Electric Guitar Building and Modifying

When I mention electric guitar building I'm not being quite honest. Building brings up images of carving a guitar neck, and guitar body from a block of wood with a dull pocket knife. While this may be fun to some, it's not what we're going to do here.

This page will primarily concentrate on assembling, or modifying, an electric guitar from readily available parts. The Fender Stratocaster will be seen in this section most often due to it being the PC of the guitar world. As stated elsewhere on this site, no other guitar has more aftermarket parts than the Strat, which makes it perfect for modification. However please don't be discouraged if you own another make. Many of the tips, and projects done here can be used as a guide.

The first thing I'm going to do in this categaory is dissect a Fender Highway One Stratocaster. I've found that the only way to figure out how something works is to take it apart. Due to the size of this project, and the amount of pictures, I'm going to break it up into two parts. Here is part one of the dissection, and here is part two

My monster one pound Stratocaster Sustain Block.

A few tips on Guitar Neck Fretwire work ,and Body Finish

Shawn T. from Indiana completely rebuilt a Mexican Fat Strat

Miles from Denver builds a Studiocaster Guitar

Are your guitar neck frets worn down, or is your neck pitted from extended play? Installing a new neck is easier than you may think, here's how to do it

If you're a heavy whammy bar user, and are tired of having your guitar out of tune after a few dive bombs, check out this page on how to install a Fender LSR Roller nut

Fender locking tuners are a great mod for any guitar look at this installation on a virgin neck.

If you're building a new guitar, or are looking to swap out your old neck, my page on Electric Guitar Necks is worth a look.

My first guitar was a black Fender Squire Bullet. Once I bought another guitar, I built a few more using parts from the squire bullet. After a few years in the basement, I thought it disrespectful to leave my first guitar, neck less, and pickup less in a corner. So in this segment of electric guitar building, I decided to resurrect it in this two part series Bringing a Fender Squire Bullet back to Life, and Bringing a Fender Squire Bullet back to Life, part two

I am enjoying playing my resurrected squire bullet so much, I decided to build a fixed bridge Strat from scratch. The first part I purchased is the guitar body, and decided to write down a few pointers on what to look for when purchasing an Electric Guitar Body.

I've started the painstaking process of finishing the guitar body for the Guitar Giveaway.

Before you start buying pieces for your electric guitar building project, here's my two cents on Electric Guitar Tonewood

If your looking for a simple method of finishing a guitar neck, look at my page on Guitar Neck Finishing

I invite you to share your own guitar building experience here. We're always interested in what others are building and modifying, so please contribute. Thanks J.B.

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