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Wanting To Start Building Custom Guitars Need Help

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  • Wanting To Start Building Custom Guitars Need Help

    Hey I'm starting to want to make some boutique guitars and pickups or as I call the "homemade" guitars models. If any one is familar with luthiery work / guitar building it would be appreciated. Main goal make "replicas" / tributes to some of my favorite and most iconic guitars made. Like Ace Frehley's "Budokan Les Paul" (worn and new), a Dimebag ML and various others. Along with "original" as we can be these days of models and stylings. General wonderings are how to simulate headstock repairs without atually damaging the instrument, how to proberly road wear a guitar, and also how to not get sued for copy right infringement would be nice. Among other things.

    Thanks

  • #2
    Re: Wanting To Start Building Custom Guitars Need Help

    yes, I have experience. My advice?

    don't.

    The learning curve to learn how to do binding, inlay, shaping necks, carving tops... that's steep. I know, I've been there done that.

    Simulate headstock cracks, road-wear a guitar etc etc: man, that's really next level. First you gotta learn how to make a guitar proper. I've posted in a different thread the minimum amount of tools you need to make guitars and you really rake up a huge amount of tools, material and equipment. If I knew what I know now, I wouldn't have ever ever picked up a piece of wood to make a guitar. But now I've splurged a ton of cash and now I'm commited to doing this. I've been at it for six years and still see improvements with each and every guitar I make (although the improvements are getting smaller and smaller every time).

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    • #3
      Re: Wanting To Start Building Custom Guitars Need Help

      The Chinese do it every day
      Contract a builder over there and import them for around $400

      There's no money in it
      Sued is best you can hope for

      Whatever effort you put in
      Will be a labor of love
      EHD
      Just here surfing Guitar Pron
      RG2EX1 w/ SD hot-rodded pickups / RG4EXFM1 w/ Carvin S22j/b + FVN middle
      SR500 / Martin 000CE-1/Epiphone Hummingbird
      Epiphone Florentine with OEM Probuckers
      Ehdwuld branded Blue semi hollow custom with JB/Jazz
      Reptile Green Gibson Custom Studio / Aqua Dean Shire semi hollow with piezo
      Carvin Belair / Laney GC80A Acoustic Amp (a gift from Guitar Player Mag)
      GNX3000 (yea I'm a modeler)

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Wanting To Start Building Custom Guitars Need Help

        Originally posted by ehdwuld View Post
        The Chinese do it every day
        Contract a builder over there and import them for around $400

        There's no money in it
        Sued is best you can hope for

        Whatever effort you put in
        Will be a labor of love
        yeah this sums it up neatly.

        When you're being sued it means you're doing something right.

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        • #5
          Re: Wanting To Start Building Custom Guitars Need Help

          Building guitars from scratch, good enough quality to charge major money for, takes YEARS of hard work. You can't just decide to build high-quality guitars. It's like deciding to make and sell great paintings.
          I bet people would pay good money for a hand-painted duplicate of the Mona Lisa, and paint + canvas is cheaper than the tools and material to build a quality guitar so start painting!

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          • #6
            Re: Wanting To Start Building Custom Guitars Need Help

            Ah, this is the second in the series of 'don't give up the dayjob' threads.

            Have you ever made........well, anything before???

            A guitar is fine craftmanship almost at the pinnacle of the 'artform'. Like pickup making (which you seem also to have no knowledge of the whole area) it is not something to just dive into and expect to be making a living off.....well, ever.
            As the saying goes, you can make a small fortune guitar building, by starting off with a large fortune.

            Oh, and the way to avoid being sued is not to make and sell anything that has been made before......so no replicas or tributes.



            Is there a third in this series in the amp subforum

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            • #7
              Re: Wanting To Start Building Custom Guitars Need Help

              There is a whole industry of private EVH-based replicas, so many do it for fun and for money. I think there are a lot of great things to learn about your favorite players and the tools they used. This stuff isn't easy to do, and it can be 30 years before you are building something on par with other builders. Not to mention the expense of start up, and the costly mistakes every builder eventually makes.
              If you have a shop you can apprentice at, it might help. If you know a builder, get a job with him/her. Learning is no different than learning any other trade.
              Administrator of the SDUGF

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              • #8
                Re: Wanting To Start Building Custom Guitars Need Help

                For the record, I dig the guy's aspirations and I definitely think he should follow his interests. Some people were getting defensive on his behalf on the pickup thread when people with experience started to chime in.

                It's just that he's asking very generic questions about rather big topics and there's an entire internet out there with the answers he is seeking. There are tons of guitar-making videos on YouTube alone and actual forums dedicated to things like luthiery and pickup-making. I don't get the impression that he's done much homework before posting here. If he wants technical advice, there are better resources, in my opinion. And, that's the problem...this forum is all about opinions, which is probably not what he's after!

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                • #9
                  Re: Wanting To Start Building Custom Guitars Need Help

                  If you have like 20 grand to spare and several years to devote, and you can deal with the life being sucked out of you through a field that used to be fun for you then do it. Otherwise don't. Do assembly or mods. Getting a job in the industry will get you to understand pro quality faster.
                  Last edited by Clint 55; 11-20-2019, 10:14 AM.
                  The things that you wanted
                  I bought them for you

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                  • #10
                    Re: Wanting To Start Building Custom Guitars Need Help

                    It's building solid body electric guitars, not rocket science guys. None of the techniques are impossible to learn . . . some of them will require a lot of work and trial/error. I wouldn't expect to be able to get rich doing this, but as a woodworking type hobby (and maybe eventually even selling a couple guitars) what he's asking is totally doable.
                    Join me in the fight against muscular atrophy!

                    Originally posted by Douglas Adams
                    This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Wanting To Start Building Custom Guitars Need Help

                      It wasn't clear if his goal is to make his 1st electric guitar for his own enjoyment or manufacture quality guitars for sale. He did mention custom, boutique, and copyright.
                      Last edited by Clint 55; 11-20-2019, 03:56 PM.
                      The things that you wanted
                      I bought them for you

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Wanting To Start Building Custom Guitars Need Help

                        Funny, 3-4 months ago I was reading a biography on Robert Godin. Took him couple of years but I think he succeeded :-)

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                        • #13
                          Re: Wanting To Start Building Custom Guitars Need Help

                          I watched a biography on Paul Reed Smith
                          He started out repairing guitars
                          And setting them up
                          EHD
                          Just here surfing Guitar Pron
                          RG2EX1 w/ SD hot-rodded pickups / RG4EXFM1 w/ Carvin S22j/b + FVN middle
                          SR500 / Martin 000CE-1/Epiphone Hummingbird
                          Epiphone Florentine with OEM Probuckers
                          Ehdwuld branded Blue semi hollow custom with JB/Jazz
                          Reptile Green Gibson Custom Studio / Aqua Dean Shire semi hollow with piezo
                          Carvin Belair / Laney GC80A Acoustic Amp (a gift from Guitar Player Mag)
                          GNX3000 (yea I'm a modeler)

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Wanting To Start Building Custom Guitars Need Help

                            Originally posted by ehdwuld View Post
                            I watched a biography on Paul Reed Smith
                            He started out repairing guitars
                            And setting them up
                            Yep, same with Robert Godin. I remember (I was 17 years old) going to his first repair shop, Harmonilab in Montreal. Needed to change pickups on my Ibanez Roadstar bass, ended up with 2x Dimarzio J glued together (after removing the screw holders on inner sides) with a serie/parallel/out-of-phase switch. The sound was thunderous!!!

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                            • #15
                              Re: Wanting To Start Building Custom Guitars Need Help

                              it's interesting to read the comments here. The folks who sound positive and support the OP don't appear to work as a luthier or tech. The guys who do strongly advise against it.

                              Personally, I like building and improving my craft but holy hell no that I'll be going full-production any time soon let alone make a living out of it. In fact, I'm debating with myself on a near-daily basis to simply pull the plug.

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