There’s a lot more that goes into making a guitar other than cutting out a body in some cool shape. Knowing your scale length is key before your ever cut the body. Are you buying an aftermarket pre-assembled neck? Otherwise you’ll need specialty tools. Understanding the wiring and shielding is also important. There’s tons of info out there. I have been following Luthier groups for years and still not ready to build my first guitar.
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Yeah, likely I will make many mistakes. I am more of a jump head first in type of guy. I have been wanting to do this for years and I have just never started. I plan on making the neck and fret board as well. I have done a bunch of research on carbon neck inserts and truss rods, so I think I’m just going to send it. More than likely it will cost me way more than just buying a nice bass for her, but then I couldn’t say I built it myself. Thanks for all the advice.
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Thanks, I will do some test cuts. I actually have been having second thoughts about using the purple heart. Mainly because this is going to be for my daughter and the body will be super heavy. I may need to rethink my wood choice. Good advice on shallow passes though… Thank you
Don’t discount using the Purpleheart. You might add it in with some other wood. I’ve been making a bass for about 2 years now. It’s taking so long because I’m doing it with hand tools only (although I’ll cut the pickup pockets with the cnc) and finding the time to work on it is tough. It’s a through neck with a five wood laminate, one of which is Purpleheart. It’s a really nice look when added to a lighter colored wood.
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We look forward to seeing it.
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Me too. This thread may help. Not a bass though
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A very worthwhile project. And very gratifying when it actually plays nicely! I built my own guitar and it is the best project I have done on my shapeoko. When done properly and with forethought can also be a huge time saver in building a guitar.
As someone mentioned on here already, your scale length is going to be critical. I don’t know how much experience your daughter has playing bass guitar, but a shorter scale length (meaning a shorter style neck) will mean easier playability, especially if she has yet to develop the necessary hand strength to play. This however is a bit subjective and others may disagree on this approach. A shorter scale will also mean less string tension, which makes it easier to play and less demanding on the neck, but can lead to “fret buzz” if you’re not careful with your string height.
Another important consideration will be hardware. You must research what hardware you plan on using before you build. Hardware requires space and you need to know how much space you need, especially for the thickness of the body.
There are many things to consider and this is not a “jump in head first” kind of a project. You will be much more happy taking the time to do it correctly because once you go down one path, its hard to double back.
One thing that made it easier for me was buying the fretboard premade and determining how long my guitar needed to be. I also recommend Stewmac as they will have everything you need as well as resources to complete your project. (no i am not affiliated with them, its just a good site)
One last thing: One of the reasons i wanted to build a guitar was because there are not a lot of “smaller bodied” guitars out there that appealed to me. So i simply took a picture of something similar that i liked and imported it into CarbideCreate and simply traced the body. Then of course tweeked the size as well as the shape a bit. If you plan on doing an electronics cavity on the backside then be sure to give yourself two reference points to secure your body to ensure accuracy when flipping it over.
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That guitar looks sick man. I appreciate the insight. My daughter plays my bass currently which is a 34" so I figured I would just do that. I thought about something smaller but… I dunno if she stops playing I can take this bass back :).
I have tossed around the idea of just buying a premade neck and fret board, but I haven’t really made any decisions yet. Obviously I have done what any good person would do and watched 400 hours of youtube videos. So I’m pretty much an expert 
. I think I just want to try it. Luckily I’m 80% idiot and 20% willing to throw money at something until I can do it.
I will research components a bit more so I can make sure that I am spacing everything appropriately. So thanks for that tip.
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I’ll say if you purchase files, it may not be worth it. I purchased a Gibson SG model from 3dcncguitars, and it was not usable. The neck/body joint was bad with the toolpaths they created and did not fit together nicely.
I asked for help, and while I’ve seen others rave about his service, I found them less than helpful. I expected to be able to just modify the tooling, recalculate the toolpaths, and be on my way. That was not my experience.
I made a telecaster (single sided body) with some files I found on the net and it worked out great. I made a neck with some help from a friend who is a Fusion wiz. It looks like Will already posted that link. I ended up making another Thinline Tele here too Another Telecaster Guitar
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I can’t wait to hear how it turns out!! I like the attitude. I have been studying for a few years myself and am hoping to make one for my grandchildren, once I get some 
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If you build it they will come.
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Hi, you have picked a difficult subject to make. You will need more than a CNC to accomplish this. Basic equipment. Drum sander for shaping, one the fits a drill press is good to start with, inexpensive. Set of nut files, expensive but ok if you make more than one guitar. Fret saw for cutting fretboard slots, very thin gauge saw will do, inexpensive. Accurate steel rule, I metre in length, inexpensive. All inexpensive tools can be bought from a good diy. I’d suggest a solid body, hollow bodies are too complicated. Use you own bass guitar as a template, buy an inexpensive technical drawing package, I use xara. Expect to build the neck without a CNC. Visit Stewmacs site plenty of information. I have built banjos, hollow body guitars and solid body guitars plus cigar box guitars, they are all built using the same process. I started with cigar box guitars, you might want to look at C B Gitty. I am based in the UK. If you would like any further information put a reply in, I’ll try to help.
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I don’t have anything to contribute wrt building a guitar, but I was intrigued by this thread because I’d love to do something similar in the future, as my son has expressed some interest in playing the guitar. Anyway, it occurred to me, as I was reading: every time I pop onto the Shapeoko community forums, @WillAdams is front and center being very helpful with an amazing plethora of resources, seemingly no matter the subject. So, from a long-time (about 6 years) user of a Shapeoko and not-very-frequent-poster-but-many-time-lurker, I very much appreciate his input. (ie, what would we do without him?) Also, I’m amazed at how much great input a wanna-build-a-guitar user can get from the community; that’s more of a general statement about how much helpful input you can receive, no matter what you’re trying to build. Great stuff, people.
also @jerrod, that’s really freaking amazing.
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Thanks for the tips Tony. I do have a “full” woodworking shop. So hopefully if I don’t have the right tool, I have something close. I would love to keep you on back up if I have questions or need help for sure. I can never have to many brains to figure out a problem
I agree with you 100%
Hi, no problem with backup. There’s a fair bit of hand crafting/finishing in a guitar. The last two I made I bought timber just over Half the width of the guitar body and just over the thickness of the completed body. I the cut the timber up to just over the body length. I then cut the timber down the middle thickness wise. This gives you bookend grain. Then glue the two pieces together that gives you half a guitar body. So you need to do that twice. You can then CNC machine up the back piece for the wire runs between the pickups, volume tuner control and jack point etc. The glue to two halves together. The CNC the for the pickups, neck and everything else. I realise that’s quite a bit to take in in one go. It’s just a suggestion. I think you said you had a piece of timber lined up, zebra. The above would work with that. The photo of the hollow body gives an idea about wire runs between components, not a construction idea.
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I love that green! How in the world did you acheive this paint job? super cool!
Its pretty simple. Yellow and green Angelus leather dye. Did the yellow in the middle first and then applied green to the edges and “feathered” it in. It is what the call a “fade”.
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And this is just my preference…but i would actually consider using the CNC for your neck as well. I seen someone had mentioned planning to not use it. I found it made joining the neck to the guitar much easier since you can cut the exact shape on both. You just have to figure out a good solid clever way of holding the neck in the correct plane. I also used the machine to cut the channel for my truss rod.
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