Homemade Fender Musicmaster with pics

[jtricer1973]

Hey guys, I've had a set of Mustang plans collecting dust in my closet for about a year and this weekend decided to start building something. I was waiting to collect proper materials like a body blank and what not but this just never happened. I figure what the hell I'll make me a Home Depot guitar. Will be fun, inexpensive, and a good learning experience.

After a some thought I decided instead of a Mustang I would make it a Musicmaster for simplicities sake. Basically the same guitar with a hardtail bridge, single neck pickup, volume and tone control, and input jack.

Body is poplar and I am still undecided on what I will use for the neck. I may get a maple blank and rosewood board from Stewmac.

Anyway let me know what you think.

[jtricer1973]

More pics

[Cardboard Robot]

Lookin really good! I've always had a soft spot for musicmaster/duosonic type guitars

[newtwanger]

Hey, you can't just go building a guitar without a CNC machine!

Have fun, my favorite build was the 100% a home depot special.

[mgdesigns]

That is real old school stuff - a brace and bit, and chisel. Very cool. How did you cut out the outline? Keep us posted.

[jtricer1973]

Hey thanks for the replies guys.

Well, as far as the outline I'd love to tell ya that I used my coping saw and kept it old school but I do have my limits. I used my old trusty Black & Decker jig saw. Man let me tell ya, that thing was darn near smoking trying to cut out that body. Its a small saw and very light duty.

After the jig saw I went to work with my files and wood rasps to get things rounded up better.

The brace came from a flea market. Cost 10 bucks. The vintage Irwin auger bit set came from the Bay for 35 bucks. I LOVE MY BRACE AND BIT SET!!! Use it all the time and you'd be surprised how easy and good it works. Highly recommend one.
Hey, just wait till I break out my eggbeater hand drill. You'll see it soon.

"Power tools, we don't need no stinkin power tools!"

[mgdesigns]

I love the old stuff. My dad had a bench full of them in the basement when I was growing up. I am hoping to inherit them someday. Dad got most of those old tools from his dad who owned a hardware store in Detroit back in the 30' & 40's, so the tools are at least 60 years old. I used them as a kid, but have not seen them in over 30 years.

[jtricer1973]

Yeah I love the old stuff too. When I was a kid I would see my grandfather build stuff all the time and I rarely ever saw him use a power tool. It was all hammers, handsaws, brace and bits, hand planes, and a carpenters rule. I guess since he grew up using hand tools why change.
Also with hand tools you don't have to deal with the sawdust, noise, and danger or losing digits. Hey, I need my digits to play guitar.
Here's a pic I took with some of my most used hand tools for anyone interested. There's also a pick of what will hopefully become my guitar neck.

[jtricer1973]

Originally Posted by newtwanger

Hey, you can't just go building a guitar without a CNC machine!

Have fun, my favorite build was the 100% a home depot special.

LOL! You know, those plans have been in my closet for quite sometime because I always felt like I needed this or that to build it. I needed a body blank, I needed a router, I needed a proper work bench(wait, I still need one of these). Anyway, you get the point. At that rate I wouldn't ever build anything, so this week after some thought, I decided to just build with what I have and mostly could find locally.
I am so far pleasantly surprised how good its turning out. There's still a lot to do and maybe that will change, but if so at least I will have given it a shot and built something instead of just planning to build something.
Ok, I'm through ranting about my project.

[zero-sss]

Really good job!
How did you get that plan?
from www.guitarplansunlimited.com ?
Can you tell how accurate it is?

I cannot wait your next posting!

[jtricer1973]

Yeah, that's where I got them. As far as accuracy goes they seem accurate. At least so far I haven't run into anything. I don't have an original guitar to check them against. I really hated to cut my plans but just didn't have a good way to transfer them. I did make a good template though as I plan on building more of these.
I just got through marking out the neck pocket on my body. I have really put a lot of thought into this because I figure if I'm gonna mess up it'll be on the neck pocket.
I'm also gonna have to come up with a good way to cut it out too. I don't have a router so have to use some old fashioned ingenuity.
Well, I'm going to bed. Gonna work on the neck pocket tomorrow and start on the neck. I'll keep you all updated.

[blakktode]

What did you use for the body ?

[jtricer1973]

The body is made out of Poplar. Since this is my first build I wanted to go cheap and local.

[blakktode]

Sorry, I just re-read your first post where you said all of that.

Guess it would be better if I focused on some of the words as well as looking at all the pretty pictures, huh ? :D

[jtricer1973]

Well I cut the neck pocket tonight and it came out ok. Not as neat as I would have liked but not too bad either. I'm still sanding and tweaking on it. It will be alright. Didn't get to get started on the neck tonight, maybe tomorrow.
Here's a picture of the bridge I bought on eBay. Its not exactly vintage correct as it has 6 saddles instead of 3 but looks pretty good and I hope it works ok. Its also setup for string-through which as far as I know was never stock but seems like it would be a good upgrade and pretty cool.
Oh and I also have some vintage style Kluson tuners on the way from Guitar Fetish for the neck I haven't built yet.

[fernando]

lovely! (but I'd say it's a Duo-Sonic II, not a Musicmaster! :)

[turmite]

Originally Posted by newtwanger

Hey, you can't just go building a guitar without a CNC machine!

Have fun, my favorite build was the 100% a home depot special.

You are so right. In my case though, the cnc is all the tool I have for this! Sooo, I am gonna use it!

Mike

[thejerk]

What kind of finish are you thinking about?

I've got a Duo Sonic I'm considering refinishing, and lookin' for ideas!

[jtricer1973]

Sorry for lack of updates, I changed my email here and was locked out from posting for several days.
I'm gonna paint it red. The paint I got is Duplicolor acrylic lacquer. I want it close to dakota red but I don't know how close I'll get. I just picked the paint out based on the cap color.
My bridge I told yall about above came in and looks nice. Yesterday I recieved my shipment from Stew Mac. Its basically everything for the neck; rosewood fretboard blank, maple neck blank, fret wire, pearl dots for the side and face of fretboard, truss rod, bone nut blank, and a 7.25 radius fretboard sander. I'll post picks of the stuff later. Hopefully I'll get started on the neck this weekend.
Oh, and one more thing, for quite a few reasons, I have decided it will be a Duosonic II instead of a musicmaster.

[jtricer1973]

Well guys, I got side tracked on my guitar building for a while but I am about to get started on it. As my previous post says I have had all the materials from Stew Mac to build the neck so I am gonna get started on it soon. Will also start refinishing the body. I'll update with pics soon.