Guitar building is addictive. You can start off for any number of reasons, be it the desire to own a one-off, the need for a guitar tailored to your personal needs, or just the pride of owning and playing something that you have designed and built yourself. Having finished one though, another idea inevitably comes to mind, and then it snowballs!
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As a teen I was always fascinated with Brian May’s "Red Special" guitar and the unique sounds that he coaxed from it. A colleague at University built a very tidy fretless bass which impressed me enough to buy timber for my first guitar, then after buying a copy of Melvyn Hiscock’s “Make Your Own Electric Guitar” I was off… |
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My first foray into guitar building began in 1986 while I was studying Design Technology at Brunel University. An Explorer body shape was cut, then left to ‘mature’ for five years in my parents’ shed! Having started my first Design Technology teaching job, I decided to continue the manufacture of the guitar in the school workshop. The body of the guitar is Brazilian mahogany, with a glued-in mahogany neck, and an oak top reputedly once panelling in a local church! The pick-ups and most of the hardware were courtesy of Kent Armstrong/WD Products, with the neck timber from Touchstone Tonewoods. This "spare time" job ended up taking two to three years, but the end product plays well with the lowest of low actions, looks great and sounds wonderfully raunchy. |
A job well done, I was content for a while, but ultimately the urge came to build guitar number two. This one would be a ‘quick job’ (without sacrificing quality), and would enable machine production (and reproduction) where possible. Originally I had intended to make a 6/12 double neck, but settled on an electric twelve string.
This site covers the design and construction of that guitar, together with details of other instruments designed and produced by myself and my students.
Mark Smith
September, 2003
(Site updated February, 2006)