Building A Guitar Body - Making A Guitar From Scratch Part 1 

That's not "Bookmatching." That's just gluing consecutive boards side by side. Bookmatching would require you to take one of your boards and cut it like a sandwich roll so you are opening it like a book. You glue those two halves together and you have a bookmatched body.

You can use the off cuts from when you cut the body out on the bandsaw as stabilizers when routing out the body. You really only need them around the horns but it works great if you don't have a table router, gives the router a surface to ride so it won't tip.

In these times we need the return of this legend

Part Two? I'd love to see the final results.

That yoga mat trick is so smart. Totally stealing that. Thanks and subscribed!

You had me at “Im a big Van Halen fan”

Peter, thank you for this video. I respect a man who uses what he has on hand to create something special. I've been wanting to make a new body for my Jazz bass and, as far as neck cavity depth, I have an old Jazz bass body that I routed too much. I can use that. But I appreciate how you figure out how to make the 5150 work. Thanks again, Peter!

Awesome video. Cant wait to see the rest

I think its time for a eddie van halen tribute

Really keen to see more, I am in the research stages to my own build and thought this was extremely helpful

Nice work. One thing that can really help with routing around the horns of the guitar is to put a 1 foot by 1 foot square of 1/4 inch plexi glass on the base of the router so you can distribute the weight of the router over more of the guitar. I wrote this as I was watching. The other option would be to put the template on the bottom of the body and use that router table that you have.

Wow , what a tremendous job on your part . Outstanding video exceptionally well done.

Instant liked and subscribed! I love the way you're working, everything is clean, calm, precise and well explained! Also love evh myself! Keep rocking brother! 🤘❤️

Great video, huge appreciation for the build.

can't wait to see part 2

I know I'm late to this video, but I'm just starting to get into guitar making and your video is awesome dude! Very informative for a newbie.

Great demonstration on the steps for building this strat style guitar. I learned a lot. Love your signs and t-shirt messages as well. Seems to be a lot more of us out there who love working with wood, building and playing guitar. What can we say, He also loved working with wood.

Well done. Thanks for this vid.

This was super helpful for my build. Keep it up bro.

Cool vid brother and i love your choices in T- shirts. God bless

We need a Pt. 2!

This is great . Thanks bro ! Love the shirts too btw

Love the shirt 🙏🏻. You got that right. Nice guitar as well Sir.👍

Got some nice ash , spruce and birch slabs drying out in the shed , gonna give this a go next year with hand tools. I have loads of reliced bits left over from old strats i used to have . I'll probably just buy a neck to bolt on

Very helpful video for a beginner many thanks. Congrats on your weight loss 👍 Also loving the shirt logos

So beautiful wood pattern

As soon as the router tipped I mumbled "fuck" to myself as if I was the one routing the wood at that point haha. Looks great so far. I'm going to watch pt. 2 right now.

Dude! When are u gonna make another video on this

Captivating presentation. Nice t-shirt btw.

awesome job

Looks awesome!!! All you had to do was mention 5150 and Kramer and I was sold. I wonder if purchasing an inexpensive mock version of either / both would provide more accurate details, in regards to the depth of the cavities etc. Great stuff!!! 🤟🏻💀🤟🏻

Awesome video. Any further progress on this build?

Where’s part 2? I hope you continued with your progress!

You Really Got Me with that "Big EVH fan"

Nice job, can’t go wrong with Mr. Josey Wales watching your back. The router tipping when used in that manner unsupported in the cutaways is gonna happen typically, either use some cuts from the body blank to support it or better yet use your router table and make this task foolproof. If you want to achieve a tight fitting neck pocket I always have my neck made first so I can use it to estimate pocket depth and of course fittment.

On the planing part, take the hand plane that you have and you can set it up in a fixed position, although you would need to build a jig for it. That way you know the sides of the board are plaved perfectly. If you are really creative. You can even set up and adjustable jig so that you can plane the side of whatever you want, to any angle you want. There are plenty of videos showing us how to do it. Take care.

Awesome video!

That's a beautiful guitar. I've made one similar out of oak mahogany and an old pub table from Glasgow Scotland. My video is nearly two hours long though :)

Almost four years down the line you’ve probably already learnt this, but for curious viewers: Kramer guitars use Fender specs for their neck joints. If you’re curious about how deep you should route the neck pocket, it’s the same as any Fender Guitar: 5/8 inches (16 mm)

Cool guitar body! Thanks for including the oopsie with the router, it's a good example of what to watch out for, and you don't know how many people you really helped with that! Would it have made sense to use the router table with the bearing bit? It would mean that you don't see the template while you are routing, so that could be an even bigger issue.

The best way to get the neck pocket perfect is to make the guitar neck 1st. Then you can hold the neck up to the front of the soon to be pocket and measure the bottom of the neck heel. At least it worked better for me that way.

Love the shirt and awesome work

great video!

Good job

Please make a part 2!

wow.. i hope i will make my guitar too

Really liked you video -- u have a link for your templates?

I’m here a year later asking for a part 2 lol great job!

How deep the neck pocket will/should depend on how thick you want to keep the neck ..(just a thought) .. great stuff

I have a doubt, Os this guitar body is the same as a stratocaster's body? Because I am interested in make a new guitar, but I don't have any project

Just shim the neck back i found works,even when you are at the mercy of choosing a neck to use vs making one.

Nice video! May I ask what you paid for the northern ash plank?

Wow cool

Neck pockets are very tricky. That was my hardest part on my guitar build

The template does not have depth for pickups and neck slot because it depends on the size of the neck and the pickups

I had a floyd rose on a kirk hammett esp. Hated it. Sold that sucker quick.

So how deep did you need to make everything?

Still working on it?? Body looks great!

What guitar will you make out of it?

Can I ask if a 9 inch band saw is worth buying? Or would a table saw or some other equipment for around $180.00 be better to spend my money on. I have a router and router table, an oscillating spindle sander, 3 hand plans, and wood chisels. I just dont know what to get to help my guitar building.

Big VH fan here as well. But also a big Vito Bratta (White Lion) fan. I'd love to get a Steinberger GM2 body but instead of the routing for a Steinberger bridge, I'd like to get it routed for a Floyd Rose. Then I'd get the Sophia 2.92 tremolo and use that, since I would need it due to it having the full range tuners. Wanna build me a body and headless neck? 🙂

Just found your channel . Thank you.

I remember when I first started building guitars and didn't have a router table. Yikes! the dreaded router tip around the top horn, don't feel bad bro it happened to all of us haha. Those are great choices for custom builds, nice job man!

On the collar of your router, look for a spiral line that goes all around the device. Then, notice there is what looks like a peice of metal or plastic that set around the device and scrolls in the grooves. Kinda like a collar. Turn that collar either clock wise or counter clockwise, and you will notice the bit going up or down. It extends and pulls in the bit into the frame so you can adjust the depth of your routing bit. It turns the whole thing into an adjustable depth router. You don't need to get creative when setting the depth doing a job.

unless you angled your neck pocket you may have issues with the floyd being on top of the body

Northern ash!! Wow bet that was very expensive I love it,I really wish I could do this I'd have all the patience and be willing to learn it all,but I dont and definitely couldn't afford the tools to do it i love it though

Love the T shirt , so true lol

Hey dude where is part 2 for the rest of this build???

Measure the bridge height from the string placement slots to the bottom of the bridge and the neck height from the bottom of the neck to the top of the fretwire, take the neck height - bridge height. That will be your depth.

Great job!!! I must mention though…the 5150 was not based on a Baretta body. It was closest to a Pacer body.

Music calm af

Bro your shirt is hilarious! 😂

You can now buy plexiglass templates for use on a larger router table, what he's doing in reverse

Any part two?

Oooohhhh 🔥

Don’t Floyd rose trems come with cut out instructions? I always thought they did. Which would have your depth and height measurements. But not sure there used to be a floyd rose forum that pretty much had any answer you were looking for. Project is looking great. You got more nerve than me ,,that’s for sure. Good Luck with your maiden build!

How should all the holes be?

Would be awesome if you could link the Amazon link

I just saw your video awesome job. I want to try it but I can't find the templates online could you help me with that or sell me a template??

The neck depth is the reason im here...

How big is the wood ? I wanna make my own could u give it to me on mm LXW

Hi! I'd love to know that why do you need to make the body from 2 pieces and glue them together? Or you can just use 1 piece?

Building some gigs would help you on the contour shaping on your belt sander. Good job for your limited tools. Two thumbs up.

good job, fyi...thats a pacer design..barettas have slanted pickup..except the new "the 84" reissues which should of been called pacers

Nice

Hello I have strat guitar recently I found that the strings tension is very hard so what should I do???? Plz help me out. Thanks

Love the shirt

What Wood do u use?

Nice where can I find the template for the body 😊

Router is essential, dude!

Please go on with your video’s!

how much cost only the body?

I’ve just realized an irrational fear of gaps in between boards

You could have just googled the depth of a bolt on neck pocket for a strat style guitar. Different body styles don't have deeper neck pockets they are all the same.

dont the cavity for the pickups/neck depend on the neck and type of pickups youre putting in?

Always wear your safety shorts! :D

Boa tarde Pedro! Parabéns belo trabalho. Olha seria possível vc disponibinizar o Pdf desta guitarra favor, pelo que percebi é um Modelo Kramer 5150. Se puder eu fico muito agradecido

Why not a balance with same height when routing, to prevent it from "tipping?" :(

What about the cavities for the wires?

Any chance of getting a link for those templates? I've been looking around but they all seem extortionate