I am looking towards building with nice woods as a winter project, but I know that never having cut a body or neck before, I will make mistakes.
I was looking for some wood to practice with – reasonable for building so a minimum of hardwood and was struggling.
I then found https://www.reidtimber.co.uk/ who had some unjointed two piece planks at sensible prices. I now have two body blanks, two necks and two fingerboards.
I need to have a little think about hardware – do I buy good stuff with the intent of using it on the main project, or do I buy budget in case I make something playable (and more to the point sellable!
So today I had a little play. I am already well equipped with tools, so I have an easier start than many hobbyists. Some may say I am cheating a little, and I should be hand whittling using a pen knife, but I have tools, I am gonna use them!
I got the router table set up for jointing and jointed to edges of a body blank. Sloshed a little glue around and clamped it up.
They do say you can never have too many clamps – I think I could do with something with a longer reach to hold the middle of the blank a little better but I got the satisfying sight of just a little glue seeping out all round the joint. I now want to leave it clamped a little to set.
This is poplar/tulipwood