My First CNC'd Guitar Body

[bharbour]

My ultimate aim in getting the Shapeoko was to use it to build electric guitars and I recently upgraded the stock SO2 to 1000mmX1000mm. I had a pine slab lying around and I decided to try a new design I'm working on. It's based on a 1959 article in Mechanix Illustrated about building your own guitar. The bit I was using was long enough to pocket the neck pocket, pickup and control pockets, but not long enough to cut the shape to depth. But no worry...I used my scroll saw to cut out the body and I'll use a pattern cutting bit on my router table to cut away what was left. The body was going to be a test, but I'm thinking I'll build a guitar out of it now.



Neck template fit perfectly...

[ALuomala]

Nice work!

I am going to eventually get around to doing a guitar on my SO2 (might do a Tele style as a warm up), but really want to do a carved body Les Paul. Might even get fancy and do some scroll-work and carving on the top.

I think doing the body as a multistage (do back and then front) would allow cutting deep enough so that you don't need to use a bandsaw/scrollsaw/etc, but there are a lot of things that can go wrong (alignment, runaway router, etc) so doing it in one step might be the prudent thing to do.

I look forward to seeing how you make out with this project.

Allan

PS Are you doing the neck pocket angle with the SO, or does the neck have the requisite angle? I've never made a custom guitar, but I remember reading about that step (and how it is critical to get it bang on), so if I'm out to lunch, I apologize.

[JeromyReno]

killer work! looks amazing!

[bharbour]

No...neck pocket will be flat...I'll be using a hard tail type bridge. No need for a neck pocket angle if you use Fender type bridges.

Nice work!

I am going to eventually get around to doing a guitar on my SO2 (might do a Tele style as a warm up), but really want to do a carved body Les Paul. Might even get fancy and do some scroll-work and carving on the top.

I think doing the body as a multistage (do back and then front) would allow cutting deep enough so that you don't need to use a bandsaw/scrollsaw/etc, but there are a lot of things that can go wrong (alignment, runaway router, etc) so doing it in one step might be the prudent thing to do.

I look forward to seeing how you make out with this project.

Allan

PS Are you doing the neck pocket angle with the SO, or does the neck have the requisite angle? I've never made a custom guitar, but I remember reading about that step (and how it is critical to get it bang on), so if I'm out to lunch, I apologize.

[xfredericox]

great!

i also bought my SO2 originally with guitar building in mind. I have an overall design lying around but I am still doing small projects to streamline my workflow.

There's actually very little people that have documented a guitar build within the SO community. I would know because i searched...

So i'd say keep us updated!

[bharbour]

CNC'd my first neck out of red oak. This one's a 25" scale snake head style (early Fender) neck. Machine and dust collection worked perfectly. This neck will go on the body above.