Forum Users' Shameless Self-promotion

[Emplate]

Daammmmnnnn that looks good! Cheers!

[purplepanda]

Oh whoa crazy, how much of it was built from scratch, did you carve the body and the neck and the head?

Yep, whole thing from scratch minus the hardware/electronics. I designed it and made it from wood blanks!

Thanks for the kind words!

[Blood Music]

Wow that's awesome - how does it sound?

[purplepanda]

At this point I've still got some bugs in the wiring I need to fix, but the sustainer does work so that's fun
Unplugged it's definitely passable, and it's designed so I can change the pickup without too much trouble in the even that I don't like the one I've got in it at the moment

[RevolvingImages]

That's incredible man, great job! Very unique looking guitar!

[Emplate]

What kind of amp(s) you're going to use with it? Would love to hear or see some samples at some point :)

[Blood Music]

I wanna build one now.

Actually, I have wanted to build one for a long time. This inspired me again, how long did it take and at what cost? You have a garage you built it in?

[purplepanda]

I've got an 11 Rack but I've been lazy and haven't really played around with it, otherwise I have a behringer practice amp which is playing up at the moment that I usually use with an AMT Legend P2 (impressive pedal.)

It took me probably a year of doing it on weekends/getting distracted and putting it to rest for weeks at a time, if I went in somewhat seriously I could probably get a new one done from start in 2-3 months. Cost of materials is not so bad, I think around $50-100AU I spent on the wood, the hardware on the other hand stacked up fairly quickly:
Bridge - I think it was around $80 (Did go for a nice one in the hope the guitar survives several years, we'll see)
Tuners - Also around $80
Electronics - $400 if I had to guess? Sustainiacs are a bit expensive
Other bits and pieces (strap locks, truss rod, nut, knobs etc) would have been around $100-150

Most of the cost goes into job-specific tools, like a fret crowning file, fret slot saw, router templates and bits... list goes on, I'm lucky because my Dad's already got a good assortment of power tools (drill press, router, jigsaw, table saw) that are hard to get by without.
So yes, it was all built in my parents' garage. I don't have a huge amount of workspace until the cars are gone somewhere, but enough to basically sit around a bench with a bit of room to move around.

This is actually the third guitar I've built, first one is cosmetically terrible and the second one's sort of a midpoint between it and the new one, so I'm improving. If you do want to learn, might be worth finding a guy who does guitar making classes. Ormsby used to do them but he seems to have stopped to focus on doing more custom builds, Sully does them (though he's in Dallas and I have no idea if that's too far to justify a trip) http://www.sullyguitars.com/building-classes/
I think there'd be more guys in europe that do them too, just no idea who they are. Some people also do online lessons (Crimson Guitars has done some good ones.)

I mostly learned from a book called "Make your own electric guitar" by Melvin Hiscox, loads of info in there about nearly everything.
The rest, either using woodwork skills I got from high school and following all these custom builders on facebook and seeing their progress photos and whatnot.

Hope that's a start at least!

[Emplate]

Haven't written here for some time, and of course my first post after a long while is self-promotion, I'm shameless that way! But anyway, my band Loputon Suo released a new EP last week. We play dark and atmospheric black/death. Give it a listen here: https://loputonsuo.bandcamp.com/album/portti-uuteen
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/loputon.suo/


Artwork by Kimmo Hyvönen