Guitar Building Course

The Aim

The aim of this electric guitar building course is teach you how to assemble a Stratocaster, Telecaster or Jazzmaster style bolt-on-neck design electric guitar to a very high standard as well as gain understanding and knowledge in not only the assembly but also a good understanding of its inner workings and overall function.

What to Expect

In this electric guitar building course you’ll focus on making the most successful electric guitar of all time: the bolt-on-neck design. In almost any music store, these guitars outnumber others five-to-one.

The course will cover Body & Neck assembly, Pickup Installation & Installation of all Electronics and the Professional Setting up of an Electric Guitar

The course will commence daily at 09:30 with lectures & discussions on topics relating to each part of the guitar construction and then followed by the practical application of these topics under supervision, finishing at 17:30. The course and workshop located in Cross in Hand, East Sussex, designed for a maximum of 4 people per course enabling a very close learning experience.

All Lutherie tools needed to complete the course are supplied. NO Experience necessary!

Upon Completion

Upon completion of the build your own guitar course you will leave with a great Custom made Guitar! The end product will be a Custom Tele, Strat or Jazzmaster that You will have made and one that will give many standard models a run for their money in tone and feel.

Personal attention

The course does have a set agenda but we often meander around topics and are happy to do so, most of us have had many different guitars and they nearly always have some curious tales and they are always good to discuss.

Break down of guitar course topics by day

DAY 1

Body & Neck

Wood choice and body design play a large part in the tone of an electric guitar. If you were to play several solid body guitars unamplified you’ll notice distinct differences between various wood types. A solid body that sounds good acoustically generally will sound good amplified. We’ll discuss the different woods used to make electric guitars and the effect of different body styles on tone and sustain. Just as wood affects the body, when making a neck you have to pay attention to wood choice in order to have a good sounding guitar.

The hardware that goes into making a great guitar also plays a large role, not only the quality in the parts but also their fitting. You will be instructed on how best to fit all the component parts with skill and accuracy enabling you to create a great custom made guitar..

Topics covered:

Body & Neck styles
Wood choices
Neck joints
Adjustable Truss Rods
Fitting neck to body
Scale lengths
Tremolo Bridge placement (Incl Claw & Springs)
Fretboard radius
Machine head installation
Preparing the Nut Slot
Making & Cutting a Bone Nut (Requires working with the belt sander)

All the hardware fitted to the guitar will be quality Japanese Gotoh vintage parts, these are particularly well made; tuners hold tune well and the Gotoh bridge is of very good quality, all of this goes together to make a great custom built guitar.

DAY 2

Electronics & Fret Dressing

Once you’ve learnt why and how a great guitar goes together as well as practically applying the previous topics, you now learn to install the best pickups and wiring.

For these custom built guitars we will be using Bare Knuckle Boot Camp pickups: very high quality pickups designed to suit our specifications of wood choice and body style. These pickups are hand wound in the UK and are widely regarded as the best pickups on the market today. Choose between Old Guard, True Grit or Brute Force.

The key to having a great sounding electric is not just down to the Pickups but also the choice of components that go with it, often overlooked with most mass manufactured guitars, the guitar you make will have highest quality components and will subsequently sound great and work extremely well. Custom CTS Pots, Sprague Capacitor and a CRL (USA) switch as well as vintage cloth wiring all go together to make a very well appointed loaded scratchplate!

Topics covered:

Schematics
Pickup installation
Wiring volume & tone pots
Wiring 5 way selector switch
Wiring output jack
Bridge and string grounding

Fret Dressing both Theory & Practise

DAY 3

Final Assembly

The guitar will now be ready for final assembly. Today you will learn how to fully assemble and set up your electric guitar to a professional standard. The topics covered will be very useful for your regular maintenance of the guitar you have made as well as any others that you may have.

Topics covered:

Professional Setups Theory

Fitting and filing the Bone Nut

Pickguard placement
Installing strap buttons
Installing Decals (Personalised custom Decals)
Final Setting and fitting the neck
Stringing up
String tree placement
Bridge set up
Action height adjustment and setting
Pick up height
Intonation

Customising Your Guitar Build inclusive from £999

We are more than happy to work with you in order to get the custom build you want, so please contact us if you have a specific body colour scheme or neck choice, which Bare Knuckle pickups you want as well as hardware and we will try help achieve exactly that. If you’re unsure what works best, just get in touch and we will advise where we can.

All custom options are subject to availability and it is always best to have a 1st & 2nd choice, there are some colours/parts etc that may incur additional cost. Tweed hard cases are available for an additional £75, £90 for the Jazzmaster. (Soft gig bag included) Some additional charges can apply for custom colours or specs or if you would like specific made to order Bare Knuckle Pickups

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