Guitar Building for beginners

A young friend of mine who is a keen sportsman has bust his knee, so he is diverting his energy instead into guitars: playing and sketching designs.
I have never done it, but I believe it is not difficult to make a guitar... at least not hard to make an electric one, I imagine the soundbox on an acoustic is not easy.

So... any top tips or guidelines?

How much do you envisage being from scratch? Building a body is easy enough - you need to be very accurate with measurements etc and choose a wood that will sustain nicely but not be too heavy and a design that is well balanced and comfortable, but all that is pretty doable.
Building a neck from scratch is a bit more ambitious. It can be done but it is a LOT more involved to do it right. You can always buy a neck or the fretboard.
I would not advise trying to build pickups from scratch. that way madness lies.

But it is all doable. i have built a couple of workable guitars and my woodworking skills are more agricultural than joinery.

Compostman has built several guitars from scratch, including the pickups, tremelos etc...he actually sold several to band member friends...who were impressed as far as he can recall!

I want to encourage him to get back into doing this, again. it would be cool to have a guitar made from wood, from our own wood...

A school friend of mine made an electric guitar in woodwork class. It looked OK. Never hear him play it though. I made him a fuzz box to go with it. I think like many things, to make an electric guitar that is playable is probably not that hard, the hard bit is making a good one !

Wilhelm Von Rhomboid wrote:How much do you envisage being from scratch?

To be honest, I have no idea how practical the lad is or isn't.
I was thinking to probably buy the neck, and it never even occurred to me to try and make the pick-ups.

Thought it might be worth a mention that one of the projects in the latest issue of Fine woodworking magazine is an accoustic guitar ! At a glance it does look fairly intricate. Although I might just have the woodworking skills to make it, I would certainly lack the musical skill to know if I'd made a decent job of it.