Custom Les Paul Guitar

I wanted an electric guitar, and I figured it'd be a little cheaper and much cooler to build one rather than buy one. This took quite a long time, but it was worth it in the end. My end result turned out looking really good. It ended up taking me about 3 weeks to do just because of when I had free time to work and when I could get supplies in to build (I ordered all the electronics, the neck, tuning keys and strings on Amazon). All in all, I'm very happy I stuck with this and decided to finish this project and make the guitar look as good as I did. (Just as a quick FYI and apology, I started forgetting to photograph some steps, but it was all the attachment of the hardware and stuff. Sorry about that, but it's a pain in the rear to take apart and do over)

• Pine boards 2"x 1"x 48" (You should only need about 12-13 pieces)
• Wood Glue
• Stain
• Clear Coat
• Clamps (Depending on the shape you cut the body, I recommend 4+, but work with what you've got)
• Pre-Built Neck (If you would like to try building your own neck, be my guest, I went the easy way)
• Tailpiece
• Pickups
• Control Knobs
• Jack Plate
• Wiring Harness
• Tuners
• Neck Plate
• Band Saw
• Planar Saw (possibly if you screwed up like I did)
• Sharpie
• Foamboard
• Stain (color is your choice)
• Clearcoat
• Sander and/or Sandpaper
• Drill (w/ some kind of cutting bit)
• Screwdriver
• Guitar Strings (steel)

This is your easiest step. Get your boards from the supplies, and stack them next to each other to about the width you're going to want the body of the guitar. The gluing is the hardest and most time-consuming, irritating part of this step. It may take a few days to complete, because it may have to be done in two or more steps. Once the width has been determined, you have to glue and clamp the boards together. The reason this usually has to be done in more than one step is because the first time, after a certain height (3-4 boards) the clamps become less effective at holding together and just make them slide around. So, do it in layers of 3-4 boards, then glue and clamp the whole thing after the first layers dry.

I lied before... This is the easiest part. It all gets harder from here. But, this is the fun part... What's it gonna look like? For this, use foamboard, a sharpie, Xacto knife and some research on standard guitar body dimensions, and from there, it's up to your imagination and cutting skills to get the shape. You can do virtually any shape, as long as all the electronics and hardware fits.

This is where the fun begins. Center and tape the template to the dry glued boards and get the sharpie again. Outline your template. Leave the template attached, and use the bandsaw to cut the body. (Relief cuts will be needed for hand cutouts at the top of the body)

You've made the body. Great. Now do what this step says... Sand. Every surface, every edge, sand it all down and get it very smooth.

You only need this part if you did what I did. I did not buy these boards, so they were actually 1"x 3"x Random measurements. So to make it the needed 1 3/4" to 2" thick, I had to saw it right down the middle and run it through a planar machine... My mistake on that one.

Assuming by this point (hopefully) you've ordered everything from Amazon. Congrats, that's unfortunately the easiest and most expensive part of the whole thing. Now, to cut. You can either use a drill press, or a regular drill (I recommend) with a special bit to cut out the holes. Make sure everything is measured out correctly (LxWxH) and correctly spaced and lined up (especially important for pickups and neck)*

*Could vary based on type of guitar you want to build, simple google searches will reveal proper spacing of these components

I'm not going to say much for this one, because if you got the same products that were linked in the supplies list, the installation instructions came inside. Good Luck! Side note, lightly attach the neck to line up pickups and bridge, but do not fully attach. I repeat, DO NOT COMPLETELY ATTACH.

This is how I know everything is a pain to take apart and put back in this thing... Because I did it once already. However, you have to make sure everything fits before staining and clear coating, or else it'll mess up the look of the guitar. This will need a few hours or even a day to dry (per stain and clearcoat). Stain of your choosing for this, it determines guitar color, so pick wisely.

Repeat step 6 here, but truly attach everything this time, and attach neck this time.

If you know what you're doing, then you can pretty much skip the rest of this. If not then use a YouTube tutorial to teach yourself to string your guitar. I did not provide a link to the video I used because people learn differently. That, and there is a million of these videos on YouTube, so you're bound to find one good one.

Hopefully anyways. If this has gone the way you wanted it to, then you'll have a pretty cool electric guitar that you can say is truly yours. Congrats and have fun playing this thing. Hope it sounds really good.