That Time I Spent Entirely Too Much Time and Money Building a Crappy Guitar
I built a guitar from scratch once. It was terrible.
The Backstory
We were replacing our old dining room table, and I noticed that it was just about half the thickness of an electric guitar. I realized I could probably cut two blanks out of it, glue them together, and have a nice body blank to work with. So, rather than send it to the landfill, I decide to reuse it in a unique way: I’d build an electric guitar and call it the Tablecaster.
I wasn’t entirely new to making guitars at that point. Several years prior to that, I’d started making cigar-box guitars. I’d never much worked with tools before, and I decided it was important for me to learn how to use basic tools. I stumbled across cigar-box guitars and decided to give them a try.
Although I would never claim that I’m especially handy or good with tools (more on that later), I did make over two dozen instruments and sold a number of them as well.
We were replacing our old dining room table, and I realized I could probably cut two blanks out of it, glue them together, and have a nice body to work with.