Luthier's Gallery

Student's business venture

At Casterton Business and Enterprise College there is a Young Chamber group who are the student voice for enterprise in the College. They organise events, trips and training in the school for students. One of their functions is to support enterprising business ideas of other students and staff in the College through the "Dragons Den". Students and staff can put in their ideas to the Dragons who will then decide whether to fund the project and also how much support the project will need from the Dragons and Young Chamber.

Recently a group called LB Guitars consisting of 2 of our Y10 students (aged 15) asked for money to set up a guitar making business. The boys, Ben Harris (builder and tech) and Luke Elliott (Designs) put forward an application for funding which included a business plan, market research and how they would sell and promote their product. Initially asking for funding to produce the first three guitars The Dragons agreed to fund production of the first guitar with the profits from this being used to fund the next 2 guitars before then repaying the original start-up loan.

Ben and Luke used the funding to purchase a guitar kit and other products for assembly, sanding and finishing, painting and polishing etc. We are delighted that the first guitar is now completed and ready for sale!

The students of the Young Chamber were really pleased to be able to fund this exciting and challenging project and hope that this will encourage more of our students to become entrepreneurs with the support of the Young Chamber Dragons. CBEC has Business and Enterprise specialism and this type of project shows how the specialism is embedded throughout the College both within and outside of the curriculum. Ben has worked really hard to produce a great quality product and in doing so has launched what should be a successful business.

If anyone would like more information about Ben's product or could offer additional support to Ben with his business please contact the college or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

My First Homemade Guitar by Stuart Boydell

My inspiration for this guitar came from a plank of walnut given to me amoungst a box of offcuts that a local cabinet maker was throwing out for firewood. It was the perfect size for a fingerboard I thought. On doing some research I discovered that

walnut was not commonly used for fingerboards so, I did a lot more digging around on the net and stumbled across "ToneTech". - I was like a kid in a sweet shop.

I didn't want to buy the finest materials and mess it all up so, I opted for the cheapest and armed with a book

on guitar making I decided to give it a go.

I chose "Western red cedar" for the soundboard, "African Mahoghany" for the sides and back, "Brazilian cedar" for the neck and splashed out on some "Ebony" for the fingerboard.

My biggest concern was bending the sides as I didn't want to spend a small fortune on a bending iron so, I made my own.

This consists of an old iron that I turned upside down with a curved metal structure built on top to transfer the heat. This was made from a metal table leg that I cut down the side, spread apart and filled with copper piping and anything metal I could jam in.

I practiced bending small offcuts of cherry and maple but when it came to bending the African Mahoghany I discovered it was extremely hard to bend so, I gave up and scrounged some maple instead from the cabinet maker. This was to change the whole sound of the guitar as I later found out that maple and red cedar were traditionally used for Flamenco guitars.

I stuck with the african mahoghany for the back plate as it was a nice contrast against the maple and for the bracings, linings, bridge and headcrest veneer I used more offcuts from my box of firewood. This resulted in me using maple for the soundboard bracing with maple linings and cherry braces on the back plate with african mahoghany linings.The bridge was made from cherry and the headcrest veneer made from walnut.

I bought a bag of veneer offcuts for the rosette.This was a lot tricker than I had imagined but I fumbled my way through.

I have since spent more time practicing these and hopefully it will be better on my next guitar.

I opted for a two piece neck as my book said that they were much stronger. It was a lot of work but well worth it.

The fingerboard and frets had to be the most difficult.It was at this stage that the whole project went from being a test of my woodworking skills to a musical instrument. I took my time to ensure it was as accurate as possible, which was difficult when I was so close to completion and finally hearing what it sounded like.

The excitement of playing it for the first time was amazing. It has a bright treble and bass with a nice sustain which I think is down to the woods I used.

Chris O'Rourke's First Build

I could never make up my mind which of my guitars I liked best as they are all great in their own way so I planed to do a ‘Brian May’ and try and merge different aspects together and create the ultimate guitar for me. I then thought logically and realised I wouldn’t have a clue where to start. I decided against a new original guitar and thought I’d have a go at building the famous “old lady” as I like pretty much everything about the guitar, especially the thick neck. Most of my guitars are some shade of red so I thought it would be a good idea to change the colour. I quite liked the green version Guyton made.

I planned on making a few cutbacks to the original setup, i.e. I would install a fixed bridge to save money and make the build a little easier. A few weeks later I decided just to get the original tremolo system from Japan. I’m really glad I did. However, this meant I had to cover the front with mahogany veneer which created another days worth of work but it was for the best, as the grain of the veneer looked really cool. The guitar was never meant to be an exact copy of Brian’s (that will hopefully come later) so I used abalone inlays to blend in a little more and match the colour of the guitar. It is difficult to see this in the pictures but it looks really nice.

The build was pretty exciting as I had never used power tools before. Learning the correct way to use power tools whilst cutting up a guitar probably isn’t the best idea but it worked out in the end – thankfully without the need of medical attention. The biggest problem I had was the finishing. As I was building this in my house I couldn’t just spray away merrily. Thankfully, as the nozzles on the pre-catalysed nitrocellulose have a little control on them I convinced my parents that it would be fine to spray it out in the hall. They complained about the smell but I kept the place reasonably clean.

Chris O'Rourke

Fender 52 Blackguard Tele

FENDER 52 BLACKGUARD TELE, by KEVIN HANCOCK ( BRICKHOUSE GUITARS ) and myself ROB LLOYD

To find out more about Rob, visit his Facebook

(All the photos are of the finished project)

HOW WE DID IT

First off I bought a Fender Highway 1 Texas Tele ( colour Honey Blonde ). The reason : Well it is pretty much the same as the Custom Shop ones except the finishing is not great, and neither are the pickups. Also it has a 2 piece ash body ( as a lot of the original 52's did, sometimes 3 pieces ), but best of all it has a 12 inch radius neck.

So, took everything apart, and rather than strip the body down to bare wood and re - start with opaque white, decided sand down the honey blonde to an ultra thin layer and use that as the base coat instead ( Best move we ever made ). Sanded down the satin finish on the neck also to an ultra thin layer.

Off we go then. After buying the Tints and Lacquer from Tonetech we used a can and a half of AMBER TINT NITRO and half a can of NICOTINE TINT NITRO on the body, obviously sanding between coats. Finished off with CLEAR GLOSS NITRO, T cut back, then used SIMONIZ car wax and buffed to a mirror finish. Used only two coats of AMBER TINT NITRO, then half a can of NICOTINE TINT NITRO on the neck and finished off in the same way as the body, this gave more of a true vintage colour to the neck. Oh, forgot to mention prior to spraying the neck we removed the nut and replaced with a bone one ( the reason you replace the nut before spraying is so you get lacquer up sides and front and back as they did in the old days ), you then finish off the nut when the lacquer dries.

We waited for 2 weeks and then put the guitar back together but with a few major improvements: We ditched the original pickups and replaced with JASON LOLLAR ALNICO 3's ( you won't see them on his website - you have to ask ), these are the best TELE pickups on the planet. The 4 way selector switch got binned and replaced with a CALLAHAM CRYO TREATED CRL 3 way one. The flat topped knobs got replaced with dome topped ones ( FENDER ). The white pickguard got replaced with a black CALLAHAM BAKELITE one. All wiring was binned too and re - wired with vintage cloth wire.

I've owned and played many TELE's, including FENDER CUSTOM SHOP 52 ones, and this one blows them all apart. The combination of a 12 inch radius neck, ash body, and LOLLAR ALNICO 3 pickups just has THAT MAGIC.

See the next page for more photos.

Guitar Gallery

Here is a selection of guitars made using Tonetech materials. These guitars are all made by professional and amateur makers in the UK

Burns Legend

JJ Electra

DM Guitar, Les Evans Custom

DM Guitars MacLester

JJ Retro-Lux Flat Top

Student Guitar Project

Making My First Les Paul

My first "Les Paul".

Many years ago I removed a fireplace from my front room that had a thick, jet black, block of wood as a mantle piece. It was around 45 mm thick, 1.4m long and about 200mm wide. Some years later, I planed off the thick black painted coating and underneath exposed a block of mahogany! I put it to one side for something special.

Some years after, as my guitar making hobby was developing, I remembered this block of mahogany. I bought a book-matched flame maple top, a mahogany neck blank, lots of bits and set about making a Les Paul copy for my brother.

The hardest part was shaping the domed contour of the top. I practiced on a plane ash blank and using a combination of microplanes, chisels and sandpaper, I got the shape reasonably close.

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