar price.

But like I said, it won't be as much fun.

You could start off with a cheap kit and mod it yourself.
http://www.brandoniguitars.co.uk/bodies.asp
Note the shop soiled option at the bottom of the list. May be worth inquiring about to get yourself some practice pieces.

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thanks, that site you linked looks pretty promising. i intended on buying bits as and when i could afford them, but as you say eventually splashing out what would easily be 500 gbp +, for what will always be and feel like a 'home made' guitar - and my first attempt at that - does seem a bit silly.

thanks

Nah it's not silly, not at all. I've done it.
It's money well spent if you look at it as an education and a fun pass time/hobby.

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It is MASSIVE fun building............

You could maybe try one of those cheap kits as a starter........they come in between 70-150 quid and you can get them on ebay too.

Your other option is to find a cheap version of what you want and just upgrade parts as and when you can. THis brings its own set of problems and issues as you find certain parts are made to certain sizes and most guitar manufacturers use slightly different measurements. What this does, though, is get you used to sanding, routing, cutting etc on a cheapo before you decide to build your own from the bottom up.

Home made feeling isn't always bad in my opinion but much better starting off with something you don't mind wrecking.

WHen it comes to binding, routing and carving into guitar bodies, I found the best thing was to start farting about with blanks before going anywhere near the guitar.
Mrs Wookee always used to have a laugh about that .....she'd just say, 'There he goes...playing with wood again.....'

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speak slowly I'm a drummer too!!

And I proudly lack a stick or a kazoo up my arse...........

Infinitely better than "There he goes, firing blanks again".

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Hijack: I've been away on vacation ... just come back ... where are the Jim Marshall RIP topics?

On Topic: moochy13, you got some great suggestions here. You can put together a great guitar by buying the bits. If you've never painted before, you'd be better off trying on a less expensive kit. Or you can buy an inexpensive Squier guitar and just practice painting on it (you don't have to remove the existing finish if you are doing a solid color -- if you are wanting to do a transparent color, you might not like the looks of the wood once you got the original finish off of a Squier).

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

I posted one, so did someone else.

Infinitely sad with the news of his demise, still. It was an ambition to meet him.

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I can also recommend a very good UK shop for buying parts-they are called WDMusic.

http://www.wdmusic.co.uk/

Very good service and catalog of parts.

Good luck with your build! And post pics on the forum!

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"reach for the sky and aim for the moon, for if you miss you will end up among the stars"

Zoom MS50G
72 tele dlx RI
2011 standard strat
Blackstar HT-5R
Taylor Big Baby

http://www.youtube.com/user/Almungo/videos?flow=grid&view=0

thats one of the sites i wa looking at. but by the time ive brought the bits, i could have just brought something with the fender name on headstock, better fit and finish and with none of the hassle. i do enjoy using my hands to build things, and fix my car though.

however the main crux of wanting to build a guitar was that i saw the modern player thinline tele, and ive always needed a thinline to add to my collection. im just not a huge fan of the colours they come in. but the cost to build one, just so it was a different colour, compared to buying a MP thinline is too much for me.

and theres no way im brave enough to take a sander to a brand new fender

Give Brandoni a call mate. They'll have a fair few seconds you can play around with.

You didn't like the trans-black Thinline Tele, with p90's?

I played one last week, surprisingly good guitar. Exceptional for the money. If I hadn't just bought another guitar, I'd have had it.
I really suggest going and trying one. If only for the colour. The guitars all look brown on the web. The one near me is definitely black though.

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i have tried the thinline, in the burst colour and they also had the normal tele in the black finish. i very much liked the thinline, played real nice and far superior to anything in its price range i thought. i think theres a definite place for them between the squires and MIM stds. especially as they're a bit out of the ordinary design wise, which is what im after. i actually much prefer how brown they are on the fender pictures, which is also sort of why i want a natural finish guitar, i want to see some grain on my next guitar

edit - just checking the MP pics on the fender catalogue, i stumbled upon the natural finish Jim Adkins signature TC-90. all its missing is my maple fretboard preference.

excited edit 2 - with the bridge type on the JA-90 ( les paul style), should in theory mean a swap to a bigsby should be relatively pain free and simple ? maybe even no extra holes ?