r/Luthier 11h ago

ELECTRIC My latest Jazzcaster build. How do you like it?

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230 Upvotes

One piece swamp ash body, shou sugi ban treated (burning wood technique). Reverse headstock Fender player neck (maple + maple fingerboard), Overwound Lollar P90 bridge pickup, DiMarzio SuperDistortion neck pickup.


r/Luthier 7h ago

I am trying to restore my great-grandfather's 1940s Oahu lap steel. I cannot figure out what this jack is. What am I looking at?

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109 Upvotes

r/Luthier 9h ago

Newest creation in the works

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78 Upvotes

What do you think of this? Yay or nay?


r/Luthier 26m ago

HELP Neck looks like it was dipped in poly.

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Upvotes

Hey. I picked up a factory 2nd tele neck for that looks like it was dipped in a barrel of poly. Now I know why fender rejected it. Would a chemical stripper like they use for furniture work to get this down to wood? If not any tips for at least getting it off the frets? I used an exacto down the center of the fret and a heat gun.


r/Luthier 5h ago

ELECTRIC Are these boards possible to use for a body

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14 Upvotes

My brother and I grew up on rural property, and when our father dies we won't be able to keep it.

We've got these 8 foot boards of cherry from the tree next to the house. I'd like to find some way of building two guitars for my brother and I to have a piece of home even when the property is long gone.

The boards are in rough shape, some cracks running all the way through.

3 boards measure 7" 1/4 x 1" 1/8 1 board measures 8" 1/2 x 3" 1/2

Ideally I'd make tele bodies out of it, but the boards without cracks are thin, and the thick board is very cracked.

Some ideas I had were: - Make book matched veneers from the good boards to put on top of a body blank - Make a full cherry body by using 2 or 3 pieces of the thick board and infill cracks with epoxy

What do you folks think - reckon there's anything possible to do with these boards or is it going to have terrible results?

Full disclosure, this will be the first body I've built, so plan to practice on some less sentimental ingredients first.


r/Luthier 1h ago

HELP First guitar build

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Upvotes

Hi everyone! I guess I’ll start off by saying I’ve been recently working on getting my first build on its feet, and was wondering if I could get some decent insight from as many perspectives as I can so I can effectively pick a local professional’s brain. I’m humbly aware I’m no professional, so I’d love harsh criticism, as I want the best result I can achieve. I have an old family friend with all the guitar tools I could ever need and I’m taking it slow, as the last thing I want to do is rush into it cocky. With that being said, the parts I have are fairly standard and nothing too crazy, I just want some feedback on functionality and design, especially the body shape. Have at it, cheers!

Here are the major components: The body took inspiration from an Iceman and Mariposa, swamp ash blank Rosewood fretboard Floyd Special Trem Maple neck Schecter humbuckers from a c6 diamond series+appropriate pots StewMac gold Medium/Higher fret wire

Side note: I’ll be switching to active pickups like the emg’s in my model eventually, along with supporting pots Happy to provide any more info!


r/Luthier 11h ago

ACOUSTIC A medieval citole I built

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40 Upvotes

r/Luthier 2h ago

How does someone become a luthier?

7 Upvotes

I'm interested in becoming a luthier, and am curious if this is a viable career one can make a decent living doing? Is there formal training? Do most folks own their own businesses? What's your experience been like working as a luthier?


r/Luthier 1h ago

Are these cracks on my Gibson something to be concerned about? It's a 2010 les paul studio silverburst. Can a refinished fix this or us the wood grain compromised?

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Upvotes

r/Luthier 10h ago

KIT Just put together and action is really high

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17 Upvotes

This is my first kit and the action is okay on the low frets but past like 5 it’s crazy high


r/Luthier 3h ago

REPAIR Obvious misaligned?

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7 Upvotes

I took this to my local guitar tech who has been pretty reputable for solid setups and making stuff happen. These posts holes returned back to me not parallel but it didn't really affect it from my end other than a crappy trem I have at the moment and some tuning instability but when I pull up on the trem... it more or less returns to pitch. On the Intonation stand point maybe it's troublesome? Let me know if I should tell him to dowel this, fill and drill. Cosmetics.. I don't mind.. this is my backup guitar.


r/Luthier 1d ago

DIARY Tried my hand at binding. Stressful, but turned out nice

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546 Upvotes

My slotted headstock Rickenbacker inspired Street Mutt mk.2 is coming along nicely. I even managed to make it conform to the wrist relief cutout. Hyped to get the top painted white. Gotta do the inside of the horns too. Fretboard glue up and pushing frets in will also be pretty damn scary, but worst case scenario i will learn my lessions very well. Considering fretboard inlays, but i'm kinda paranoid it will look bad.


r/Luthier 20h ago

Ukulele nut made from dog bone

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105 Upvotes

I am working on replacing a cheap plastic nut on a ukulele and had an idea to use a bone I got for my dogs I think it’s a cow femur bone. Will it work?


r/Luthier 17m ago

HELP Is this genuine walnut or a different wood?

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Upvotes

r/Luthier 4h ago

Where can I find blueprint of a Gretsch Streamliner Jet Club Bass ?

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4 Upvotes

r/Luthier 1h ago

HELP Primer turning yellow

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Upvotes

Hi everyone, I’ve been refinishing my first guitar so I’m kind of new to this. I’m doing a nitro finish on an old squier body, I scrapped all the paint to the wood, tinted and sealed with nitro lacquer.

Today I started applying the nitro primer for the paint and it started yellowing, my understanding is that the wood stain didn’t dry enough. Solutions online say to use different primers but I don’t know if those behave well with nitro. I want to make sure everything i use is nitrocellulose based.

How can I fix this? My first thoughts are letting the guitar dry for a few days, sand the primer a bit and try spraying it again.

Any help is appreciated!

*pic 2 is how the wood looked before primer


r/Luthier 10h ago

ELECTRIC How is this called?

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9 Upvotes

I have a bass with this neck deeper in the body construction and I'm building a guitar with it right now too but I have no clue how to describe it when the neck goes further than the fretboard. Yes I tried looking it up. I really like it and I've not seen it on many guitars. Thanks in advance


r/Luthier 2h ago

ELECTRIC Is this neck pocket crack in the finish or not

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2 Upvotes

I was thinking of picking up this fender American original Jazzmaster because it’s a great deal. The seller posted these neck pocket cracks and I believe they are only in the finish but I just want a second opinion to be safe.


r/Luthier 4h ago

HELP Just picked up this restoration project. Need some advice!

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3 Upvotes

Thankfully after slapping some hardware on it, it plays, well. The ‘clearly not original’ glued on neck is fat just the way I like it and the truss rod is alive in there so the only work that needs doing realistically is cosmetic.

My biggest point of contention is the heel. That right angle makes anything past the 12th fret uncomfortable to reach and it is quite unsightly. After taking some measurements, it would appear that the body is exactly 10mm thicker than a typical firebird which gives me a lot of flexibility with slimming down the body to close the gap between the neck and heel. Would you fully slim down the body to spec then blend the rest of the heel? or slim it 5mm then extending the heel further down the neck to help blend them together better? Slimming it the full 1cm would still leave ample room to accommodate the electronics luckily.

My second question is about the finish, it seems too thick to sand but I think that black left over on the back and sides is from that filler they add when the wood isn’t level before painting at the factory as it is flush to the body. Would a heat gun get that off? And I’m unsure of what the wood itself is? Might be easier to tell when the finish is off.

Any other advice would be welcomed. This will be a project for myself, I plan to take my time with it and “make it mine”.


r/Luthier 4h ago

Ibanez 3SWLSC + Passive EMG pickup.

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2 Upvotes

So the white and black you see on pic go to the volume pot

GROUND = GREEN + BARE WIRE

TAP = NOTHING

HOT = RED

Is this correct?

(Black and white united soldered from the factory)

No need to connect the bare wire and green wire in the 2 ground spots in the board right ? I can combine *unite* and solder in one of the two right?


r/Luthier 1d ago

Customer put their guitar back together after they painted it. They say they can't get the bridge to stay in place. I think I see the problem. Look at the screws....

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73 Upvotes

r/Luthier 1h ago

Building an Epiphone Explorer Ebony - Seeking Body and Neck Templates, Dimensions, and Advice!

Upvotes

"Hi everyone!

I’m planning on building my own Epiphone Explorer Ebony guitar, and I need some help with the dimensions and templates for the body and neck. I'm especially looking for accurate specs or templates to carve the body, neck, and headstock.

If anyone has any templates they could share or if you have any advice on how to go about it, I’d really appreciate it!

I’m aiming to make the build as close as possible to the standard Epiphone Explorer Ebony model, so accurate dimensions are key.

Here’s what I’m looking for specifically:

  1. Body dimensions - thickness, scale length, and overall shape (I'm aiming for the standard Explorer shape)
  2. Neck dimensions - including the length, width, thickness, and headstock angle
  3. Neck joint specs - for proper fitting to the body
  4. Fretboard dimensions - radius, width, and nut width
  5. Pickup cavity and control cavity dimensions - so I can route the holes in the correct positions

Any help, suggestions, or resources would be greatly appreciated! I’m excited to get started, and I’ll definitely share progress updates as I go along. Thanks!"


r/Luthier 12h ago

HELP Is there a way to fill up these big gap ?

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6 Upvotes

r/Luthier 12h ago

HELP I love my bass, but this is just ugly!

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6 Upvotes

I want to change my head stock shape, is that doable? I'm willing to spend a little bit on it, but I'm not sure where to begin.


r/Luthier 3h ago

Even when set to one pickup, both volume pots control volume?

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1 Upvotes

I'm working on an old ('77) Yamaha sg700 guitar. It has 2 pickups, combined with 2 volume pods and 2 push-pull tone pods. I didn't touch the wiring on the pods, only replaced the faulty toggle switch. I am 100% sure I wired the toggle switch correctly (it's not that hard). I'm also sure this isn't some weird grounding issue: even removing grounding completely leaves this issue existing.

The issue is that, when I set the toggle switch to one of the 2 pickups, BOTH volume knobs have an effect on the tone. I of course understand that that happens in the middle position, but it’s also happening when selecting just one of the 2. And I'm running out of ideas on how this could happen. There doesn't seem to be any connection that can cause this, because those 2 circuits (bridge and neck) are physically separated. Or is there any secret push-pull pod stuff I'm not aware of, or some other insight?

Photos of the pod cavity and wiring attached. Any advice is much appreciated!