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Here's the first guitar I built at IKATA
School of Crafts and Design in the autumn 2019. I chose this model because of classic look and it's been used by many of my guitar heroes like Mark Knopfler, David Gilmour etc. The guitar has a alder body, maple neck, 25,5" scale length rosewood fretboard with medium jumbo frets, Gotoh Vintage tremolo bridge, Schaller tuning machines and Tonerider True Vintage pickups. The guitar has a gloss polyurethane finish.

S-style electric guitar

Click the pictures below for the details.

The fun begins!
Body planks and a neck plank
Body planks glued together
Scale length is precisely 25,5"
Body and neck master templates
Fitting master templates together
Fitting of the tremolo bridge
Raw shaping of the neck
Neck routed to it's final outlines
Trussrod cavity coming up
Trussrod cavity after routing
The trussrod fits perfectly in its place
Glued and planed blank
Drilling the cavities before routing
Cavities ready for routing
Fitting of the neck to the body
Sawing the raw shape
Getting lighter...
The "widowmaker"
Outlines after routing
Routed spring cavity
More room for the tremolo block
Cavity for tremolo block and springs
Angle guide for drilling
Fitting of the jack
Almost reached the 6mm thickness
Slotted fretboard
Drilling peghead holes
Fretboard glued to the neck
Routing a slot for the nut
Drilling fretboard inlays
Routing the hardest sections
Beveling the edges of the body
Body after beveling the edges
Shaping of the rear contour
Surfboard edge
Sanding the 9,5" radius
Starting points of shaping the neck
Raw lines before shaping the neck
Getting closer to wanted shape
Carved and sanded neck
More routing after checking
Fitting of the body and the neck
Sanded to 320 grit
Ready to shoot some lacquer
Looking good after primer coats
Logo attached
More primer coats
Sanding coats before colour
Base coats sprayed to the neck
Installing frets between coats
Checking gaps
Spraying the colour
Scuff sanding between coats
Crafting pickguard template
Pickguard and spring cavity plate
Pickguard template with parts
It fits!
Leveling the high spots with a file
Leveling the frets with sanding beam
Frets leveled, crowned and polished
Body polished
Drilling neck mounting holes
Placing the tremolo
Installation of a spring holder
Springs installed
Tremolo spring cavity
The rear plexiglass aligned to body
Pickguard template
Fits like a glove
Tuning machines getting installed
Wiring of the pickguard
Final assembly
Final parts installed
Stringing up for the very first time
Beauty is born!
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