Making Guitar Present

[imprez55]

I want to make a solid body electric guitar for a friend of mine but the problem is I don't know really anything about guitars. I have not decided on a final design, it will end up having some sort of custom feel to it (if for nothing else, so that I can cut one side in two sections on my 16x6 mill). What I need from you guys is this:

What are some simple, classic/traditional woods that work well together (inexpensive wouldn't hurt either)
How do I make the frets, I see there is metal but is it glued or what?
How do I make a truss in the fretboard?
Is the neck angle determined solely on the bevel at the connection point (i.e. is it flat)
How is grounding the wires done?
How is the bridge secured to the body?

I know it will not be perfect but I want it to be the best that it can be. So any tips to make them sound better (resonance issues?) would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you all for your help.

[judleroy]

Visit this website http://www.stewmac.com/ and you should be able to find out most of what you need to know. Good luck. Judleroy

[jshinn]

You can find many resouces at your local library. There usually are books about basic guitar building. That is where I started to get a good idea of all that is involved. Besides Stewart MacDonald you can try www.lmii.com. I wish you the best.

[CarveOne]

Do a web search on "Tone woods" to see what is available.

I recently purchased "make your own electric guitar & base" by Dennis Waring & David Raymond published by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. $18.95 (21.95 Can.) It has most of the info you will need, but they don't use CNC building methods. There are other books available and this is just the first one I found locally. It has some full size parts plans and reduced size body outlines. Seems to cover most things I was interested in.

For some video instruction CDs go to Cyborg CNC's site here.

This site has some CAD files that you can start from:

CarveOne

[Montabelli]

if you want inexpensive wood don't go tone wood shopping, for a solid body you don't really need tone woods any way. start with something inexpensive (poplar) and work out all your parts, in-letting and model then figure out what your finish is going to be. if you are going to do a natural finish (where grain is important) find some pictures of grain and pricing for cabinet woods and figure out your final appearance. there are many sources for maple mahogany walnut and other woods which should work fine.