Making an Electric Guitar: Part 2

Ginny has made some progress here since the last time you visited to check on her guitar. Ginny, get us up to date. There's a lot of stuff laying on the bench here that we went and bought. So tell us everything you know about the stuff that we bought. What did we buy?

What were we after here? All right, so basically what we did is we just got a lot of like the electronic kind of component to the guitar so that we can really like finish it up. As for names of everything, I didn't realize this was a quiz, but- I would have had you study ahead of time. But it's, why did we go and get the parts before cutting any holes for the parts? Well, we want to make sure everything like fits and if it's a good thing to have it to like, you know, check like, alright, do we want these like this?

Or do we want them to be the different kind? I don't know. I just really to see how it looks. How everything would come together. Yeah.

I got to say, when it comes to- We're to a point where we're ready to punch holes for the pickups here in the body, and I've been looking at those layout lines for about a month now because I'm a little worried. I'm a little nervous about punching those holes until we know they're exactly right. So we wanted to get all the components. Make sure they were right. And one-stop shopping at a specialty guitar store, it was pretty amazing, really helpful.

Right? Yes. And everything from the nut down. Now what are you going to- Describe for the folks at home, What are you going to do for a shape with these tuners? How's that heading?

And look when you're done. So for tuners- Just kind of hold it still. For Chris there. Here you go. That's okay.

So for tuners, we were deciding like, if we wanted to have both sides, so like one, you know, like three on each side, or to have it six on one side. So it would be like a slant here. Eventually, I don't know, after some thought, kind of decided let's do slant. It's kind of cooler. It's a little different and it's what most Firebirds look like.

So yeah. So what we have here, it's like for the slant. Kind of, I don't know. And so, yeah, so these are specially for the slant and if we had decided to do it on the sides, you'd have to get a different set. Because then there's lefts and rights.

In this case, they're all rights. Yes. All right. Now the other thing we were just talking about was, in order to put the neck on, remember what we got to do with these little threaded inserts here? Well, you gotta like put them in the back of the guitar with our lovely dark piece of plating that we're going to put on the very back and then screw those in.

Yeah, it's- Sort of. It's pretty common on electric guitars that it's really as simple as just wood screws coming in to- You did a nice job on that fit- Wood screws coming in to hold this in place. And a lot of times you'll see what kind of a plate here, not wood, but- Metal. Yeah. And Ginny's not feeling the love on the metal.

So remember the name of the wood? It's a Wenge, really hard to say. I don't, it's like what? Yeah. That's a weird name.

She really likes the contrast of the Wenge. We're going to make a back plate out of that. Hello, Kipling. And then the screws are going to go through this into the threaded inserts. I'm just a little nervous about using only wood screws to hold the neck in place.

And I know electric guitars are made that way all the time, but I really like the idea of the threaded insert giving us a little bit more of a bite. Excuse me, Kipling. A little more of a bite into the back of the neck. And then let's see. The other thing I was just thinking about to talk about, Oh, what's the style of bridge system that we're going to use?

Oh my goodness. Are you talking about like, what are the electricals? No, the bridge itself is a- Here, I'll help you. Oh, it's a tune-o-matic. Thank you.

Also traditional, very traditional to this Firebird style. Oh god, the cat's going to eat one of these. And Ginny did do some woodworking here. So in the world of sanding, Ginny, again, something this body style called for. So show them what you did.

All right. Here. So basically we went and we looked at some Firebirds and what we really noticed was how here and in here it's really like shaved down. So it's a lot smoother and there's that like angled shape here. And I think that's kind of a relief for the player, so it tucks into their waste or against their- Yeah.

Say this way. And then you've got this here and here. So you can really like get comfortable. And you remember how, in the woodworking world, how did we make that strong angle come off of there? Sanding.

Yeah. Your favorite, huh? Yes. And you took care of all the edges. You sanded those on an oscillating spindle sander.

And that just has a little finished sanding to go, right? Yeah. All right. So I think the reason we're doing this today is because the next time they see this guitar, what might be the deal? Well, hopefully the holes are going to be in and then maybe the finish and it'll be electric.

So maybe it'll be done! Yeah, we might be playing it the next time. Yeah. Bring Ryan in. I'm sure he would love to do that.

I don't get to play it? Wow. Okay. _ Nah, I'm just kidding. The truth comes out.

All right, Ginny. You'll probably be the first person to play it. Well, great progress. Oh, I know what I was going to say was we had this plan and this was a great lesson for me. We had the schematic of the layout and these holes indicate where the humbucker pickups go.

And one of the things that we didn't want to do was just follow this and cut the holes. And this is what Ginny was saying. We wanted to get the parts and make sure stuff was right. Because at the end of the day, with that layout, they're not quite exactly right. For these particular pickups.

Those holes, the recesses would have ended up too big. Yeah. That would have been bad. It would be really bad. Wood dough would look horrible on this guitar.

So, I'm really glad it's a great lesson in making sure you have your parts in hand before you cut any holes. Where we're going then, is we're going to fasten the neck. And once the neck goes on, what about the orientation of the neck do we have to remember to do? Straighten it. And it has to be the angle.

What is the angle? It's like 1 1/2 percent. One and a half degrees. It's got to drop off one and a half degrees. And the straightness Ginny's talking about is that neck's got to get in this pocket so it comes right down the center of this, because it's really important that the strings are centered over the pickups.

And that'll be easiest to do if the neck is centered over the body. We've got those to do. And then there's going to be my favorite word ever. Recess! Oh my god.

Is that the dumbest joke you've ever heard me tell? No. It's up there. There's going to be a recess on the back that the- Remember what these are called? Oh no!

Pots. The pots. That the pots go into. I got my vocabulary list in my head. They'll come out the front of the guitar to help control it.

And I don't know that's about it, right? Yeah. Like Ginny said, the next time you're here, should be under a couple of coats of lacquer and ready to give to that guy. That one guy. That crazy guy.

That dude I'm dating. Any other great words of wisdom for us? Hmm... Would you advise? So this is a good question for you.

You're 16. You've done a lot of this work yourself. 17. 17 now. I'm sorry.

She just turned 17. Would you advise other kids taking on a project like an electric? Was this hard for you so far? Yes. But it requires lot of patience and not in the doctor way because that would have been easier.

No, but it's like, it's a lot of time. It's time consuming. You can't just be like, okay, the guitar's going to be done in a week. Unless you have a lot of like, fast deliveries. If you could just dedicate nothing but a week to it, but- Long slow process, but incredibly difficult or doable?

Doable. I thought it was going to be a lot harder. Okay. Maybe you had a really good teacher. Maybe.

I don't think so though. Nice. I'm just kidding! Well, I've had a blast doing it so far. All right.

Let's quit. Let's wrap this thing up. Wrap it up! All right. That's all I got.

Yeah. All right. Tell Kipling to say goodbye. Say goodbye! Goodbye!

He can wave, but he's stuck to my shirt. Bye!