Make a guitar body (even if you don't play)
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- Опубліковано 26 лип 2024
- More videos and exclusive content: / rexkrueger
Router bit for planing: amzn.to/2MqP7aH (Affiliate link)
Bigger and better-looking bit: amzn.to/2KUIMQc
Bearing bit for patterns: amzn.to/2waIrTV
My Router: amzn.to/2KUjoKr
Telecaster body plans: tinyurl.com/ycyee2gg
Follow me on instagram: @rexkrueger - Навчання та стиль
Wait, so you recorded that theme song? That's awesome!
Yup, that's me! Glad you like it.
@@RexKrueger I had a giant 3 phase over-head pin router that I left at a "community shop" that was great for chunking out bodies. I just left it there when I moved out it was so big, etc.. Is it still possible to sell Tele bodies and make $ ? I thought that market was flooded a long time ago, if so great, I will start making some again. Thanks Rex.
I knew it!
wow
I don't know what it is Rex ... but your delivery style is just wonderful!
Thanks for sharing your particular genius with us. Much appreciated. :))
I think "genius" might be stretching it a bit, but you're very welcome!
I loved the interruptions 😁 you make a good double act
Well, we've had the practice. Thanks for the compliment!
Have you ever considered using inexpensive hair dye for stain?
I started using it a couple of years ago on certain projects like the guitar bodies you made. The color range is almost unlimited and its permanent. Yellow, reds, blues, orange, to just plain blonde, black or brunette. Lol. But it comes out so beautiful. It brings out the grains to deep color and it just comes out excellent! Plus the bottle when your finished works perfect for small glue ups. Just wanted to share.
I would love to see you tackle a trussed neck from scratch. I always wanted to make my own bass neck because nothing ever feels right, even on my daily driver. I got messed-up hands, ya know
great vid btw
This was great for me because I want to make a guitar from wood and resin. Now that I know i can sell the blank bodies i feel more encouraged to try one. Thanks Rex
Fantastic! I'd LOVE to see your wood and resin bodies when you make them.
Rex Krueger yeah i will send some pics thanks for the encouragement
River coffee tables are old hat. River guitars? Now we're talking! :D
@@Pete.G thank you. Hopefully i can pull it off lol
Throw some LED's in there and light that resin up!
You: Hand Tools
Also You: Router and Drill Press and Circular Saw.
Me: I really need those tools
I am soooooooooooooooooooooooo glad I watched this.
That planing jig at 3:03 is something I've been wanting to make but couldn't come up with the right idea.
That is perfect for my needs. Thanks!
I very much enjoyed hearing you play your own title card music. Great video.
Thanks! I enjoyed playing it.
This was awesome, guys! it very well could be the final push I've needed to make the Strat body I've been considering.
"You don't need to play guitar to build one". Thought for sure you were going to mention that Leo Fender (inventor of the Telecaster and Stratocaster), didn't actually play guitar at all.
You know, it didn't occur to me to mention that, but I've always been fascinated that he didn't play. Also, you should totally do that strat body. I was intimidated to do the contours on this one, but it was easy.
Yeah, but there's something about a Tele, though...
I think it's that I like that they give me attitude back.
Awesome video, loved the build.
Your face the first time you played had me in stitches, serious face time, hilarious.
That last riff ! I've been looking forward to see you play it !
Damn! What a beautiful guitar! 😮
MUCH more beautiful than the painted ones!
Fantastic job, Rex!!! 😃
This was an extra nice episode to watch. Loved how the guitar came out. Gave me a good laugh to finally find out where your signature intro tune came from! Haha.
Reminiscent of the Broadcaster which was basically a somewhat contoured Tele in the early days of Fender.
Fender had a bridge only pickup guitar in 1950, the Esquire. Later that year Fender introduced the Broadcaster, which in 1951 became the Telecaster. The reason it isn't called Broadcaster today is because Gretsch had a drum kit with a similar name, Broadkaster. To avoid lawsuit all the Broadcasters that were in the factory had the logo removed from the necks, those guitars from then on have been known as Nocasters.
As many guitar videos as possible Rex! Maybe a fixed neck dove tail or Tele neck build
i love the sound of the family in the back lol good touch
This is just great! :) Please, keep up with that stuff! :)
Loved this video!
A full skill-show (even as a mini-series) would be cool to watch. I've seen some videos of schools teaching physics with students designing and building their own and would love to see it/learn it done. :)
And now I want a live guitar jingle at the end of every video!!! (thanks for sharing and inspirations)
Don't tempt me. I need no motivation to show off.
Another awesome idea Rex. Keep them coming.
Thanks!
Rex, you are multi-talented.
Wow, fantastic project 👍
This was a great video! I've been messing with electric guitars since I've been 16, but I've never really thought it'd be that simple to carve the body. There are a lot of very masterful craftsmen working on guitars and putting their knowledge on UA-cam, so it all seems very intimidating, but at the end of the day, wood is wood and it doesn't have to be that complicated.
When I started messing with guitars, I was very intimidated by making one, but now I'm a kinda-accomplished woodworker and after I made this one, I was like "wow, it's just basic woodworking."
Nice gig at the end with the intro music! :)
Wow! Never thought of that you actually pretty easy can build this. Thanks for sharing!
14:14
market about to be flooded.
Nice job, I'm professional guitar builder so it's great to see someone getting others excited about building. You and your buddy seem like cool guys too.
Awesome! Drop a link to your website so I can drool over your stuff.
Rex, I’ve commented on your videos before as I really appreciate most everything you do. This video is no exception, it is great. I’ve been on a kick of your videos the last couple of days and watched almost your whole back catalog. Just great work man, your videos have a certain rhythm and tone that make me want to keep watching. Keep this up sir!
And as a fellow guitarists, love the riff at the end. Never thought that you had played that. Fantastic man. I’m going to try a basic body build soon, and maybe make it my first UA-cam video as well. That’s been a goal.
If you do, MAKE SURE you send me a link. I want to see it!
Will do!
I LOVE THIS CHANNEL! I started with the workbench/mallet videos a few days ago, just finished my mallet today, and then I decided to check out the rest of your videos and saw this one. SUPER relevant to my interests. As a player, and a novice woodworker, I would LOVE to see more content regarding guitars--perhaps your take on doing a neck/fretting?
I'd like to, but I dont get a ton of views on guitar videos, so we'll have to see. Thanks for watching!
Nice build! And now I know who the other patron was when I signed up. :)
Yeah! You were the first person who wasn't my best friend who signed up. You deserve a lot of credit for believing in me when this channel was a lot less legit. Thanks a ton!
It would be awesome to see this project redone with hand tools if possible!
your a true artist sir, bravo on everything, and thanks for all these videos, all beautiful and informative
Please, please, please.. More content like this.
I would recommend making one out of plywood/mdf to use as a template in the future. Then you could use a flush trim bit on a router for the actual blank. Trim it out with the band saw because the router bit will have a hard time taking out all that material, it will take a couple of passes on that inch and a half blank.
There’s one little problem with this idea: finishing the body. To get a premium price for a guitar body, it needs a premium finish. And that takes time. LOTS of time. Guitar players expect a perfectly flat, transparent finish.
Nitrocellulose lacquer was the classic finish. It’s hard to work with, requires multiple coats, and is toxic. There are water based lacquers now, but you still need a spray booth and lots of sanding followed by buffing to get it right.
I hear you, but pro-guitars are finished with all sorts of things now. Production Fenders are done in polyester and many well-respected makers use polyurethane. I know that nitro is still seen as the best, but I finished this body in acrylic lacquer and it came out great. Also, you can just sell your bodies unfinished. Problem solved.
Rex Krueger - online I can buy a 1-piece alder Strat body for $190 or 1-piece ash Tele body for $260 (fully routed but unfinished). I plan on making guitar bodies for myself and others for fun, but I certainly don’t expect to profit from it. I play guitar, have assembled/built 2 from purchased parts, and build amps from scratch.
Is it a fun way to use woodworking and express yourself? Absolutely! Can you make a guitar player friend grin from ear to ear with a custom mahogany topped with flame maple body? Yes you can IFF you spend some time learning about guitar parts, spatial relationships, etc.
Here’s an example of what can go wrong: if the bridge is 3/16” off in relation to the frets on the neck, the guitar can never be intonated correctly.
I like tru oil finish
JoeDi B - TruOil is great for finishing necks. However, I had a lot more trouble with dyes and getting colors I wanted with figured wood bodies. TruOil does make getting a nice finish easy.
I'm still partial to a good shellac finish myself...
Good job Leonard and Sheldon !
Ahh yes. I love waking up to the theme of Rex Figures It Out
Haha that was pretty rad Rex.
It's a pleasure to watch a video with two old friends having fun. My guitar playing is limited to a few chords, but I've made a number of them for a special client: my wife. She's a fine player, and has a case of GAS. That's Guitar Acquisition Syndrome, for anyone who reads other folks comments :-) Guitar building is great fun, but another slippery slope -- I now have accounts at Stewart-McDonald, Luthiers Mercantile, and several other places... Clyde
Yeah, instruments are addictive. Stew Mac has gotten A LOT of my money over the years.
All hail Stew Mac!
My respects sir. Im actually on my way on becoming luthier and i'm learning tons of stuff from your channel. If you think theres a lot of woodworking expensive fancy unnecesary tools, just picture that ten times and you are talking about luthiery 🤪
This is really good. Bring more quests.
Hooray! a NY Met's Fan! oh yeah, great idea. I've always wanted to do this.
Whenever I hear people saying they can’t afford a guitar or they live in a country where they can’t buy one, I always tell them if you want it bad enough, building it is always an option. I mean look at les Paul, he made one from scratch in the 50s so almost anyone willing to put in the effort can do it in 2021
I’d love to see you adapt this to a Woodworking for Humans video making the body with your panel saw, chisels, hand sanding, and bit and brace to hog out material.
I could do it, but this video didn't get a lot of views. I'm a little gun-shy.
Let's have some detailed videos. I have noodled around with custom guitars before. I modified a Ovation Jackson style electric solid body guitar by changing the bridge to a Schaller and I installed a gold 56 Gibson humbucker in the bridge position back when I was doing music professionally. I am now officially retired and needing a second income. So, Rex, help me figure it out!
Okay, I just might be able to do that!
And a video on how you made that router sled dealeo too. I want!
That's probably a good idea. I might do that. They're not hard to make.
very cool, how about a cabinet for amplifier speakers build? Definitely a "my wife's not mad at me this week" kinda build.
I consider myself more of a 'strat guy' than a 'tele guy', but... WOW! When I go to get a tele (and I hope to someday... if my playing improves enough to deserve another guitar), making it myself would be a really cool way to go. A whiskey barrel tele with a Warmoth neck would be beautiful. Thank you, Rex!
Love this Rex! Would love a video giving a primer/overview to the hardware for the guitar!
That's a good idea! I can do that.
OK, I don't usually comment on anything I watch, and I don't have anything to contribute, but I have to say that was just awesome! Keep up the good work.
I appreciate it!
I made two out of a reclaimed Maple Countertop. A Telecaster and a Stratocaster.
if you plan on making more than a few bodies, i strongly recommend making a master template out of mdf or acrylic. this way you can quickly band or route out the shape and cavities very accurately.
Hey Nice Work and play 😁👍🏼
Thanks so much!
now this is a fun idea for a project.
A tip for printing large things. Find a print shop that prints house plans. Most have no issue printing other large files. Black line drawings are fairly cheap to print. We charge less than $2 for a 24x36. Saves a lot of time taping together printer paper.
Pro tip!
This may be four years ago but the belly cut etc makes a telecaster easier on the player. I play a strat as a daily guitar, good stuff
If you're planning on making several bodies, it's worth taking the time to make the templates. You'll get consistent and fast results with the router, with a lot less work.
Amateur protip, if you plan on doing several, or even mass production of guitar bodies/blanks, making a plywood Master routing template, and MDF production templates, to use a flush trim bit/bearing pattern bit for the final shaping, to maximize precision as well as minimizing production time.
Heck I'm pretty sure you can buy templates directly online for some common designs.
I would really love to see more unique shapes though. Super in love with old japanese ESP and their just absolutely bananas custom jobs.
ESP's japanese webpage is well worth a look for absolutely unique looks.
I don't know a damn thing about guitars, but I love watching the process of them being built. Someday, I will learn to play bass. Maybe I should build my own. Thanks for sharing!
You know, I play bass decently and the basics of the instrument are not hard to learn. It's probably one of the easiest to pick up, and yes, build a bass! Buy a neck. Build the body. Done.
I've been getting into trouble with guitar building. I always bite off more than I can chew, and then have to struggle. My next project will be either a guitar or a CBG, and I'm going to do a laminate head stock. I've never worked with chisels, or a router on an area so small, but I want to do a chamfer around the head stock, that'll expose the layers of laminate. I feel like the apocalypse is going to come through guitar building.
Your exposure is very persuasive and enticing. I don't have any wood handy, but I'll find some!!
Cool. Most hardwoods are good for guitar building, as long as they are dry and not too heavy.
A Teli sculpted like a Strat, I like it.
I know the jig is simple, but I'd love plans or a video of the router jig.
You have a good friend
Time to build a neck. Maybe it's time for a "human wood working" guitar - a sort of a cigar box guitar or a fancy diddley bow. Building a neck and adding the frets is a lot more challenging than building a body. :-) and btw. it fun to play one.
Nice looking Tele. I have built a few Teles, Strat, and a Music Man Silhouette body shape with a Warmoth Warhead standard thin neck 22 fret neck. I sold the Teles but kept the Silhouette body. My next project will be a PRS body shape.
Rex, your videos are great. Can you create a video on the router planing jig? Something that talks about how it's made. How it works. Does the bench surface that the jig sits on have to be perfectly flat? My work bench surface isn't completely flat. Would this impact how the router jig flattens a board?
Literally anything with routings in it: exists
Me: this is impossible to make
Cool guitar. I will definitely try to make one. I play sax and piano (born and raised in N'awlins so have to play sax) but would love to have a guitar. Thank you for the video.
My pleasure! I hope you do build one.
doing a bass right now. same idea ;)
like your chanel.
Greetings from Germany
I loved the jam session at the end. Nice playing!
Any recommendations on routers? I see you have a plunge model there and I know they aren't cheap.
Glad you enjoyed the playing. I linked to my router in the description. It's pricey, but I've had mine for 10 years and it's the only router I own.
Thanks. I was wondering more about what features are important, vs what is mostly worthless.
Also, if you don't mind shipping your work, you can sell your "boutique" guitar bodies on Reverb. Those offset guitar guys get a little crazy and will pay even more than a standard Strat or Tele body will fetch, plus, its a less saturated market.
That's a great tip! As to routers, get a powerful one. More than one HP. Get a kit. That way, you have a fixed base and a plunge but you save money. Get one that has BOTH a 1/2 in and 1/4 inch collet. Some big bits only come in 1/2 in shank and you need a big motor to spin them. Also, if you really have money, get a palm router like the Bosch colt as well. The big one is overkill for many jobs and I'd love to have a little one that was less likely to rip my finger off.
I got my ELU router on ebay for around $65-it is like a Rolls Royce! maybe I just got lucky but there are bargains out there-I Think the ELU was well over $200 when new.
My go-to brand is MAKITA though when buying New-the things just do not ever let you down and I have never found a single reason to regret any purchase of their products.
Loved the simple router/planer. I tend to over think it. Jamming at the end was fun to watch. Making money is a stretch because my labor rate is so high.
Thanks very much!
Ah, the classic "Barncaster" project :D .
Ok, that planing jig for the router? That's BRILLIANT.
Good point about the not being any great shakes as a guitarist to make the things. Leo Fender, after all, was no guitar player. :D
This made me think of what else in our surroundings (that looks complocated) but that we can make pretty easy 🙂 Cutting boards are the most common I guess, but there must be a lot more. Maybe you can make a video about that? Thanks again.
Good!
Great stuff. Been building guitars for 25 years and I love your thinking. The one point I would say is to your your blue print to make a MDF or plywood template or a set of them.
If I were going into production, there's no question that templates are the way to go. For a single body, I'm not sure it's worth it. Thanks for watching!
I get that for sure. But imho if you make one more tele body ever, the template makes sense.
As a side note, it is advisable to not copy any Fender logos or headstock shapes. They can get a tad litigious over copyright infringment. A few independent Luthier colleagues of mine have recieved a cease and desist letter after posting photos of a build on Facebook...
You should totally do this as a all hand tool build
I am a luthier student and this is the first time I have ever heard someone say you could make good money from guitars 😄
Would love to see you build another guitar.
Thumbs up!
A cameo by Alex Larson! This video has everything!
awesome build lads, so, you're looking for a challenge? ok a cabinet that would look like a Hammond B3 organ!!
Might be too much challenge for me, but I do love the B#!
It's true what you said about not having to be a guitar player to build a great guitar. Leo Fender never learned how to play.
Something a little more in depth would be making veneers for acoustic instruments for example ukuleles. Though You would have to look at grain direction and use Primarily quarter sawn or rift sawn pieces.
For example those 3ft pieces of mahogany might be able to get s ukulele body set out of.
Have you tried the Bill Kirchen switchplate mod? Flip the switchplate around so the pickup switch is in the back, and swap the volume and tone pots so they are in the correct order again and turn the pickup switch around.
How about some Douglas wood? Love the flame.
Great video! I had the idea of making a guitar for a present a while ago, and watching this made me even more eager to try it. The one problem I had was knowing what hardware to get, and where to find it. It would be a bit sad to spend hours making a body only to find out that the hardware you installed is pants. Do you have any recommendations for brands or vendors to look for or avoid?
Stewart Macdonald is very reliable.
I think that is first time I heard a 100 year old Redwood,DRG
Imagine a soaked then dried solid or reclaimed from bog and dried wood
Great video. I've been wanting to build a guitar body for a few years. Several designs floating around my head but the first one will be a TELE. Oh yeah, project idea for you, take a factory made guitar amp and replace the wood with something fancy like figured maple.
That's an interesting idea! I could do that.
Google "Crate II By SLM". Those early Crate amps really show you where the name came from.
Can you make a video displaying the exact technique you used to get that look on your red guitar? I love it and would like to try that look on a furniture item
Hi Rex loved the video. I have printed the plans multiple times. It either comes out to big or too small by a inch or too. How did you get the printer to print the right size?
I would think at this point it must be getting tough to compete with CNC built guitar bodies. The money would have to be in custom work now that requires more than glue up a blank, mount on CNC, and hit go.
I never realized this was so approachable and relatively simple
That's honestly the way I felt about it. "Wait...this is it?"
It’s like anything else in life, it’s just as approachable and simple as you want it to be. Like woodworking, or playing the thing or cooking or literally anything. You can do it, and it’s simple. But you can also spend your whole life doing it and not know everything there is to know about it ;)
Well that is very nice and you are right about the scraps! All of them are nice and thick but too short for most things, I have no bandsaw but I hope my jigsaw can handle this
It probably can! If not, some people have success with scroll saws or even a coping saw if you're just doing one.
The only issue I have is that i am from chile (south of south america) i guess i'll have to experiment with the chilean hardwoods
I know where Chile is! Anyway, pretty much any hardwood is good for guitars. Just make sure it's not too heavy. 6-7lbs is ideal for a telecaster.
WOW, is there anything you can't do besides wiring?
Again, YOU ARE THE MAN!
You're much too kind. I'm bad at lots of things.
You should really do a series of how to build a solid body bolt neck guitar.
I would love to, but this video really didn't set the world on fire and I'm a little hesitant to throw that much time at something that might not get many views.
Cool! I've always thought that was an interesting riff on the intro of your videos!What style of music do you prefer to play? And how did you come up with that phrase?
Yep. And designing a guitar only requires basic understanding of how it works and the relationship between the parts. And either math or art skills for layout of the great and placement of the parts. Ie the bridge/tailpiece and the pickups. Understanding ergonomics helps.
Agreed! It wasn't hard.