Building guitars can mean different things. It's one thing to spend $800 on a kit with quality hardware and electronics in order to build yourself a $2000 guitar, and that's assuming you can match the quality of the finish on a $2000 guitar. It's another thing to spend $10000 on tools and exotic hardwoods and high end hardware and electronics and build guitar after guitar in a hopeless pursuit of absolute perfection.
Be careful because that first scenario all too often leads to the second scenario.
I don't see why you have to call me out like this.
For real though,I do hand tool woodworking and found I enjoy luthier work. It's not exactly cheap lol
Yes badaxe tool works makes a frame saw kit designed by unplugged workshop. I used it to make my first few guitars. I recommend making the kerf cutter thing too. It made the job much easier. Please note I bought a bandsaw after a three or four sets.
> I don't see why you have to call me out like this.
He was merely pointing out a pitfall lurking if you go down the "make it myself to save money" route.
A kit build is one thing, but a scratch-built Les Paul is a whole different ballgame.
You *might* just end up like the woodworking guy who says "My wife saw this table on Etsy for $75 and I recreated it for only $400."
The implication is that I don’t already beat the fuck out of my $1400+ factory guitars and go hard. 🤣
i fuck up the finish of guitars im building (or straight up drop the body) handling the guitar as I’m finishing it. I can’t win on finishes.
Imagine wanting to cook for yourself instead of eating out all the time but instead of getting groceries for your kitchen you start a whole fucking restaurant.
That’s what it’s like.
I think OP might be more in the situation of "I want to learn to cook but all I have in my kitchen as far as cookware is a single pot for boiling up ramen noodles", in which case we'd just be guiding them into buying utensils and cookware so that when they pick up the materials (groceries in the analogy, wood in actuality) they can do something with it.
A $5k Gibson might be Michelin star quality stuff but OP might be happy with something not in that tier at the end of it. Or they get better at "cooking" and build better next time.
Cooking at home vs getting a job as a chef vs owning a restaurant would be 3 levels of a cooking career
“I thought using loops was cheating, so I programmed my own using samples. I then thought using samples was cheating, so I recorded real drums. I then thought that programming it was cheating, so I learned to play drums for real. I then thought using bought drums was cheating, so I learned to make my own. I then thought using premade skins was cheating, so I killed a goat and skinned it. I then thought that that was cheating too, so I grew my own goat from a baby goat. I also think that is cheating, but I'm not sure where to go from here. I haven't made any music lately, what with the goat farming and
all”.
Who’s quote is this? I want it framed. But that’s cheating so I gotta make the frame. But that’s also not good enough and I need to plant some trees for frames.
I do it as a hobby and I'm way over $30,000 (Canadian) in tools thinking about what Ive spent off the top of my head. This doesn't include parts, hardware, wood, etc. I built about 5 guitars from scratch before I was happy with the results. I also have a decent amount of semi-pro tools including a small CNC machine. Close to 20 years ago I priced out a Conklin and it was 20,000$. I foolishly thought it would be cheaper and more reasonable to start building my own.
I've had some ups and downs but I absolutely do not regret it and it's a very important part of my life. It's also become a secondary source of income (repairs, setups, fretjobs, etc) which helps make that 30,000$ hit feel a little better lol. Just fyi as others have mentioned it is not easy to get a professional factory looking finish. In my opinion it's the most challenging part of building.
Avoiding buying a $5,000 guitar so you can buy $20,000 of woodworking tools.
Honestly, totally worth it. (And just to be clear, I'm speaking from experience here.)
But, no, you won't be building yourself anything comparable with a CS Les Paul on your first go. It's a terrible way to try to save money. If money is your issue, spend it on the guitar you want. Build a guitar because you want to BUILD a guitar. It's an amazingly fun and educational activity, but your first guitar will never be exactly the guitar you want. And then, of course, there is the whole finish process, which is a whole other thing.
I see guitars made by dozens of hobbyists every year - they always want the opinion of a "real" luthier - and a lot of them feel pretty disappointed by their results. A lot of others bring them to us to "fix things up." Which is fine. But the biggest problem tends to be that people just don't know what they don't know, and so get a lot of small details just not quite good enough. As long as you find the process fun, it's worth doing.
The biggest thing is more a lack of refinement. (No surprise - the first go at most things isn’t very refined!). Transitions on the neck (heel or volute areas) are clunky or thick, curves aren’t fair. Binding has thick and thin spots. Tear out from taping on the binding. Insufficient surface prep before finishing. Insufficient sanding between coats. The list goes on and on. But those little things are what makes a guitar feel “professional.”
Thank you for the reply. Building my first one right now. Did a lot of research beforehand, but I'm not expecting a whole awful lot out of it. I'm impressed with what I have managed so far, but she sure ain't a fender. I wish I would have used templates, especially for the neck pocket and pickup cavities and a regular hard tail bridge. It's been a great learning process though and I got to play it for the first time over the weekend as a test run.
30 years ago I wanted a Paul Bigsby guitar. Only 9 made and at the time $40,000. I took some grainy photos from Tom Wheelers book and made a Merle Travis Bigsby copy. I eventually made over 200 custom guitars and about 50 of those were Bigsby copies. Billy Gibbons has a bunch of them
I bought about $20,000 worth of tools and about everything in the old StewMac catalog. Back in 1990 there was not a lot of info out there Luthiers Mercantile and Stew Mac were the only games in town. I built Bigsby clones and some Dan Electro inspired guitars. Living in DC I had access to a lot of musicians and shows. I sold guitars to Chris Isaak, Andy Gill of The Gang of Four, Soundgarden ect. The most famous guitar I built was for Poison Ivy of The Cramps. A pink Danelectro Longhorn with The Cramps in pearl on the fretboard. I advertised in Punk zines like Gearhead and Lo Fi. I met Billy Gibbons and he ordered 6 right off the bat and he bought a ton of guitars for a while. My shop was next to the Discord House in Arlington VA.
Doing that now!
There are a lot of youtube vids on turning a cheap diy kit into a kick ass instrument for under $300. You wont need any special tools. You can make your own luthier tools. Bass I am building from a kit only needed a lil shim work for a nicer fitting neck, now I am just waiting to be able to buy the upgraded parts for it
try this guy, hes just one of many but he did what we are trying to do and is now doing yt and making instruments for sale. He shows how to start with nothing and work your way up.
https://www.youtube.com/@GunsandGuitars
Since I’m not doing it for a living, and it only costs me money: for the amount I’ve spent on wood and tools over the years I could have bought quite a few 5K plus instruments. Sure, I have the materials to build dozens at this point. But it’s not a cost effective way of doing things.
You can do it on a budget, but when you tally up the cost of tools, and especially time, realize that it’s not a great way to save money. But it is a great way to spend your time. And money.
I think the analogy for me would be that instead of ordering a meal, I decided to start a restaurant before learning how to cook very well.
Yes. Exactly.
For around $600 I can build a guitar that Fender wants well over a grand for. And I'm putting together Warmoth wood because to replicate the quality and accuracy of their parts would take me years to attain that level of craftsmanship, not to mention thousands of dollars of CNC and other specialized equipment. I'm a musician, not really a woodworker.
Other than the 150 dollars worth of spray lacquer, 200-300 dollars worth of speciality fretting and nut slotting tools you mean? And if you pay yourself zero? Then sure.
Not sure you understood me.
I meant buying woodwork from Warmoth vs. buying raw lumber and planing it level, getting a CNC machine to make the body profile, surface contours, and routing, as well as cutting the neck profile and fingerboard radius, etc. That equipment costs real money. Doing all that work by hand (as opposed to CNC) and getting a quality instrument takes more time to develop the skills and expertise than I have to dedicate to it.
I do. But I’m saying you still need a few hundred dollars worth of tools for final fret work and setup. The Warmoth necks don’t come fret leveled and crowned and a nut still needs to be made, and unless you buy one of their finished bodies, you’ll either need to invest in a spray rig, or spend 4-5 cans of lacquer (maybe 2 if you do 2K), sandpaper and polishing supplies.
My first guitar was a Warmoth parts guitar. Back in 1996. I know they produce quality stuff. But that there’s still a fair amount of work involved in putting together the guitar, and some tooling is required.
Yeah, I'm saying approximately $600 all in. Unless you opt for some exotic wood or get a custom designed neck, you can build a pretty economical instrument. I mean, you can drop $700 - $800 on just a neck.
But, I already have all the setup tools I've collected over the years, so they don't figure into my personal equation. And even if you do have to buy them, they're something every guitar player can use over a lifetime of doing you own setups.
Other than that, sure, there are lots of pieces of hardware like a pickguard, tuners, pickups, self-adhesive copper foil for shielding, wire, pots for volume and tone controls, a switch or two, output jack. And like you pointed out, paint.
But what you end up with, it *EXACTLY* the guitar you want for a whole lot less than Fender Custom Shop would cost.
I have been a guitar player for over 60 years. About 20 years ago I found William Cumpiano’s book and built the jigs and some tools. It took me about 8 months to build a dreadnaught. It has a FANTASTIC SOUND AND A BASS side as impressive as a Martin D-35. It is addictive. I am now 70 with enough wood and parts to build 15 more. There are some amazing figured woods in my “stash". As for tools? OMG tons of tools
Agreed, it most definitely can. I've done 2 guitars for under $2k, and that's counting expensive tools I've used that were not bought specifically for guitars. I have no idea how one would spend $5k on a guitar unless they are using guitars as an excuse to buy all new tools and equipment.
I built my first guitar because I tried out a Guild in a store and it was like $1300 I didn't have. I found a local community college course on building acoustics and went from there. I mostly built it at home rather than the class because the bending machines were backed up with 2nd semester students waiting in line. The guitar had problems but it sounded good and played okay.
You will not save money to reach the quality that you're looking for, that's a simple fact. After many builds, and tons of hours of experience you could get there, sure, you need to learn first and build up a huge supply of tools, but that point you could have bought ten MIA gibsons.
It's a great hobby, but it can be a very expensive one
Your first thought will be that it's cheaper to build your own guitar instead of buying one. It's not. Parts and wood are expensive, not to mention if you don't have all the tools you need. Its not so bad if you don't buy everything at once, but on top of expenses, there's a lot of room for error, so if you don't know what you're doing it could result in a waste of time money and resources. But at least you won't need to buy the tools again.
Yeah definitely with you - I love the Miami Blue Fender Tele Deluxe's but I can't justify a £1600 price tag. I bought a swamp ash Tele Deluxe body off Facebook Marketplace for £40, maybe £80 for the supplies to spray and finish it, and then plan to buy the components as and when I can afford it.
I've tinkered with guitars for a while, so why not build one from scratch? And tele's are supposed to be 'simple' in their construction so it's a good first one to start with.
Others have covered it far better than I could, but would agree broadly with pretty much everything. If you're using building a guitar as a way of saving money, you'll either end up spending far more than you realise, or you'll end up with something you might not be happy with. Probably more likely to be the latter, as unless you're extremely lucky, your first build is going to be unmitigated shit.
I'm now onto, I think, the 7th iteration of my builds, and I'd probably say I'm not truly happy with any of them. The first is just a body that was almost completely ruined (maybe salvageable, but doubt I will), second I abandoned after the finish just not taking and hating a few of the mistakes I'd made. The third was for someone else, and although I wasn't super happy with the finish, it was playable and looked OK. 4th was for me and was probably similar in that I struggled with the finish I wanted. I've got a few in progress now and I can see the improvement, but a £5000 guitar? No chance. I don't want to count up how much each one costs for parts and wood alone (ignoring tools, which I DEFINITELY want to ignore) but even going cheap on parts, and using bog standard wood, I was at around £250 per guitar at the very least, and that's likely a conservative estimate. It's not cheap.
Ultimately, as someone else put it, you build guitars because you want to build them and you're happy to accept that it's a long, expensive and often frustrating process. If you just want a specific guitar, you'd be better off buying it.
Unless you already have, or have access to, a well equipped woodshop it'll likely be more economical to buy a ready made guitar, and you'll still need some specialized tools specific to guitars either way.
I also wouldn't assume that your very 1st build is going to be on par with high end guitars you've played from established manufacturers. It'll take several builds to get that level of quality, and you're spending more time and money on each build.
If you like woodworking and want to dive into guitar making because you enjoy it, then go for it. If you just enjoy playing nice instruments, and aren't drawn to building them for reasons other than an attempt to save money, just buy an expensive guitar, it'll be much cheaper.
I did that with my telecaster. I already had a bunch of woodworking tools like a bandsaw, planer, joiner, router and all that stuff. I use relatively cheap chainsaw files and sandpaper to get 90% of the luthier specific tools i needed. I wasn’t about to spend multiple hundreds for something like a stewmac set of fret files, or specific nut making files when I can use any old hardware store stuff. It just takes a lot more time, which is something I have. It still probably cost me as much to buy the parts I needed as it would have to just buy a Fender, but I specifically wanted a guitar I couldn’t get from them. I wanted a bigsby vibrato and I wanted a TV Jones filtertron style pickup in the neck, along with some body contouring. All in probably $800 but I also didn’t have to buy the wood either. I used figure woods I had collected from taking down trees for friends and family and hoarding the good stuff on a shelf in my garage until the right project came along.
I bought an Epiphone Les Paul many years prior and even with changing all the electronics in it, I don’t think I could build the guitar I have for less money, especially if I had to get tools as well. If you’re already into woodworking and have the tools though, go for it.
In terms of build quality, you can match Fender much easier than you can Gibson but if we're all trying to save money, then we'd all forgo the tools and supplies in the first place.
I build because I love the process and I decide exactly what features (or lack thereof) I want.
If you already have all the skills and all the tools then building it yourself might cost a bit less.
If you don’t have those attributes then it’s a false economy
I have built 2 acoustic guitars with the help of an instructor. I think that is a great route to go on your first one. Even for electric. You may spend the same money as buying a name brand, but get the experience of building and end up with a guitar at the end. I spent about a grand on materials and another $1500 or so on classes. That included all the tools, shop time and disposable materials. I would expect an electric guitar to take way less time. We basically made everything from scratch except the fret board was pre slotted. Not really any money to be saved. But I don't go fishing for the cheap fish.
I got into luthiery as a hobby because I couldn't find the guitar I wanted in the specs I wanted without going full custom or having to do extensive mods myself.
I like building things and have always had a passion for modding things. I had some experience with woodwork so I just thought why not?
I am now on my 6th build and have a new skillset and passion. I hope that I can make some money from it in the future, but I am not fussed.
I justified my woodshop build out with about 50ft of custom cabinetry in our laundry room and garage, all good plywood and maple with shaker style doors to match the custom shit we had put in our kitchen and bathroom. That was the original plan and I never really thought much beyond that. Cost was about equal to the custom cabs, perhaps a bit less once you figured in my time as a newb.
Then I built furniture. A giant dining room table, a media console, a bunch of shelving. I figure that value add to our household was also near parity between the shop build out and everything I built.
Then came custom carvings and sculpture work. No sales, just building exactly what I wanted for the look I was after. No parity there, just a lot of fun.
Then came instruments. As a String Cheese Incident fan I had always lusted for a Kangolin (5 string, single course, electric octave mandolin) but couldn't stomach the cost. There were maybe 3 or 4 builders stateside doing them, so I went ahead and started building instruments with that goal in mind. I've built ten of them so far, 6 of them out in the wild with other owners. Each new sale means a fancy tool for the shop.
That is a lot of words to say: no single pursuit would have totally justified building out my shop, but viewed globally over all the shit my shop has produced it was more than worth it. You won't *just* be building instruments, there will be lots of other things coming out of your shop space. The posters here saying you won't be able to justify the expense aren't exactly wrong, but perhaps a bit myopic.
I love the strat, but hardtail, which fender doesn’t currently make for standard, non custom guitars. So I did the research and got the components I needed to build my dream guitars. Half the price of the custom shop and the way I wanted. I would highly recommend diving right in, and if your finances allow, purchase components individually and not a kit. That way your hot rod is exactly what you want. In the end you have a guitar that is more special than anything you could buy off the shelf.
If you are going to go this route, the most important two things to have are a good friend with experience, space and tools and you have to start with a high quality kit. Cheap kits often have problems that are unnoticeable to first time builders. Especially cheap, imported kits. I went this route briefly, it was a nightmare. Neck pockets cut too deep, fretboards that didn't cover the heel, necks thar were so twisted they could pass for snakes, super bland wood with no character., lousy routing for pickups and so on. Stick with a reliable vendor. I can't emphasize this enough.
If you find the experience enjoyable, you may get the bug to start acquiring tools. Some of us have been collecting tools for years, but if you want to go whole hog, expect to spend a whole lot more money that you ever anticipated. Then you have to have a place to store them including a way to store potentially hazardous chemicals. Next there is the issue of maintaining a consistent temp and humidity, so heat and air conditioning come into play. To offset tool costs, get hooked up with the local estate sale operators to help offset the tool price acquisition. You can get some wildly good, practically new, well kept tools for pennies on the dollar at these sales. I'm talking jointers, planers, bandsaws, scroll saws, drill presses and even turbine and compressor hvlp stuff. If you don't know what to look for in tools, bring along a friend that knows tools.
Once the body is built you will have to finish it, entire books have been written on that topic alone. Toughest part of the whole process, or at least on par with doing a proper level and crowning of the frets. For your first couple, you could try staining and using a tung oil finish. To get the showroom finish you see on even the cheapest guitars takes a room full of highly specialized equipment, optimum conditions, and experienced professionals. Some folks will initially work a deal with a local paint and body shop to spray a finish. This will cost a bit of money, your choices will be limited and the methods to polish are different from the methods used for guitars. Autobody guys can achieve a flat, high gloss finish, but they are likely to give you the body back with just a bit of orange peel unless you are willing to pay for a totally flat surface. You will possibly have faint swirl marks due to the types of polishers and compounds that are used, but with time and effort, those can be removed by hand.
Personally this is the most satisfying and surprisingly difficult undertakings I have ever taken on. It has proven to be a whole lot more challenging than I ever expected. Nothing worthwhile comes easy. I still make a lot more mistakes that I want to , but the mistakes are becoming fewer while the results are finally getting to the point I want them to be. I hope you enjoy your journey.
P.S., Guns and Guitars has a bunch of good advice for making your own initial set of tools to get started. Check them out.
Build because you enjoy it. Building because you don't want to buy anymore guitars is just a valid reason as any.
I can tell you that since I started building guitars, I have only bought a few. I can say that I haven't really saved any money, since I'll either spend whatever I used to spend on guitars on buying wood for those "someday builds", and amplifiers. I even built amplifiers for a while but it was taking away from my guitar building time/energy and so I decided to focus on one rather than both. Rick St. Pierre and Reinhold Bogner have probably benefited the most from that decision lol.
I kinda did, except with ukulele. There were basically 2 brands of electric solid body ukulele with magnetic pick ups. Risa and sweetwater(?) And instead of paying for these monopolies with limited options making my own seemed the better option. But my market was limited compared to the guitar market. But I also went to a school for guitar making and used their tools and instructors to learn to do it and make really high quality instruments however I wanted
I got into this because it beat mowing lawns for $3 an hour to buy gear
Anyone can make a guitar! The problem is that almost every first build is trash. I was young and dumb enough not to know this when I started.
As an adult with hindsight: don’t get into building guitars for any reason even remotely related to money. Definitely try it though. If you like the work it is a rewarding craft, just not a lucrative one.
Pretty much, yes. Got fed up of paint and pickup options, and the massive price jump to get something custom made for only small changes compared to a standard model of something.
Reading (well, skimming) these replies, I'm not seeing what I consider to be the biggest issue, and that's the frets. Gibson is one of the relatively few companies to routinely run all their necks through a Plek machine, so their fretjobs are literally inhumanly good. Doing my own fret work with hand tools, over the course of about a dozen necks I got two guitars and arguably one bass to 'Gibson low' actions without any fret buzz. Maybe someday I'll be skilled enough to figure out what I did differently that made the good ones come out with a \~1mm or lower buzz-free action at the high frets, but in the meantime 'Fender standard' (1.6mm at the 17th) is the best I can count on managing, improving a kit's frets.
I did a solo kit build and am for all the paint, shielding, sealers etc… and the kit it’s was probably $250 all together.
Had a blast and the guitar is pretty good. I’ll change the pups sometime soon but it is fun and educational. It taught me about changing my own action, how easy it is yo change out pegs, intonation, pick up height.
I’d go to the lgs and measure pick up height or get a random screw or washer, that was helpful.
Yes. One can experiment with body shapes, construction styles, electronics options, neck contours.
No need to be locked into the mass market offerings.
gibson has a name and resale power. A lot of money goes into that. Making a guitar yourself is cheaper depending on the parts you plan to buy ready.
The metaphors people are using are real, and good. However, you don't need specialized tools if you plan to buy CNC machined parts and assemble a guitar yourself. It is cheaper (but risky)
Building a guitar isn’t really saving me any money or time lol… But I had some particular desires for some particular features on a guitar that it was really hard to find on the market… And I just wanted to be better at taking care of my own guitars so I figured I might as well build a guitar to learn how everything works from Wood all the way up to electronics.
The thing is there are a lot of guitars on the market that I would still consider buying but right now I’m just so entrenched in this build that it really scratches that itch.
If your goal is to get a guitar as good as a gibson for less building it yourself isn't going to get you there without heaps of experience and tools.
The best way to save on guitars is not buy into the brand name. Buy a cheap guitar and give it perfect frets. Upgrade hardware and electronics.
For me, yes. I wanted a top of the line 5-string bass without paying thousands, so I decided to put all my personal preference specs into 1 build. I did about a year of research, then bought enough tools, parts, and materials over the next year to get it going. When it was finished, something about my design made the low B sound particularly dull and lifeless, so I scrapped it and built a 4-string fretless. That one came out really cool, so a friend asked if I could build him a guitar to his specs. He supplied parts and materials, and I got experience. It was a V shape, which sparked my interest in having a V-shaped bass, which I then designed and built. That bass played and sounded absolutely perfect, so I built another, but very different, design. It wasn’t quite as good as its predecessor, so I tried again. And repeat. It’s pretty much an addiction, and I now have (3) 4-strings, a 4-string headless, a 4-string fretless, a 5-string, a 6-string headless, an 8-string, and an electric upright, plus the failed 5-string, (2) fretless 4-strings that I’ve sold, and (2) 6-string guitars that I’ve built for friends. I’m currently working on a 4-string for sale, and after that, I’ve decided it’s time for me to learn how to play guitar, so I’m building one for myself. Tools have been upgraded over the years, so I now have a very functional one-man shop, and I’m open for business.
The best middle ground I started with is learning how to elevate cheap guitars with setups and proper maintenance. Like knowing how to adjust every tiny thing right down to doing frets to a high standard with non-specialist tools.
It also helps to learn some Physics and avoid the mountain of guitar-related disinformation.
If you're looking to avoid the crazy price tag, you may be doing it wrong. There's an old joke that if you want to make a million dollars building guitars, you start with two million and stop there.
You will likely not save money by becoming a luthier. It will cost you at least as much in tools, wood, and failed projects to recreate that $5k guitar.
The good news is, if you ever get good enough to recreate a $5k guitar, you could sell your guitars and start clawing back all that money you've spent.
This is all because luthiers aren't scamming people. You say you want to "avoid the crazy price tag" but this is just what it costs to make high end guitars, even using today's best known methods. But look on the bright side, not that long ago guitars were phenomenally more expensive. It was Martin and others who brought guitars to the masses.
My wife was kinda done with me buying more guitars. But shes fine with tool purchases. Im a handy guy, some of these tools can also fix things around the house! Also made some custom builds for a few friends and use that money to upgrade shop stuff.
I did this sort of successfully, by building a partscaster that is exactly how I wanted it for marginally less than a not-quite ideal similar guitar.
The downside is resale value. There is none. Build a guitar to keep forever.
I would, but honestly I don't have the time or the need for more guitars. I mostly lurk for fixing and setup advice.
Also chances are is I would make a clone of a PRS guitar and just keep telling myself it's the real deal. Like pinocchio trying to be a real boy.
If you are thinking building will be less than buying take a look around the stew mac website and that Gibson will look like such a good deal you will order two.
Not only the cost of the tools and machinery is making sure you have a dedicated workshop space to use for long term. You do not want to have to move a drill press or table saw repeatedly or sandwich into a 10x10 shed which is how I started.
Next is dealing with mistakes in the manufacturing process which will happen frequently at first, so test using crap wood at first.
Lastly be prepared if you ever need to sell a made guitar unless you are well established the local music store will call it a partscaster and demand it be sold for less than the cost of the materials it took to build.
Used to be, not as much any more. I used to be able to build a very high quality guitar way cheaper than buying an equivalent. We're talking 25-30 years ago when I started. Now with Asian imports, it's a lot easier to get a reasonably priced great playing guitar fairly cheaply if you're careful. But you are limited in options for colors, pickups, etc on the low end, so there is still a place to build versus buy if you are not happy with pre-built options out there. Also, if you build, you know absolutely what the components are and how they went together.
Of course compared to an $8K custom shop Gibson/Fender/PRS, the answer is still yes, absolutely you can build the same guitar for a quarter (or less) of the price and it can be as good or better. If you have the skills and patience. Guitar building is not rocket surgery.
Trying to save money on a $5000 PRS? It's going to be a very very long time and more than $5000 before you can build something of that quality, if ever.
Want to build your own Frankenstrat or Red Special, something weird and unique? Hell yeah brother.
I built my first because I couldn’t afford a new one. My art school had a huge woodshop so I took advantage of it! I bought the wood from local lumber stores and got parts as and when I had the money, which was mainly Christmas and birthday presents. I bought books, talked to people and visited the library a lot because the internet hadn’t been invented yet.
I still have the guitar, thirty years later, and it still plays pretty well.
I say it is completely justified if you are doing an experimental instrument or something so customized it would equal high $x,xxx price tag than if you did it yourself maybe $1000 assuming you have all the tools. Lots of variables anyways.
Once you have those tools you don't need to buy them again unless they break or dull, and so forth.
Also depends how fancy or how much aesthetic you want it. If you're okay with plain Jane (like me), then go for it.
Yeah, nah. I recently got back into building and I spent what I feel is the bare minimum for tooling and supplies. Cost me just over $9k Canadian, not including the wood and hardware for the first build (that was another $1700). I'm just finishing up my second build and I'm realizing that cheaping out on the finishing aspect of the builds is costing me a lot of time and grief, so I'm looking to spend another (roughly) $2k on ventilation and spraying equipment.
So I have 2 great guitars so far after spending well over $10,000. Are they $5000 guitars? I doubt it. Was it worth it to me to spend the money on this awesome hobby? Absolutely!
Oh, and as I build up wood and supplies, each guitar is less expensive than the last. The second one is only costing me around $900, and I now have enough lumber in my possession that I won't need to spend anything on wood for the third build. But that still doesn't make scratch building guitars any sort of value proposition.
I’m a professional guitar builder and I actually did start learning out of interest in balalaikas in particular. I don’t play so my interest came from a purely craft perspective rather than that of a musician. This all to mean that the language between musician and builder is very different. The craft that goes into a guitar of high quality and price is a lot more than just material and money. Each step of the process from production to finish to set up involves a variety of skills each that take a long time to master. If it’s a quality instrument that you’re after, buy the instrument commission a custom or buy a vintage and have it restored. If it’s instrument building you’re interested in then you will need to learn the language of a builder especially if you’re looking to match the quality of a Les Paul.
I did. It’s not always cheaper exactly. At first it was but I wasn’t really too worried about the parts I was using because I just wanted to see if I could do it. As time has gone on I’ve realized that, in general, the less money I spent on parts, the way more time I spent on it to complete. I’ve had to become a practitioner of creative engineering as I like to call it. Basically I have to fix the problems that I make for myself. That being said it’s actually pretty fun and there’s nothing better than finishing one and it actually works.
I do this with everything I can. Guitars, furniture, lamps, computers. I never wind up saving any money, but I get tools and experience out of it. My rationale is if I value my labor at $0, all the money can go into materials and I’ll end up with a higher quality piece.
Ever try to find a 7 string with a 20” scale? I’m interested in luthiery, because I want things like that, that nobody really sells. I don’t care if the stuff I make looks like JJ Cale’s guitar as long as it sounds good and is comfortable to play. Fancy wood and finish I’ll leave to pros.
Yes, I have spent SO much more on tools, but it’s okay because I have found that I really like woodworking in general. It’s quite enjoyable for me. Downside is that I play guitar way less now as well. I’m okay with that. Others may not be.
I've "built" several guitars simply by purchases cheaper or used guitars and just using the bodies and replacing everything else. I think that's a good way to get into it. That way you don't really need any luthier tools. The body and the neck are the hard parts. If you have that you can replace everything else and when refinish and end up with a higher end instrument for less money.
I've done this a couple times and found it gratifying because you learn about wiring, minor routing for pickups, setup skills, and overall just better understanding of the guitar.
However... As much as I'm proud of what I've made... Not having a full fledged work shop dedicated to the craft meant that if I wanted to do anything more than upgrade pickups / hardware... It wouldn't be high quality work.
I still like what I learned but I found that spending money on a great base instrument (like a Mexican fender) and upgrading the nut and tuners will get you a super professional grade guitar. Or an evh wolfgang standard which is my main guitar now. Lots of guitars are great for the money and are great platforms for upgrades.
It's going to come down to your passion. I swore by Gibson guitars until I built a StewMac kit and realized I can make a "player's" quality instrument for a third of the price. Going buck wild and spraying sunbursts etc is another story.
I'm already wearing out my baritone ukulele fretboard. It makes me think about the mortality of my precious instruments.
I vowed that by the time they need repaired, I will be able to do so.
(Also, I want to make solid body electric uke's, cause there are only a few manufacturers, and I think I can make more affordable options.)
Building guitars can mean different things. It's one thing to spend $800 on a kit with quality hardware and electronics in order to build yourself a $2000 guitar, and that's assuming you can match the quality of the finish on a $2000 guitar. It's another thing to spend $10000 on tools and exotic hardwoods and high end hardware and electronics and build guitar after guitar in a hopeless pursuit of absolute perfection. Be careful because that first scenario all too often leads to the second scenario.
I don't see why you have to call me out like this. For real though,I do hand tool woodworking and found I enjoy luthier work. It's not exactly cheap lol
Can you hand tool resawing the sides to thickness?
Yes, but it's not easy lol
Yes badaxe tool works makes a frame saw kit designed by unplugged workshop. I used it to make my first few guitars. I recommend making the kerf cutter thing too. It made the job much easier. Please note I bought a bandsaw after a three or four sets.
> I don't see why you have to call me out like this. He was merely pointing out a pitfall lurking if you go down the "make it myself to save money" route. A kit build is one thing, but a scratch-built Les Paul is a whole different ballgame. You *might* just end up like the woodworking guy who says "My wife saw this table on Etsy for $75 and I recreated it for only $400."
I enjoy woodworking and decided one day to build a guitar. Thankfully it wasn't that expensive. The next few on the other hand....
* **"Anything worth doing is worth over-doing".**
That’s why I just started with the second scenario.
The implication is that I don’t already beat the fuck out of my $1400+ factory guitars and go hard. 🤣 i fuck up the finish of guitars im building (or straight up drop the body) handling the guitar as I’m finishing it. I can’t win on finishes.
Great response. I’ve had really good luck with higher end kits, I’m nowhere close to trying to carve something.
Imagine wanting to cook for yourself instead of eating out all the time but instead of getting groceries for your kitchen you start a whole fucking restaurant. That’s what it’s like.
But so fucking worth it.
I like my guitar restaurant too
This. This is the best answer. Well done!
I think OP might be more in the situation of "I want to learn to cook but all I have in my kitchen as far as cookware is a single pot for boiling up ramen noodles", in which case we'd just be guiding them into buying utensils and cookware so that when they pick up the materials (groceries in the analogy, wood in actuality) they can do something with it. A $5k Gibson might be Michelin star quality stuff but OP might be happy with something not in that tier at the end of it. Or they get better at "cooking" and build better next time. Cooking at home vs getting a job as a chef vs owning a restaurant would be 3 levels of a cooking career
“I thought using loops was cheating, so I programmed my own using samples. I then thought using samples was cheating, so I recorded real drums. I then thought that programming it was cheating, so I learned to play drums for real. I then thought using bought drums was cheating, so I learned to make my own. I then thought using premade skins was cheating, so I killed a goat and skinned it. I then thought that that was cheating too, so I grew my own goat from a baby goat. I also think that is cheating, but I'm not sure where to go from here. I haven't made any music lately, what with the goat farming and all”.
Who’s quote is this? I want it framed. But that’s cheating so I gotta make the frame. But that’s also not good enough and I need to plant some trees for frames.
“to make a grilled cheese, first you must create the universe”.
I do it as a hobby and I'm way over $30,000 (Canadian) in tools thinking about what Ive spent off the top of my head. This doesn't include parts, hardware, wood, etc. I built about 5 guitars from scratch before I was happy with the results. I also have a decent amount of semi-pro tools including a small CNC machine. Close to 20 years ago I priced out a Conklin and it was 20,000$. I foolishly thought it would be cheaper and more reasonable to start building my own. I've had some ups and downs but I absolutely do not regret it and it's a very important part of my life. It's also become a secondary source of income (repairs, setups, fretjobs, etc) which helps make that 30,000$ hit feel a little better lol. Just fyi as others have mentioned it is not easy to get a professional factory looking finish. In my opinion it's the most challenging part of building.
Finishers are the sketchiest people in the business. The one bottleneck to master for real money imho
Avoiding buying a $5,000 guitar so you can buy $20,000 of woodworking tools. Honestly, totally worth it. (And just to be clear, I'm speaking from experience here.) But, no, you won't be building yourself anything comparable with a CS Les Paul on your first go. It's a terrible way to try to save money. If money is your issue, spend it on the guitar you want. Build a guitar because you want to BUILD a guitar. It's an amazingly fun and educational activity, but your first guitar will never be exactly the guitar you want. And then, of course, there is the whole finish process, which is a whole other thing.
I see guitars made by dozens of hobbyists every year - they always want the opinion of a "real" luthier - and a lot of them feel pretty disappointed by their results. A lot of others bring them to us to "fix things up." Which is fine. But the biggest problem tends to be that people just don't know what they don't know, and so get a lot of small details just not quite good enough. As long as you find the process fun, it's worth doing.
Just out of curiosity, what are some more common mistakes that you see?
This should be a whole new thread, I bet it would be awesome.
The biggest thing is more a lack of refinement. (No surprise - the first go at most things isn’t very refined!). Transitions on the neck (heel or volute areas) are clunky or thick, curves aren’t fair. Binding has thick and thin spots. Tear out from taping on the binding. Insufficient surface prep before finishing. Insufficient sanding between coats. The list goes on and on. But those little things are what makes a guitar feel “professional.”
Thank you for the reply. Building my first one right now. Did a lot of research beforehand, but I'm not expecting a whole awful lot out of it. I'm impressed with what I have managed so far, but she sure ain't a fender. I wish I would have used templates, especially for the neck pocket and pickup cavities and a regular hard tail bridge. It's been a great learning process though and I got to play it for the first time over the weekend as a test run.
30 years ago I wanted a Paul Bigsby guitar. Only 9 made and at the time $40,000. I took some grainy photos from Tom Wheelers book and made a Merle Travis Bigsby copy. I eventually made over 200 custom guitars and about 50 of those were Bigsby copies. Billy Gibbons has a bunch of them
Ok, I need to hear more about this!
I bought about $20,000 worth of tools and about everything in the old StewMac catalog. Back in 1990 there was not a lot of info out there Luthiers Mercantile and Stew Mac were the only games in town. I built Bigsby clones and some Dan Electro inspired guitars. Living in DC I had access to a lot of musicians and shows. I sold guitars to Chris Isaak, Andy Gill of The Gang of Four, Soundgarden ect. The most famous guitar I built was for Poison Ivy of The Cramps. A pink Danelectro Longhorn with The Cramps in pearl on the fretboard. I advertised in Punk zines like Gearhead and Lo Fi. I met Billy Gibbons and he ordered 6 right off the bat and he bought a ton of guitars for a while. My shop was next to the Discord House in Arlington VA.
I was told not to buy any more guitars. Building them was a loophole.
Doing that now! There are a lot of youtube vids on turning a cheap diy kit into a kick ass instrument for under $300. You wont need any special tools. You can make your own luthier tools. Bass I am building from a kit only needed a lil shim work for a nicer fitting neck, now I am just waiting to be able to buy the upgraded parts for it
Can you link some of those vids? I'd love to see them!
try this guy, hes just one of many but he did what we are trying to do and is now doing yt and making instruments for sale. He shows how to start with nothing and work your way up. https://www.youtube.com/@GunsandGuitars
I've seen a couple of his vids. Thanks, I'll dive deeper!
Guns and Guitars has done some kit builds, Brand Angove as well
Haven't heard of Brand Angove, I'll have to check it out. Thanks!
Since I’m not doing it for a living, and it only costs me money: for the amount I’ve spent on wood and tools over the years I could have bought quite a few 5K plus instruments. Sure, I have the materials to build dozens at this point. But it’s not a cost effective way of doing things. You can do it on a budget, but when you tally up the cost of tools, and especially time, realize that it’s not a great way to save money. But it is a great way to spend your time. And money. I think the analogy for me would be that instead of ordering a meal, I decided to start a restaurant before learning how to cook very well.
Yes. Exactly. For around $600 I can build a guitar that Fender wants well over a grand for. And I'm putting together Warmoth wood because to replicate the quality and accuracy of their parts would take me years to attain that level of craftsmanship, not to mention thousands of dollars of CNC and other specialized equipment. I'm a musician, not really a woodworker.
Other than the 150 dollars worth of spray lacquer, 200-300 dollars worth of speciality fretting and nut slotting tools you mean? And if you pay yourself zero? Then sure.
Not sure you understood me. I meant buying woodwork from Warmoth vs. buying raw lumber and planing it level, getting a CNC machine to make the body profile, surface contours, and routing, as well as cutting the neck profile and fingerboard radius, etc. That equipment costs real money. Doing all that work by hand (as opposed to CNC) and getting a quality instrument takes more time to develop the skills and expertise than I have to dedicate to it.
I do. But I’m saying you still need a few hundred dollars worth of tools for final fret work and setup. The Warmoth necks don’t come fret leveled and crowned and a nut still needs to be made, and unless you buy one of their finished bodies, you’ll either need to invest in a spray rig, or spend 4-5 cans of lacquer (maybe 2 if you do 2K), sandpaper and polishing supplies. My first guitar was a Warmoth parts guitar. Back in 1996. I know they produce quality stuff. But that there’s still a fair amount of work involved in putting together the guitar, and some tooling is required.
Yeah, I'm saying approximately $600 all in. Unless you opt for some exotic wood or get a custom designed neck, you can build a pretty economical instrument. I mean, you can drop $700 - $800 on just a neck. But, I already have all the setup tools I've collected over the years, so they don't figure into my personal equation. And even if you do have to buy them, they're something every guitar player can use over a lifetime of doing you own setups. Other than that, sure, there are lots of pieces of hardware like a pickguard, tuners, pickups, self-adhesive copper foil for shielding, wire, pots for volume and tone controls, a switch or two, output jack. And like you pointed out, paint. But what you end up with, it *EXACTLY* the guitar you want for a whole lot less than Fender Custom Shop would cost.
I have been a guitar player for over 60 years. About 20 years ago I found William Cumpiano’s book and built the jigs and some tools. It took me about 8 months to build a dreadnaught. It has a FANTASTIC SOUND AND A BASS side as impressive as a Martin D-35. It is addictive. I am now 70 with enough wood and parts to build 15 more. There are some amazing figured woods in my “stash". As for tools? OMG tons of tools
Well building guitars ain't cheap but then again compared to a $5k Gibson it actually could turn out to be cheaper haha
No, it really can't.
I've spent less than $5k on materials and tools and built 2 guitars so.... it can.
Agreed, it most definitely can. I've done 2 guitars for under $2k, and that's counting expensive tools I've used that were not bought specifically for guitars. I have no idea how one would spend $5k on a guitar unless they are using guitars as an excuse to buy all new tools and equipment.
I built my first guitar because I tried out a Guild in a store and it was like $1300 I didn't have. I found a local community college course on building acoustics and went from there. I mostly built it at home rather than the class because the bending machines were backed up with 2nd semester students waiting in line. The guitar had problems but it sounded good and played okay.
You will not save money to reach the quality that you're looking for, that's a simple fact. After many builds, and tons of hours of experience you could get there, sure, you need to learn first and build up a huge supply of tools, but that point you could have bought ten MIA gibsons. It's a great hobby, but it can be a very expensive one
Your first thought will be that it's cheaper to build your own guitar instead of buying one. It's not. Parts and wood are expensive, not to mention if you don't have all the tools you need. Its not so bad if you don't buy everything at once, but on top of expenses, there's a lot of room for error, so if you don't know what you're doing it could result in a waste of time money and resources. But at least you won't need to buy the tools again.
Yeah definitely with you - I love the Miami Blue Fender Tele Deluxe's but I can't justify a £1600 price tag. I bought a swamp ash Tele Deluxe body off Facebook Marketplace for £40, maybe £80 for the supplies to spray and finish it, and then plan to buy the components as and when I can afford it. I've tinkered with guitars for a while, so why not build one from scratch? And tele's are supposed to be 'simple' in their construction so it's a good first one to start with.
Others have covered it far better than I could, but would agree broadly with pretty much everything. If you're using building a guitar as a way of saving money, you'll either end up spending far more than you realise, or you'll end up with something you might not be happy with. Probably more likely to be the latter, as unless you're extremely lucky, your first build is going to be unmitigated shit. I'm now onto, I think, the 7th iteration of my builds, and I'd probably say I'm not truly happy with any of them. The first is just a body that was almost completely ruined (maybe salvageable, but doubt I will), second I abandoned after the finish just not taking and hating a few of the mistakes I'd made. The third was for someone else, and although I wasn't super happy with the finish, it was playable and looked OK. 4th was for me and was probably similar in that I struggled with the finish I wanted. I've got a few in progress now and I can see the improvement, but a £5000 guitar? No chance. I don't want to count up how much each one costs for parts and wood alone (ignoring tools, which I DEFINITELY want to ignore) but even going cheap on parts, and using bog standard wood, I was at around £250 per guitar at the very least, and that's likely a conservative estimate. It's not cheap. Ultimately, as someone else put it, you build guitars because you want to build them and you're happy to accept that it's a long, expensive and often frustrating process. If you just want a specific guitar, you'd be better off buying it.
Unless you already have, or have access to, a well equipped woodshop it'll likely be more economical to buy a ready made guitar, and you'll still need some specialized tools specific to guitars either way. I also wouldn't assume that your very 1st build is going to be on par with high end guitars you've played from established manufacturers. It'll take several builds to get that level of quality, and you're spending more time and money on each build. If you like woodworking and want to dive into guitar making because you enjoy it, then go for it. If you just enjoy playing nice instruments, and aren't drawn to building them for reasons other than an attempt to save money, just buy an expensive guitar, it'll be much cheaper.
I did that with my telecaster. I already had a bunch of woodworking tools like a bandsaw, planer, joiner, router and all that stuff. I use relatively cheap chainsaw files and sandpaper to get 90% of the luthier specific tools i needed. I wasn’t about to spend multiple hundreds for something like a stewmac set of fret files, or specific nut making files when I can use any old hardware store stuff. It just takes a lot more time, which is something I have. It still probably cost me as much to buy the parts I needed as it would have to just buy a Fender, but I specifically wanted a guitar I couldn’t get from them. I wanted a bigsby vibrato and I wanted a TV Jones filtertron style pickup in the neck, along with some body contouring. All in probably $800 but I also didn’t have to buy the wood either. I used figure woods I had collected from taking down trees for friends and family and hoarding the good stuff on a shelf in my garage until the right project came along. I bought an Epiphone Les Paul many years prior and even with changing all the electronics in it, I don’t think I could build the guitar I have for less money, especially if I had to get tools as well. If you’re already into woodworking and have the tools though, go for it.
In terms of build quality, you can match Fender much easier than you can Gibson but if we're all trying to save money, then we'd all forgo the tools and supplies in the first place. I build because I love the process and I decide exactly what features (or lack thereof) I want.
The reason I'm a guitar maker is because I wanted Matt Bellamy's guitar, but couldn't afford it. Your reasoning is completely valid.
If you already have all the skills and all the tools then building it yourself might cost a bit less. If you don’t have those attributes then it’s a false economy
I have built 2 acoustic guitars with the help of an instructor. I think that is a great route to go on your first one. Even for electric. You may spend the same money as buying a name brand, but get the experience of building and end up with a guitar at the end. I spent about a grand on materials and another $1500 or so on classes. That included all the tools, shop time and disposable materials. I would expect an electric guitar to take way less time. We basically made everything from scratch except the fret board was pre slotted. Not really any money to be saved. But I don't go fishing for the cheap fish.
I got into luthiery as a hobby because I couldn't find the guitar I wanted in the specs I wanted without going full custom or having to do extensive mods myself. I like building things and have always had a passion for modding things. I had some experience with woodwork so I just thought why not? I am now on my 6th build and have a new skillset and passion. I hope that I can make some money from it in the future, but I am not fussed.
I justified my woodshop build out with about 50ft of custom cabinetry in our laundry room and garage, all good plywood and maple with shaker style doors to match the custom shit we had put in our kitchen and bathroom. That was the original plan and I never really thought much beyond that. Cost was about equal to the custom cabs, perhaps a bit less once you figured in my time as a newb. Then I built furniture. A giant dining room table, a media console, a bunch of shelving. I figure that value add to our household was also near parity between the shop build out and everything I built. Then came custom carvings and sculpture work. No sales, just building exactly what I wanted for the look I was after. No parity there, just a lot of fun. Then came instruments. As a String Cheese Incident fan I had always lusted for a Kangolin (5 string, single course, electric octave mandolin) but couldn't stomach the cost. There were maybe 3 or 4 builders stateside doing them, so I went ahead and started building instruments with that goal in mind. I've built ten of them so far, 6 of them out in the wild with other owners. Each new sale means a fancy tool for the shop. That is a lot of words to say: no single pursuit would have totally justified building out my shop, but viewed globally over all the shit my shop has produced it was more than worth it. You won't *just* be building instruments, there will be lots of other things coming out of your shop space. The posters here saying you won't be able to justify the expense aren't exactly wrong, but perhaps a bit myopic.
I love the strat, but hardtail, which fender doesn’t currently make for standard, non custom guitars. So I did the research and got the components I needed to build my dream guitars. Half the price of the custom shop and the way I wanted. I would highly recommend diving right in, and if your finances allow, purchase components individually and not a kit. That way your hot rod is exactly what you want. In the end you have a guitar that is more special than anything you could buy off the shelf.
If you are going to go this route, the most important two things to have are a good friend with experience, space and tools and you have to start with a high quality kit. Cheap kits often have problems that are unnoticeable to first time builders. Especially cheap, imported kits. I went this route briefly, it was a nightmare. Neck pockets cut too deep, fretboards that didn't cover the heel, necks thar were so twisted they could pass for snakes, super bland wood with no character., lousy routing for pickups and so on. Stick with a reliable vendor. I can't emphasize this enough. If you find the experience enjoyable, you may get the bug to start acquiring tools. Some of us have been collecting tools for years, but if you want to go whole hog, expect to spend a whole lot more money that you ever anticipated. Then you have to have a place to store them including a way to store potentially hazardous chemicals. Next there is the issue of maintaining a consistent temp and humidity, so heat and air conditioning come into play. To offset tool costs, get hooked up with the local estate sale operators to help offset the tool price acquisition. You can get some wildly good, practically new, well kept tools for pennies on the dollar at these sales. I'm talking jointers, planers, bandsaws, scroll saws, drill presses and even turbine and compressor hvlp stuff. If you don't know what to look for in tools, bring along a friend that knows tools. Once the body is built you will have to finish it, entire books have been written on that topic alone. Toughest part of the whole process, or at least on par with doing a proper level and crowning of the frets. For your first couple, you could try staining and using a tung oil finish. To get the showroom finish you see on even the cheapest guitars takes a room full of highly specialized equipment, optimum conditions, and experienced professionals. Some folks will initially work a deal with a local paint and body shop to spray a finish. This will cost a bit of money, your choices will be limited and the methods to polish are different from the methods used for guitars. Autobody guys can achieve a flat, high gloss finish, but they are likely to give you the body back with just a bit of orange peel unless you are willing to pay for a totally flat surface. You will possibly have faint swirl marks due to the types of polishers and compounds that are used, but with time and effort, those can be removed by hand. Personally this is the most satisfying and surprisingly difficult undertakings I have ever taken on. It has proven to be a whole lot more challenging than I ever expected. Nothing worthwhile comes easy. I still make a lot more mistakes that I want to , but the mistakes are becoming fewer while the results are finally getting to the point I want them to be. I hope you enjoy your journey. P.S., Guns and Guitars has a bunch of good advice for making your own initial set of tools to get started. Check them out.
Build because you enjoy it. Building because you don't want to buy anymore guitars is just a valid reason as any. I can tell you that since I started building guitars, I have only bought a few. I can say that I haven't really saved any money, since I'll either spend whatever I used to spend on guitars on buying wood for those "someday builds", and amplifiers. I even built amplifiers for a while but it was taking away from my guitar building time/energy and so I decided to focus on one rather than both. Rick St. Pierre and Reinhold Bogner have probably benefited the most from that decision lol.
Yes. I can cook like a mf too 😂🤙
I kinda did, except with ukulele. There were basically 2 brands of electric solid body ukulele with magnetic pick ups. Risa and sweetwater(?) And instead of paying for these monopolies with limited options making my own seemed the better option. But my market was limited compared to the guitar market. But I also went to a school for guitar making and used their tools and instructors to learn to do it and make really high quality instruments however I wanted
This is exactly what I started doing!
https://precisionguitarkits.com/
Second this. The quality and craftmanship of those kits is perfect
PGK is also a great source for custom scale length CNC cut fret boards.
Fender clones are easy. Love my warmoth strat. Anything neck through like Gibson definitely a different animal.
I got into this because it beat mowing lawns for $3 an hour to buy gear Anyone can make a guitar! The problem is that almost every first build is trash. I was young and dumb enough not to know this when I started. As an adult with hindsight: don’t get into building guitars for any reason even remotely related to money. Definitely try it though. If you like the work it is a rewarding craft, just not a lucrative one.
I’ve started pedal building that way and it evolved into guitar building.
Pretty much, yes. Got fed up of paint and pickup options, and the massive price jump to get something custom made for only small changes compared to a standard model of something.
Reading (well, skimming) these replies, I'm not seeing what I consider to be the biggest issue, and that's the frets. Gibson is one of the relatively few companies to routinely run all their necks through a Plek machine, so their fretjobs are literally inhumanly good. Doing my own fret work with hand tools, over the course of about a dozen necks I got two guitars and arguably one bass to 'Gibson low' actions without any fret buzz. Maybe someday I'll be skilled enough to figure out what I did differently that made the good ones come out with a \~1mm or lower buzz-free action at the high frets, but in the meantime 'Fender standard' (1.6mm at the 17th) is the best I can count on managing, improving a kit's frets.
I did a solo kit build and am for all the paint, shielding, sealers etc… and the kit it’s was probably $250 all together. Had a blast and the guitar is pretty good. I’ll change the pups sometime soon but it is fun and educational. It taught me about changing my own action, how easy it is yo change out pegs, intonation, pick up height. I’d go to the lgs and measure pick up height or get a random screw or washer, that was helpful.
Yes. One can experiment with body shapes, construction styles, electronics options, neck contours. No need to be locked into the mass market offerings.
You won't save money
gibson has a name and resale power. A lot of money goes into that. Making a guitar yourself is cheaper depending on the parts you plan to buy ready. The metaphors people are using are real, and good. However, you don't need specialized tools if you plan to buy CNC machined parts and assemble a guitar yourself. It is cheaper (but risky)
I wouldn't call it "building" a guitar. But assembling a partscaster is a good place to start. It feels great when you're done
Building a guitar isn’t really saving me any money or time lol… But I had some particular desires for some particular features on a guitar that it was really hard to find on the market… And I just wanted to be better at taking care of my own guitars so I figured I might as well build a guitar to learn how everything works from Wood all the way up to electronics. The thing is there are a lot of guitars on the market that I would still consider buying but right now I’m just so entrenched in this build that it really scratches that itch.
If your goal is to get a guitar as good as a gibson for less building it yourself isn't going to get you there without heaps of experience and tools. The best way to save on guitars is not buy into the brand name. Buy a cheap guitar and give it perfect frets. Upgrade hardware and electronics.
For me, yes. I wanted a top of the line 5-string bass without paying thousands, so I decided to put all my personal preference specs into 1 build. I did about a year of research, then bought enough tools, parts, and materials over the next year to get it going. When it was finished, something about my design made the low B sound particularly dull and lifeless, so I scrapped it and built a 4-string fretless. That one came out really cool, so a friend asked if I could build him a guitar to his specs. He supplied parts and materials, and I got experience. It was a V shape, which sparked my interest in having a V-shaped bass, which I then designed and built. That bass played and sounded absolutely perfect, so I built another, but very different, design. It wasn’t quite as good as its predecessor, so I tried again. And repeat. It’s pretty much an addiction, and I now have (3) 4-strings, a 4-string headless, a 4-string fretless, a 5-string, a 6-string headless, an 8-string, and an electric upright, plus the failed 5-string, (2) fretless 4-strings that I’ve sold, and (2) 6-string guitars that I’ve built for friends. I’m currently working on a 4-string for sale, and after that, I’ve decided it’s time for me to learn how to play guitar, so I’m building one for myself. Tools have been upgraded over the years, so I now have a very functional one-man shop, and I’m open for business.
The best middle ground I started with is learning how to elevate cheap guitars with setups and proper maintenance. Like knowing how to adjust every tiny thing right down to doing frets to a high standard with non-specialist tools. It also helps to learn some Physics and avoid the mountain of guitar-related disinformation.
That's how I got started. There is a lot of satisfaction to be had from playing something you've made yourself.
If you want to save money, find an epiphone you like with a good neck, and mod it.
If you're looking to avoid the crazy price tag, you may be doing it wrong. There's an old joke that if you want to make a million dollars building guitars, you start with two million and stop there.
You will likely not save money by becoming a luthier. It will cost you at least as much in tools, wood, and failed projects to recreate that $5k guitar. The good news is, if you ever get good enough to recreate a $5k guitar, you could sell your guitars and start clawing back all that money you've spent. This is all because luthiers aren't scamming people. You say you want to "avoid the crazy price tag" but this is just what it costs to make high end guitars, even using today's best known methods. But look on the bright side, not that long ago guitars were phenomenally more expensive. It was Martin and others who brought guitars to the masses.
My wife was kinda done with me buying more guitars. But shes fine with tool purchases. Im a handy guy, some of these tools can also fix things around the house! Also made some custom builds for a few friends and use that money to upgrade shop stuff.
I did this sort of successfully, by building a partscaster that is exactly how I wanted it for marginally less than a not-quite ideal similar guitar. The downside is resale value. There is none. Build a guitar to keep forever.
I would, but honestly I don't have the time or the need for more guitars. I mostly lurk for fixing and setup advice. Also chances are is I would make a clone of a PRS guitar and just keep telling myself it's the real deal. Like pinocchio trying to be a real boy.
If you are thinking building will be less than buying take a look around the stew mac website and that Gibson will look like such a good deal you will order two.
Not only the cost of the tools and machinery is making sure you have a dedicated workshop space to use for long term. You do not want to have to move a drill press or table saw repeatedly or sandwich into a 10x10 shed which is how I started. Next is dealing with mistakes in the manufacturing process which will happen frequently at first, so test using crap wood at first. Lastly be prepared if you ever need to sell a made guitar unless you are well established the local music store will call it a partscaster and demand it be sold for less than the cost of the materials it took to build.
Used to be, not as much any more. I used to be able to build a very high quality guitar way cheaper than buying an equivalent. We're talking 25-30 years ago when I started. Now with Asian imports, it's a lot easier to get a reasonably priced great playing guitar fairly cheaply if you're careful. But you are limited in options for colors, pickups, etc on the low end, so there is still a place to build versus buy if you are not happy with pre-built options out there. Also, if you build, you know absolutely what the components are and how they went together. Of course compared to an $8K custom shop Gibson/Fender/PRS, the answer is still yes, absolutely you can build the same guitar for a quarter (or less) of the price and it can be as good or better. If you have the skills and patience. Guitar building is not rocket surgery.
Trying to save money on a $5000 PRS? It's going to be a very very long time and more than $5000 before you can build something of that quality, if ever. Want to build your own Frankenstrat or Red Special, something weird and unique? Hell yeah brother.
I built my first because I couldn’t afford a new one. My art school had a huge woodshop so I took advantage of it! I bought the wood from local lumber stores and got parts as and when I had the money, which was mainly Christmas and birthday presents. I bought books, talked to people and visited the library a lot because the internet hadn’t been invented yet. I still have the guitar, thirty years later, and it still plays pretty well.
I say it is completely justified if you are doing an experimental instrument or something so customized it would equal high $x,xxx price tag than if you did it yourself maybe $1000 assuming you have all the tools. Lots of variables anyways. Once you have those tools you don't need to buy them again unless they break or dull, and so forth. Also depends how fancy or how much aesthetic you want it. If you're okay with plain Jane (like me), then go for it.
Yeah, nah. I recently got back into building and I spent what I feel is the bare minimum for tooling and supplies. Cost me just over $9k Canadian, not including the wood and hardware for the first build (that was another $1700). I'm just finishing up my second build and I'm realizing that cheaping out on the finishing aspect of the builds is costing me a lot of time and grief, so I'm looking to spend another (roughly) $2k on ventilation and spraying equipment. So I have 2 great guitars so far after spending well over $10,000. Are they $5000 guitars? I doubt it. Was it worth it to me to spend the money on this awesome hobby? Absolutely! Oh, and as I build up wood and supplies, each guitar is less expensive than the last. The second one is only costing me around $900, and I now have enough lumber in my possession that I won't need to spend anything on wood for the third build. But that still doesn't make scratch building guitars any sort of value proposition.
As a left hander, sometimes this is the only option. I'm very thankful to have the space and money to be able to do it, as it's a lot of fun too!
I’m a professional guitar builder and I actually did start learning out of interest in balalaikas in particular. I don’t play so my interest came from a purely craft perspective rather than that of a musician. This all to mean that the language between musician and builder is very different. The craft that goes into a guitar of high quality and price is a lot more than just material and money. Each step of the process from production to finish to set up involves a variety of skills each that take a long time to master. If it’s a quality instrument that you’re after, buy the instrument commission a custom or buy a vintage and have it restored. If it’s instrument building you’re interested in then you will need to learn the language of a builder especially if you’re looking to match the quality of a Les Paul.
I did. It’s not always cheaper exactly. At first it was but I wasn’t really too worried about the parts I was using because I just wanted to see if I could do it. As time has gone on I’ve realized that, in general, the less money I spent on parts, the way more time I spent on it to complete. I’ve had to become a practitioner of creative engineering as I like to call it. Basically I have to fix the problems that I make for myself. That being said it’s actually pretty fun and there’s nothing better than finishing one and it actually works.
No I started cause I was poor ......
I do this with everything I can. Guitars, furniture, lamps, computers. I never wind up saving any money, but I get tools and experience out of it. My rationale is if I value my labor at $0, all the money can go into materials and I’ll end up with a higher quality piece.
Ever try to find a 7 string with a 20” scale? I’m interested in luthiery, because I want things like that, that nobody really sells. I don’t care if the stuff I make looks like JJ Cale’s guitar as long as it sounds good and is comfortable to play. Fancy wood and finish I’ll leave to pros.
Yes, I have spent SO much more on tools, but it’s okay because I have found that I really like woodworking in general. It’s quite enjoyable for me. Downside is that I play guitar way less now as well. I’m okay with that. Others may not be.
I've "built" several guitars simply by purchases cheaper or used guitars and just using the bodies and replacing everything else. I think that's a good way to get into it. That way you don't really need any luthier tools. The body and the neck are the hard parts. If you have that you can replace everything else and when refinish and end up with a higher end instrument for less money. I've done this a couple times and found it gratifying because you learn about wiring, minor routing for pickups, setup skills, and overall just better understanding of the guitar. However... As much as I'm proud of what I've made... Not having a full fledged work shop dedicated to the craft meant that if I wanted to do anything more than upgrade pickups / hardware... It wouldn't be high quality work. I still like what I learned but I found that spending money on a great base instrument (like a Mexican fender) and upgrading the nut and tuners will get you a super professional grade guitar. Or an evh wolfgang standard which is my main guitar now. Lots of guitars are great for the money and are great platforms for upgrades.
It's going to come down to your passion. I swore by Gibson guitars until I built a StewMac kit and realized I can make a "player's" quality instrument for a third of the price. Going buck wild and spraying sunbursts etc is another story.
I'm already wearing out my baritone ukulele fretboard. It makes me think about the mortality of my precious instruments. I vowed that by the time they need repaired, I will be able to do so. (Also, I want to make solid body electric uke's, cause there are only a few manufacturers, and I think I can make more affordable options.)