Guitar Build Part 1 The Guitar Body

Last year, my husband decided that he was going to build his own amp, so he spent days, weeks, maybe even a couple of months on youtube listening to different amps for sounds, textures and tones. What he came up with was just amazing. It not only looks awesome, but sounds so good. I, myself, am not a sound junky like he is. He is constantly asking me if I can tell the difference between these 2 sounds and so on...I really can never tell, but I try, like any good wife, oh do I try. I just don't have his ears.

Here is his first project completed. When he gets a video of the sound, I will make sure to post that video!

This year is a new year which means, new projects. My husband is not himself without some sort of project to work on. He has to use his hands and his brain. That is what makes him the happiest. He took on a project so completely outrageous (to most people) and is actually almost done with it now. He has been working on it for almost 2 months now. What's his project you ask? A guitar. Not just any guitar. His guitar. His design. His touch. His everything! The goal is to have it done in time for his bands trip to TX next week. I think it's gonna happen! Anyway...disclaimer: This is not a tutorial! All the ideas, layouts and so on are all his. This is completely from a wife's perspective. I don't know measurements, tones or anything specific to guitar building. Enjoy the post and all the pictures!

J had found a lumber company that he wanted to check out to start this project off right. I think he accomplished that and more! He went! He saw! He conquered! He told me that one of the employees called him the wood whisperer. He took his time to find the right wood. He talked to the wood, and touched the wood. He was 1 with the wood. 

By the way, wives...if your husband ever says that he spent $100 at a lumber store, just know that that amount is actually between $100 and $200. It seems like if it has a 1 in front of it, it's just a $100. Just throwing that out there. 

He was so excited to come home and show me his treasures!

He used two different types of wood for the body. Spalted Maple and African Sepeely (spelling?) Both woods beautiful and smooth and sturdy. 

Then came time to pick out a template for the body. He had drawn up several different templates, and it took us a couple weeks to pick our favorite. He was constantly texting pictures to different musician friends, asking opinions on favorites. You can't take these kinds of decisions lightly. Building a guitar from scratch is a big deal!

When you go to a music store, you really don't think about the build. You just pick out a guitar for the sound. You don't really consider the structure of it, how much time and effort it took to actually build it. What kind of wood was used. I found out that there are 4 different fret measurements just for a Gibson guitar! 

He used two different types of wood for the body. Spalted Maple and African Sepeely (spelling?) Both woods beautiful and smooth and sturdy. 

He put the 2 pieces of wood together to come up with a beautiful guitar body.

Was I right? or was I right!?

This concludes part 1 of the Guitar Build. Stay tuned for Part 2, Carving out the body and the neck! Thanks for checking out my blog :) Hope you enjoy and come back for more!

Boys and Their Guitars

My husband and I are really starting to enjoy the age of our children. Don't get me wrong. We have always loved our kids from the very start, but they are coming into an age where they are fun to hang out with. They enjoy going places with us, having conversations, telling us EXACTLY what they want and so on. Last year, my husband took our son to a music shop. He was in heaven. He loved looking at all the cool guitars, drums and gear. Then he saw it! The Eddie Van Halen yellow and black striped guitar. He calls it the bumblee guitar. The name is inspired from Transformers. His favorite transformer is Bumble Bee. He got so excited about it and had to have it, no matter how it happened, it, the EVH guitar had to be his.

Now, you have to realize that this kid is only 4. All he knows how to do is keep rhythm by strumming his guitar. His ultimate goal is to learn the Iron Man song by Black Sabbath. He listens to that song almost everyday and watches the Iron Man video that goes along with it. Since the boy had to have the guitar, but we didn't want to pay an extreme amount for it, we had to figure out how to make that happen. We ended up buying a fender mini squire and that became my husband's project for the ultimate Christmas gift! This is the before picture.

Now yes, this is a generic photo, but this is what it looked like when we bought it.

              

 

He took it all apart, sanded and sprayed primer on the body. 

The pick guard was huge so he filled in the body and cut the pick guard down to a smaller size.

 

 

The next step was painting!

 

Working with the pick guard

 

           

 

He had some fun with the headstock

And we put it all together for one sweet, custom painted  EVH (replica) guitar!

  

Christmas was a lot of fun this year b/c the kids are getting to the age of having more fun toys. This project was fun to do (at least watch my husband to do) He also put the build up on his YouTube channel, GMR Check it out!

There is a lot that goes into making one thing into something else, and I hope that you can see that through all the pictures! My husband likes to work with his hands and so talented at what he does. He is the only person I know that can look at one thing, see and make it into something else. He made our boy a very happy kid this past year with this gift.

After our home Christmas, we traveled to Tennessee, where my hubby took our son to get his first amp. It was a very special time for them, and I wouldn't have traded it for it anything. I got this picture, and it made my heart melt!

Thanks to 2nd Gear Music Shop in Nashville. You made one little boy very happy!

Thanks for the read all! Stay tuned for more music and guitar posts!