Building James Hetfield's Guitar In My Garage!

Modeled after his Ken Lawrence Explorers, I built this out of mahogany with a rosewood fretboard. Check out my first attempt at building a guitar, and let me know what I can do better for my next guitar build!

Thanks for the inspiration to the following people:
Crimson Guitars

Here's some of the tools I used in this build from our Amazon Storefront (commissions earned on sales):

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00:00 - Intro
00:30 - Making the scarf joint
02:12 - Routing the truss rod channel
05:25 - Tool hero #1 - The bandsaw
06:43 - Template routing
08:26 - Making the fretboard
10:05 - Shaping the neck/Tool hero #2 - Oscillating spindle sander
12:55 - Installing the side dots
15:05 - Installing the frets
16:29 - Tool hero #3 - the drill press/Making the body cavities
18:34 - Gluing up the neck
19:35 - The electronics cavity
20:29 - Hetfield's guitars/the finishing details
22:41 - The electronics cavity cover and controls
24:06 - Finish and hardware installation
26:31 - How does it sound?

[ccrabtree]

Guitarists and wood worker have something in common. For guitarist that quesiton of "how may guitars do you need", the answer is always 1 more. For woodworker that quesiton of how many clamps do you need that too is always, 1 more.

[TMBTM]

I'm sure James Hetfield would love this video. Totally his kind of thing.

[michaelkaastrup]

Hi mate. I have been a luthier for more than 40 year's. I just saw your video and remembered my first build, many guitars ago ;-). I have a couple of advice to making a guitar. First, when you make a scarf joint neck, a nice rule is, you start the cut 1/3 of the neck length and cut upwards to the head end. When your cut is done, simply turn the cutoff piece 180 degree and sand both pieces at the same time, or even better, use the painters-tape with ca glue and use your planer to straigthen the cut, ( put the cutoff piece on top of the rest of the neck piece, and plane) that way you ensure a nice fit when gluing the head piece on, and the closer to the headstock wide your neck blanck is, the better. 2nd advice is, when gluing the neck to the body, a snugg fit is always a must, the trick is, to use a water based glue with a long set time, you can thin with water. I always use cheap outdoor wood glue, thined 1/6 with water, and i have never had a failed glue joint. But keep up the great work mate. Br. Michael. sorry for my bad english 😞

[RubyRoks]

I'm not a luthier or woodworker of any kind, but i've watched a ton of guitar making videos. A guitar this complex being your first is impressive, and you did a great job on this.

[Havoc]

" Harvester of Sorrow " is my favorite song and the first album I purchased with my paper route. I bought the vinyl in 1988 and found it recently at my parents' house as we were cleaning stuff out. Great job, man!

[biscuit]

Wow bro Ive done woodworking since I was in junior high, Im 62 now. You undertook a monumental task in building that guitar and it came out awesome, just everything was beautifully and flawlessy done. I dont know if people understand how much skill you have, but I do. One small mistake would have ruined the neck and you would have had to start over. I tried buiilding a guitar once and it didn't go well. My hats off to you, its a tedious process and you have to have alot of patience.

[MrZeusyMoosey]

This is definitely the coolest guitar making video I've seen, and I've watched A LOT of them. Please do more in the future.

[ckmoore]

As a fellow garage woodworker, whose first foray into guitar building was diving headfirst, making my own body from mahogany/maple/walnut (telecaster shape), I know better than most how hard it is, and just how many times, you thought, "i hope this is the right thing to do!!"
Brother, you did the right thing a lot more times than I bravo.

[gageisadrummer]

THATS YOUR FIRST GUITAR BUILD??? MATE YOU ABSOLUTELY NAILED PROPS TO YOU MY FRIEND!!! Definitely subscribing to see what else you make in the future!

[zachhickey]

Outlaw torn.. one of my all time favorite songs in general! Beautiful build!

[jacobalvarado]

that little tape folding trick on the fretboard at 21:25 is amazing, def learned a new skill. I normally would have just layed it down and cut it at the fret, but folding it to fit in is brilliant.

[dynamandan]

Awesome guitar build! BTW, I am a CNC machinist for a pool table manufacture and I always joke with my boss that we should design a guitar build and let me cut it out on the CNC machine and go into the guitar manufacture industry. My favorite song by Metallica would probably be escape.

[DaCostaGuitars]

Tip for your next guitar if ever, I've been building for the last decade & learnt a lot too. One thing about your break angle for the neck - it's always good to have the bridge you're using to really calculate what pitch angle the neck needs for proper string height at those higher frets. Not all bridges are the same in height, & for Gibson style bridges, you want the bridge to be a few millimeters raised above its lowest point. For anything Tremolo style (floyd rose, traditional strat) those usually don't need much of an angle (if any at all) because they sit rather flat over the body itself.

[PunkIsNotDead]

Real nice build my man! You inspire me to build a guitar myself! BTW, my favorite Metallica song is "For Whom The Bell Tolls"

[adityap]

Uff my word that looks and sounds great! For your first build that is phenomenal!

[bobjackson]

I'm not only an "audiophile', but also a woodworker. Building a guitar or bass has been a dream of mine for many years. I've had the thought of walking into my local musician shop and asking if there's anyone that wants a custom guitar/bass built for them. It's a bucket list thing, even thought I don't have an official bucket list.
Great video. Thank you VERY much for the inspiration.

[jimmyjoe]

Also I’m so happy that you tackled this project. Kudos on a fine first build!

[burningkarma]

There is no way you have never built a guitar before! Outstanding job. You're a true artist for sure.

[cheapdirt]

Wow i can only imagine the feeling of satisfaction you get each time you look at this baby on the wall. Well done Sir ...I salute you !

[ТимурГалимов-мр]

Excellent video and excellent guitar! Thank you so much for the job you have done!