A Guitar Called Freesound Is Born
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This solid body electric was my first guitar build. |
It was a beautiful day in the Iowa countryside. I was a high schooler taking a run past open fields and Amish farms, dreaming about the future. I asked myself, “If I were to open a business in this area, what would it be?” Then the idea just came to me - a custom guitar shop. I didn’t really know what the process of building guitars involved, but the idea was so inspiring that I had to try.
Research Research Research
Has anyone ever told you, “You can learn anything on Youtube”? It’s actually not too far from the truth. I spent countless evenings scouring the internet for information on guitar building, determined to figure out the process. After viewing many Youtube tutorials and guitar forums, I felt decently confident to start designing my project.
Design
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| My guitar plans. |
Like any teenage guitar player, I had a favorite guitarist, and he played Gretsch guitars almost exclusively. So my design was largely based on the Gretsch power jet.
Crafting the Body
Using my homemade template, I traced my body shape onto a piece of alder wood. Then I began the exciting process of cutting it out on the bandsaw. As the body began to take shape, it started to feel like this dream of guitar building could actually become a reality. I proceeded to use a router to cut out wiring cavities and glued on a birds-eye maple veneer.
Shaping the Neck
The next step was to shape the neck. I found a sturdy piece of maple and proceeded to carefully shape it with the band saw and belt sander.
Attaching the Neck to the Body
Hardware
Using the skills I had learned as a cabinet maker, I carefully laid out my hardware. These were a few of my hardware selections:
TV Jones Bridge Pickup
Schaller locking tuners
Bigsby Vibrato --Like a whammy bar but way cooler--
Laying out hardware
Wiring
While I was trained as a carpenter, this was my first project that had anything to do with wiring. So I bought a cheap soldering iron and started experimenting.
How did it turn out?
I was so excited when the project was complete. This guitar packed a solid tone and looked stunning. But these are a few things I learned from what didn’t go well:
Use the right kind of edge binding (it separated from the guitar over time).
For goodness sake, buy a bridge with spring loaded intonation screws. Mine was adjustable with an allen wrench (HUGE pain to set accurate intonation.)
Be more careful shaping the neck. It was playable, but not super pretty.
Allow more space in the wiring cavities to do your work.
Of course, I had to give the guitar an awesome name. It had an eagle spread across the body. So I named it Freesound.
My Dramatic Reveal Video
(Yes, it's quite dramatic.)
I recall watching your dream become a reality. Keep on dreaming, keep on doing.
ReplyDeleteTy: You remind me a lot of our son Kyle. He also loves guitars, but his main passion is creating things vehicle-related. He makes YouTube videos about the different processes he goes through in creating things also. It excites me to see Kyle and Hank in their creative process together - and it excites me to see your creating also. You are all artists in my book.
ReplyDeleteThat’s really neat that he posts videos of his process. It’s a fun way to document what we’ve done.
DeleteThat’s really neat that he posts videos of his process. It’s a fun way to document what we’ve done.
DeleteThat’s really neat that he posts videos of his process. It’s a fun way to document what we’ve done.
DeleteI could not love your blog posts more! I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your passion to your craft! I really have no further recommendations for you, as I feel you are well on your way to documenting your BIR journey through blog posts! LOVE that you included so many original photos and videos and described your craft in a way your audience wants to read! Thanks for engaging us through your blogs!
ReplyDeleteI have really been enjoying this class! Thanks for laying out these engaging assignments!
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