My son just started taking guitar lessons, so I decided to build him his very own guitar so he wouldn’t have to use mine! I asked him what sort of design he would like, and he said he wanted an ocean… So he got an ocean guitar!

Check out the full build video below!

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GUITAR PARTS

P90 Pickup

Pick guard Material

Neck

Pre-wired Harness for Tone and Volume

I started this build off by cutting up two pieces of ash to about 22” long, then I used my tapering jig as a jointer to prepare the pieces for glue up.

Then I glued up those 2 pieces, I was able to get enough width from 2 pieces which was about 14” wide.

I based the design off of a Gibson Les Paul Junior. So I brought an image of that guitar into Inkscape (which is sort of like illustrator, but it’s free), And then played around with all the curves until I was happy with the shape.

It was really fun to design my own shape, but if you’re interested in using the one I made,

you can download the template here - CUSTOM GUITAR TEMPLATE

I printed out the template, cut it out, then traced it onto a 3/4” piece of MDF.

Then cut out the MDF on the bandsaw….

And cleaned it up on the bench top sander. Even if you are not making multiple guitars, it is just easier to refine the shape on MDF and use a router with a pattern bit to clean up the thick piece wood. As opposed to having to refine the shape on a thick piece if wood with a sander.

Then I took the template and traced out the shape onto the body blank.

I then cut it out with a jigsaw and a long blade, since this blank was about 1-3/4” thick, I tried to stay as close to the line as possible without going over it.

Then I could easily refine the shape of the body using a flush trim bit at the router table. The template really stays secure with double sided tape.

Next I needed to make all the templates for the components of the guitar. Guitar building is all about the templates!

I used a combination of forstner bits, jigsaw and a straight edge with a pattern bit to make the control cavity template on the body template. (Full details in the build video.)

For the pick up template, I temporarily taped some pieces of MDF to the shape of the P90 pick up I was using, then used that to make the actual pick up template on another piece of MDF.

In order for the pick up to fit in that cavity I needed to use a combination of bits.

I used a 1/2” pattern bit to make the initial cuts. But then came back with a 1/4” bit to reduce the radius of the corners. I did this by using the smooth shank of the bit sort of as a bearing. (more details on this in the build video.)

Templates are done! time to route out the cavities!

I hogged out most of the material at the drill press with a forstner bit.

Then cleaned up the cavity using my trim router with the template attached with double sided tape.

When I couldn’t go further with the router, I removed the template and used the smooth cuts as the guide for the rest of the cavity.

I left about 3/16” - 1/4” of material left on the top.

The control cavity needs a cover, so I made a template that was slightly larger than the control cavity and used the material I was using for the cover (pick guard material) and a scrap piece of MDF to set the depth on the router, then routed out the little step for the cover.

You can see in the picture below, there is now a thin little lip that the control cavity cover will sit on. Awesome.

Next up was the pick up cavity!

I traced it out onto the body.

Hogged out most of the material at the drill press.

Then used the template to clean up the cut. After a ton of research, most people said this cavity should be about 1” deep.

After clearing out all of the material, I used the 1/4” bit again with the smooth part of the shank against the template to make the corner radius smaller to fit the pick up.

Now the most crucial cavity, the neck pocket….

I made sure the neck was centered and straight, then used double sided tape on scrap pieces of MDF to create a temporary template on the body.

Again, hogged out most of the material at the drill press….

Then used the pattern bit in the router again to clean it all up.

The neck that I purchased had an angle already built into the tenon…. So I needed to make a jig to shape the body at that same angle.

The angle was about 4 degrees, so I ripped two pieces of MDF on my tapering jig at 4 degrees.

Then attached those 2 pieces to each other using more scrap MDF, making sure the body fit in between and under the jig.

To use this jig, I took a long scrap of plywood and made a baseplate to attach to my router so it can ride along the angled ramps.

I just kept taking super shallow passes until the bit got to the end of the neck pocket I routed out.

The wire for the pick up needs to run through the pick up cavity to the control cavity, so I used a super long drill bit to connect these 2 cavities.

This was a really nerve wracking step, but I didn’t mess it up! Ha.

Then I used a round over bit on the top and bottom to smooth all the edges.

It’s important to do this before drilling the hole for the audio jack, If the audio jack hole is drilled before rounding over, the bearing will fall in the hole messing up the round over…

I wanted the body to have some contours so it’s more comfortable to play… So I used my angle grinder with a flap disk to quickly carve out an arm contour.

And also did the same thing on the back side for a belly carve.

On to the ocean pour!

I enlisted the help of my friend Sam from DIY Huntress to do this pour for me. She is an amazingly talented woodworker who has experience doing pours like this, so I knew she would make this look awesome.

If you’re interested in her full tutorial, check out her video here - Ocean Epoxy Pour

Or check out her blog post here - How to do an Epoxy Ocean Pour

She’s awesome….

At this point, I was so scared to mess up the ocean, but it would have been a pain to cover up these holes for the epoxy…

I drilled two holes in the control cavity for the pots.

Drilled a 7/8” (22mm) hole on the side for the audio jack.

And finished the body with Tru-Oil before gluing it up.

Once the finish dried, I glued the neck into the body and made sure to clean up any of the glue squeeze out.

Now that the neck is in place, I could drill for the bridge and tail piece.

To do this, I used a straight edge down both sides of the neck and brought those lines down the body.

This neck is a Gibson scale length, which is 24.75” from the nut to the bridge.

So I marked a perpendicular line 24.75” from the nut. But the bridge on these types of guitars is usually slanted a few degrees to accommodate for string thickness…. so do this, I marked 1/8” down from the bass side, then drew a slanted line from that 1/8” mark on the base side to the initial mark I drew for the bridge.

I also marked about 1-3/4” down from the initial bridge line for the tailpiece.

I drilled the holes for the tail piece first. I lined it up on the bottom line I made, marked the holes with a brad point bit, then drilled those holes to the depth of the bushing at the drill press.

Before tapping the tail pice bushing into place, I needed to drill a hole from the control cavity to one of those holes I just drilled out for a ground wire.

(I messed this part up… check out the full video to see….. so frustrating….)

I put the ground wire in place and then banged the bushings for the tail pieces in the holes I just drilled out.

Once the tail piece was in place, I put on 2 of the tuning pegs and strung on the low and high E strings to center the bridge, still making sure it was on the angled lined I drew out previously.

I marked out those holes, drilled them out at the drill press and banged the bushings into place.

Time to solder all the components together!

I actually decided to purchase a prewired harness kit, so there was a minimal amount of soldering I needed to do…. I only needed to connect the pick up and the ground wire.

Definitely worth the extra $10 to get the pre-wired kit until I get better at soldering…