One advantage I might have in the market I'm looking at, is that I know (or am related to) a number of the influential musicians in the area.  If I can demonstrate the quality of my work to them (prior to actually pulling the trigger on a store front), I can pretty well count on significant positive word of mouth.  It also looks as though (from the local shops where I currently reside) a large portion of the "bread and butter" comes from lessons.  A modest number of students, at an hour a week, can add up to a significant percentage of the store's total income.

Any info you can give regarding distributors is most welcome.  At present, it doesn't look like I will be able to swing a direct deal with one of the big names (Fender, Gibson), so I am looking at dealing with wholesale aggregators.

Also, anyone with insight into setting up a recording studio feel free to chime in as well.

http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/560739253gBXXPx

I'm waiting fpr a piece of original artwork so that I can customize the pickguard on the 5129.

Well, I finally got the replacement for the replacement for my black Gretsch 5120 last Thursday, and I spent Friday evening and a chunk of Saturday morning replacing the stock pickups with TV Jones replacements.

I had to pull the individual volume knobs, and the Master Tone knob to do the soldering; I used plastic tubing over the pot stem (which fit through the hole in the body) in order to be able to pull them back into the proper position when finished.  I had to take a dremel tool to both pickup holes to fit new pickups, and drill and refill two screw holes for each of the pickup rings.  I also need a bigger soldering iron, my little 25-watt iron doesn’t work so well with those big pots.

All went back together smoothly, and the final product looks professional if I say so myself.  I restrung and set the pickups to the manufacturer’s suggested height, and plugged her in.  It sounds <jazz hands> FABULOUS!! </jazz hands>

I elected not to replace the linear taper pots; I’m more of a ‘set ‘em and forget ‘em’ sort of guy where guitar knobs are concerned.  If I decide to do it down the road, well, I can.

Final cost breakdown:

    Gretsch 5120 (black) ……………….....$595
    Customized Pickguard ……………......$   0
    .11 guage strings w/wound 3rd......$   7
    TV Jones pickups, rings, shipping...$270
    Grover locking tuners installed………$121
    Total cost:                                   $993

I forgot to bring my camera to work today so I can upload the photos to webshots; I will do that tomorrow and post a link.

I've started building solid-bodies first, but now I'm also building an acoustic guitar. My first project took six weeks -and the results were not great. I've made many mistakes. The second guitar took almost six months..., because I've gotten a lot more careful with planning and more patient with woodworking, electronics and finishing. Currently I have no less than four guitars in the works that I'm building from scratch (I buy the pickups and some hardware, but everything else is handmade.)  Whenever I can afford it, I also get more tools. Making small repairs for friends builds my reputation, my skills, and I get a little cash for parts.

Grow into it, don't just load yourself up with debt and find yourself later under pressure to perform. It's a craft, almost an art, but it's also very rewarding to know that you've changed your life to do exactly what you wanted to do. Check out your local woodworking store, or besides browsing the links from this forum, check out www.grizzly.com (they are located in the US). Last word: Just do it! Remember how you learned to walk? One step at a time.

By way of an update, my current project is replacing the pickups in a Gretsch 5120 archtop.  Since I don't really have a workshop, I'm having a real luthier replace the tuners for me.  Once it comes back from the shop, I'm going to pull the strings, replace the tune-o-matic with a 'rocking bar' bridge (no big deal), and then replace the stock pickups with some TV Jones models that I ordered.  After that, I get to decide whether or not to change the stock linear-taper pots out for 'audio-taper' ones.  At which point, the only original hardware left will be the frets and the (licensed) Bigsby.

So far, the total outlay for this guitar, parts and labor, is $982.  If all goes well, it should sound almost identical to a $4000 Setzer Signature model (without the dice knobs).

Tibernius wrote:

Since this is still about guitar-making, how much does it cost to make a guitar? I know that's a "how long is a piece of string" question, but can someone give me a rough estimate?

I'm seeing solid-body kits from (I think) a couple of different makers that are in the $220-$280 range, depending on what wood is used for the body and fretboard.  That's with frets pre-set, and all the electronics included.

Me, I think I'd want just the wood, and add my own choices for hardware and tuners.  In that case the price would go up, probably pretty substantially.

Even if I decide to just do this sort of thing as a hobby, I need to get set up with a tax ID number just so I can get the goodies wholesale... 

Dguyton,

Buy the kit and trash or donate the electronics & tuners to someone or use as spares or replacments on a repair.  Overall the kit will be more cost effective versus buying just the body & neck. If the guitar is for you you can buy the electronics & hardware of your choosing  to make it your semi custom guitar.

Bootlegger.

Does anyone here know if you can finish a guitar with Acrylic paint instead of Cellulose? And if you can what kind of varnish you could use on top of it?

Yes you can, just seal it with an acrylic clear gloss as well. You can't mix acrylic with nitrocellulose.

It might be less of a hassle with your 'hissing' guitar to just gut it and replace all the electronics.  At least then you can be reasonably certain that you don't have rust inside something, preventing a connection.

Looks like I'll have to do that know. I've found out that the rust has damaged the pickup as well. I've also found out that the guitar body is made of fibreboard, so I might have trouble adding single coil pickups to it.

If you're goin to go that route, check out www.stew-mac.com and you can order the pick guard with the pickups already ready to go, just solder the jack wires and ground wire and you're done. I think they run around $50 US

That's the parts I mean. Since I'm in the UK I can't get the parts from stew-mac. They are the same parts though.

dguyton wrote:

It might be less of a hassle with your 'hissing' guitar to just gut it and replace all the electronics.  At least then you can be reasonably certain that you don't have rust inside something, preventing a connection.

I was thinking of getting one of the Squier strat pickguards with pickups and using the electrics from that. (you can get them for about £20 on ebay in the UK)
In which case I would use all of the electronics (minus the wiring) instead of the originals.

If you're goin to go that route, check out www.stew-mac.com and you can order the pick guard with the pickups already ready to go, just solder the jack wires and ground wire and you're done. I think they run around $50 US

It might be less of a hassle with your 'hissing' guitar to just gut it and replace all the electronics.  At least then you can be reasonably certain that you don't have rust inside something, preventing a connection.

I was thinking of getting one of the Squier strat pickguards with pickups and using the electrics from that. (you can get them for about £20 on ebay in the UK)
In which case I would use all of the electronics (minus the wiring) instead of the originals.

I should let someone else with more experience answer your second question first, but I'll take a stab:  If you have the tools and confidence, probably not too difficult.  You will need to take off the pickguard, remove all the electronics, make some routing patterns based on your desired pickup dimensions and orientations, and then rout the body (and expand the holes in the pickguard) to fit.  With the coil taps, you're also going to have to replace the regular five-position switch with something that will handle whatever combinations you want for the pickups.  Before that, you'll have to come up with a schematic and wiring diagram, so you'll know what goes where when the time comes to put it all together.

http://www.wesleyguitars.co.uk/storefro … =236208633