Electric Guitar

I engineered and built a fully functional electric guitar to support my local church's music ministry. Noticing that our choir lacked instruments, I built this guitar to serve our singers during weekly services.

Block of swamp ash wood, maple wood, CNC router, drill press, drum sander, laser cutter, soldering iron, screwdrivers, coarse grit sandpaper, medium grit sandpaper, fine grit sandpaper, wood finishing oil, wood glue, super glue, 2 humbucker pickups, 1 volume potentiometer, 1 tone potentiometer, 3-way selector switch, 1 mono output jack, hookup wires, solder, 6 tuning pegs, 1 fixed bridge, fret wire, guitar nut, dot inlay blanks, 2 string trees, 2 control knobs, 2 strap buttons, 1 input jack plate, 1 set of electric guitar strings, 4 neck mounting screws, 6 bridge mounting screws, 8 pickguard screws, 8 pickup mounting screws, 4 back plate screws, 12 tuning machine screws, 2 string tree screws, 2 input jack plate screws, 2 strap button screws, and 1 guitar strap, saw, polish, plastic slide, spool of wire, 047 cap, tuner.

I began the project by designing the guitar body shape and the wiring harness layout, which allowed me to determine the necessary dimensions for the control cavity. I then created a smooth, symmetrical outline of the body using Adobe Illustrator. Next, I exported my design to Computer Aided Manufacturing software to generate the G-code file. I loaded this file into the controller software connected to the CNC machine, which then cut the wood blank into the guitar body shape.

I calculated the required length for the fretboard and utilized the same process as in Step 1 to design and cut the maple wood. I then used a small saw to create the fret slots. Using a pencil, I drew diagonal lines from corner to corner within each section, creating 'X' marks to identify the center points for drilling. I used a drill press to bore halfway through the fretboard before pulling the bit back out, creating even holes throughout the board. Finally, I cut the dot inlay blanks to size and secured them inside the holes using super glue.

I finished placing all the dot inlay blanks on the fretboard. I then used coarse grit sandpaper to begin evening the fretboard. After, I switched to medium grit sandpaper to smooth the surface, and lastly, I used fine grit sandpaper to make the fretboard soft. I then designed the neck shaft using Adobe Illustrator and cut it with the CNC machine. Finally, I glued the fretboard to the neck shaft using wood glue.

I used 5 coats of oil to make the fret board and neck shaft shiny. I also sanded the headstock with fine grit sandpaper to make it smooth.

I used a laser cutter to etch a moon and stars pattern on the side of my guitar. I then added 2 coats of oil to my guitar body.

I used the laser cutter to etch a star design into the headstock. I then applied 2 additional coats of oil to the fretboard and the neck shaft, followed by a layer of polish to give the entire fretboard and headstock a shine. Next, I measured and cut the fret wire to size. I placed each piece of fret wire into the slots I had sawed and used a press machine to seat them firmly. Finally, I installed the 6 tuning pegs onto the headstock.

I then applied 6 coats of oil to the guitar body and added a final polish over the top to give the instrument a glossy shine.

I completed the wiring harness by mounting the 3-way switch to a plastic slide, then positioning the 500k tone potentiometer on one side and the 500k volume potentiometer on the other. Using a spool of wire, I cut specific lengths to connect each component. I utilized wire and solder to link the volume and tone controls to each other, followed by connecting the 3-way switch to both potentiometers. I then wired and soldered the tone and volume controls to the output jack. Finally, I soldered a .047 capacitor to the tone control and used wire and solder to connect the 3-way switch to both the neck and bridge pickups.

After completing the wiring harness, I attached the bridge.

I secured the neck shaft to the body using a four-bolt mounting system.

I installed the guitar strings by threading them through the bridge and into the tuning pegs. I then rotated the tuning pegs counter-clockwise from my position until the strings reached tension, snipping off the excess length. Finally, I used a digital tuner to ensure the guitar was properly tuned to pitch completing the build.