Does It Make Sense To Build A Guitar?

Building your own guitar can be a fun project. However, it can take a lot of time and resources. This video will help you to decide if making your own guitar is a good idea.

[patriciolegett]

For me it NOW (age 70) makes sense. Over the years as a dedicated semi pro musician and often dissatisfied with the instruments I'd had, I started by paying people to swap out pups, then trems, then frets etc until it got to the point where I wa spending a lot of money and still wasn't entirely satisfied with the results. It was then I decided that the only way to get what I thought I wanted was by putting together a partscaster. It took several months but the final result was worth it; it cost more than buying a new instrument, but was far more rewarding in terms of having acquired a new set of skills. Since then I have made 4 more guitars, all of them unique in their own way and all play very well indeed. That said, I don't make these things in order to sell them, I do it only to acheive a particular type of instrument that plays well in a particular style. My advice to anyone thinking of embarking on this kind of project would be to purchase those specialist tools required from cheap chinese ebay suppliers. If you then decide to go "full time" as it were, only THEN buy top quality american or european tools. Happy hunting!

[DoctorSess]

I think building a guitar, regardless of the finished product, is worth it for anyone who is interested. It really demystifies the instrument when you build one yourself and it’s a rewarding experience.

[thaynes]

I picked up guitar playing later in life. I am still learning to play and find that my day job takes ALL DAY leaving little time/energy to practice. Right now, I am better at being a guitar tech than a player. As a tech, I have built and rebuilt multiple partscasters. I have also learned to setup guitars. I have also bought a player strat and an Epiphone LP. I still have a couple of guitar projects in various states of completion, but I need to get back to learning to PLAY the guitar. Once I have completed my unfinished projects I will only work on my partscasters to fix my mistakes. For now, it is a balance between work/tech/play. As there are only so many hours in the day, progress is slow on all. Your main point is to focus on your passion. The more time that you spend, the better you will become.

I enjoy your channel and used the BLO method to seal a sanded guitar neck as it was way too glossy for me!


thanks,

Tom.

[scrappybobbarker]

Great advice. Most people don't understand the level of attention to detail involved in building a top quality guitar. It takes years of work to get the experience, and tools that are necessary. I play guitar a little, and wanted a Fender American Tele. One time, I played a fender American strat owned by a friend, and I could tell right away how much better it was than the pawn shop guitars I had, but I didn't buy a Fender because I wanted stainless frets, and a custom sound. I also didn't have much money or time, and I had tried to assemble partscasters but failed miserably. One was a StewMac body, and Mighty-Might neck. Prior to mounting the neck, I noticed that there was a 1/16 inch gap on both sides of the neck when it was resting in the neck pocket, so I filled it in with epoxy puddy. But I hated it, because it was worse than a Walmart guitar. Last year I bought a Warmouth Tele body, and neck, and had them drill the locating holes for a V.S.-100 bridge which I already had. I installed StewMac hot lipstick humbuckers, with series, parellel, coil cut switches for each, which were wired to a 4-pull 6-way. It plays great, and I love the sound. I've probably spent 3000$ on trying to build guitars to save money. If all you want is a nice guitar, buy one already made, and spend time playing it — even if it costs 3000$.

[davedupuis]

I'm not sure that many folks thinking about building their first guitar realize the time commitment it will take...maybe that's a follow up video to this one. Good stuff Chris

[sike]

Yes, make sence...i build more then 15 so far...for me and others, just for hobby...for passion and my satisfaction and joy. I play my custom build guitars and nothing else for years, and I`m happy like a Child!

[budgetguitarist]

I'd like to build some guitars when I retire, in about 6 and a half years. I've had a long term plan for this - I wanted to get really good at setup, then learn how to do electronics, then learn level/crown, then learn how to refret, then learn how to route, then learn how to cut and shape wood. I've gotten to the refret part so far. Best advice I ever heard about refret work is that after you finish your first guitar, you're either saying "I never want to do that again" or you're starting to think about your next refret job. It's a wonderful hobby. The great thing is that you really CAN learn the pieces like I am and benefit along the way. I never take my guitars in for service. I love this channel, by the way! Very helpful.

[OldStreetDoc]

I spent the lockdown building my dream Telecaster. I learned SO much, made a lot of mistakes, corrected them, and in the end I was overjoyed with what I had in the end. Butterscotch blonde, maple neck, string thru bridge, Custom Shop Texas Specials for pickups with a four-way switch.

It was expensive… but, I’m having a ball. I still suck. I’m learning, but I’m having a ball.

[Petesplayinagain]

I kinda evolved into it. As a carpenter, I already had many tools necessary, but it all started with a gift. I've had a love affair with old vintage guitars, particularly Kay and Harmony and I'd go on and on how I wanted a speed demon. Then my brother who doesn't play, so had no idea the guitar he graciously got me couldn't play either. I was determined to make it play even though I couldn't afford a luthier to do what needed done. Step by step, I steamed, refretted, on and on for months but then, one day, I had an amazing vintage guitar. I've moved forward at the same pace, building jigs and tools when needed for a specific project and just recently found a steady reliable supplier for hardwoods and have my designs worked out and I'm ready to take the plunge

[MichaelGotiashvili]

Richie Sambora was the reason I feel in love with guitar, sound of it and got me into learning to play guitar. I always liked his custom SA2 model but I never purchased it. In 2020 I decided to build my own one, now more than a year gone and I'm half way there. It took a lot of time to learn about guitars, 3D modeling, then CNC, tools and some much stuff goes there, more than 1000 hours into building it so far. Thank you Chris! Your channel keeps me going, helps me learn and you are very supportive when I have questions. Rock on!

[derekfromtauranga]

I used to build solid body guitars with a few students as an extra- curricular activity each year when I was a high school teacher before I retired. Even though I had patterns for different bodies most students seemed to want to build Gibson explorer type guitars. The main problem building guitars during the school day there’s only limited time available so often we would often be there on Saturdays for 4 or 5 hrs. It was labour intensive as we built the body and neck from scratch. In those days we got all the hardware/parts from stew Mac and the shipping to NZ in those days was fairly quick. After doing this for several years I decided just to do kit guitars to speed up the process. The problem is you can buy a brand new guitar cheaper than from parts so unless you are really keen on learning to build a guitar it’s not really worth it.
I also made the majority of the specialist tools myself I needed but did invest in fret crowning files and the smaller nut slotting files which still get used to this day with the guitar build and repairs I do.
I love to record instrumental tracks using Cubase and it is nice to know every electric and acoustic guitar and bass sound is from my own custom built instruments. 🎸🎸🎸

[thorpenator]

I am glad that I built a dozen guitars .
The problem is the fit and finish and cost involved will not get me a better guitar than a Reverend guitar for a. grand. The knowledge is priceless though. I can wire so many configurations now...and fret work has gotten very good as well. My 2 cents

[gtechblues]

I like to build anything, and I like to work with wood. I built myself a Strat style guitar around 20 years ago because I was a fan of SRV and I both found good guitars expensive and even then they were not all that good, having defects, etc… I was lucky because the guitar I built was perfect. And I used it a lot, even in Blues jams. But then I had to stop playing when I had a health problem and was in sickness leave for a few months. So I decided to build a Tele style and liked it so much that I kept building more guitars instead of practicing by lack of motivation… being retired now, I still like to build a guitar once in a while but started practicing again. ;-) I learned a lot about what makes a guitar play well, change parts and as I worked in electronics all my life I can change or repair the electronics as well. And I can use a different guitar when I want to :-)

[sdelling]

Really like what you do! I started building guitars about 10 years ago and, as you say, I don’t actually play as much as I did before. It is both the most fun and frustrating experience, particularly the finishing. Another aspect to consider is the cost. By the time you purchase even a kit guitar, your looking at about $1000 usd and 1-3 months (depending on finish). I think most people are better off spending $1000 on a really nice guitar and just playing it. The other issue is that if you really get into it as I have, you end up with a bunch of guitars that collect dust and don’t get played.

[cmdrleeloocatfish]

I'm currently making myself a strat, because I was playing a bunch of $1k guitars in the stores and said to myself 'I think I could make a better one'. Challenge on. Just working on my templates and got to use my router for the first time to make a jig to cut the truss rod. 60's vintage hidden under the fretboard with adjustment under the neck pocket just to make it complicated. So much fun studying those old blueprints

[rainking]

I'm of a couple conflicting opinions on this matter. My first thought is to say, "If you THINK you would like to try to make a guitar, then make a guitar. Don't be disappointed if it's imperfect or part way through you decide you don't want to make a guitar. You would never know if you didn't try." My second conflicting thought is to say, "If you even have to ask if you should, and don't really know the answer yourself, then you don't want to bad enough. So probably not." However I think sometimes someone really wants to do something but asks if they should because they just need the encouragement to start that journey.

With the caveat that you won't make one for cheaper than buying one, and the first attempt may be pretty rough depending on one's skill and efforts, if it's something one desires to try then they absolutely should once they research what all will go into it. As others have suggested, maybe start with a kit guitar. Or even buy a cheapo guitar and strip it and refinish it and mod the heck out of it. Get some experience doing some of the work involved in a scratch build. Do a re-fret job. Do a re-wire. Mod/route a standard Strat body for a Floyd Rose bridge. Work up to a scratch build doing increasingly involved mods/repairs on old damaged or cheap bodies or with cheap kits. Slowly build your tool set of specialized tools you'd need for a scratch build. Slowly ramping up to a scratch build this way will go a long way in allowing the potential builder to answer this question themselves. It's what I'm doing. I bought a chunk of mahogany about 25 years ago to do a scratch build but never got to it. Now I'm doing repairs, refinishes, refrets, rewires, and building my tool set as well as working up to the eventual scratch build. What I can say is that chunk of mahogany haunts me, so if I only ever make just 1 I know I need to do it, if just for my own peace of mind.

[asterisk]

Very interesting about how you got into guitar building! I never would have guessed that's your origin story. You make really good points about having to dedicate time to the build and whether or not it's something the person really wants to do. Building a guitar takes a really long time, especially if it's someone's first, and if those dozens of hours were spent intently practicing playing instead, I guarantee that person would see noticeable improvement in their playing. It's all about making that choice on what they want to focus on.

[raffaguitars]

Building guitars for me is just as much of a fever as playing them. So I build a lot, just for fun, but i still need to play at least an hour a day.
It's true that building them takes a lot of your time but it's so addictive and statisfying and it also got me to really understand the instrument.
You could do it both but make sure you don't have a lot of other hobbys.

[UrquidiGuitars]

Chris of course this is inspirational. Much of what you say I have given a lot of thought over the years and yes I decided to build guitars. I just purchased my first CNC and away we go! On the guitar playing side I try to practice at least an hour Daily; I don’t play professionally anymore after decades of doing so, but writing down a regimen of scheduled practice I have maintained my ability. I hope that helps you too. Thank you for the content of this channel. God Bless.

[bevinmodrak]

Love the origin story. And glad you found your passion.