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Building an Electric Guitar for the Los Lonely Boys A master luthier handcrafts an electric guitar for the Los Lonely Boys. From "Special Presentation" episode DLLB-S

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The construction of any guitar is "only as good as the planning," Kelly, seen at his desk here, explains.

Guitar Body Construction

Materials:

paper
pencils
general art supplies
computer equipped with CAD software
two 2"-thick pieces of alder wood
band saw
router
1/4" Plexiglas sheets (24"x24")

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1. Kelly begins the construction of Henry's special electric guitar by drawing creative ideas and designs based on his consultation with the Los Lonely Boys. This is not a time for technical consideration. This is purely an exercise in artistic expression.

2. The freehand drawings are scanned to create a digital representation (figure A) of his ideas. This allows him to perfect all technical requirements and see the guitar in a three-dimensional view before making any cuts to the expensive wood.

3. Using life-sized printouts of his new creation, Kelly creates matching templates of Plexiglas (figure B).

4. Kelly glues two pieces of alder wood to create an 18" x 24" blank that will eventually become Henry's dream guitar.

5. He traces around his Plexiglas template to leave an image of a guitar's body on the alder blank.

6. The First Act staff takes the alder blank (figure C) and removes any excess wood using a band saw, which isn't designed to make exact cuts--most of the "slop" is removed from the body's edge using an industrial router and bit.

Figure A

Figure B

Figure C

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