lunacaster

Working in manufacturing and playing the guitar every day after work, it was only natural that I would want to make my own guitar one day. As with many things in my life, I added ‘craft an electric guitar’ to my to-do list, but it took a year before I felt that the time had come to start planning. Having no knowledge of guitars other than from a player’s viewpoint, I started from scratch, checking full build tutorials on YouTube, taking notes and making lists of parts and financing. Determined to make a Les Paul-shaped guitar to match my playing style, I also wanted an aluminium neck and a non-wood body. However, after realising the issues that would arise from using a Les Paul design and not finding a single Les Paul made out of anything other than wood, I switched to a far easier Fender Stratocaster design. This was also because I found the CAD data online and they only had Stratocasters for Rhinoceros, which I am using for CAM. I chose Delrin for the body, inspired by the black Stratocaster that David Gilmour played at the Bath Festival. I planned for material costs of approximately 1200 euros, but adding custom 54 pickups and other high-quality parts made the guitar more expensive. I definitely considered buying a high-class guitar for this money instead. Manufacturing took longer than expected, and I had issues with the wiring as it was my first time doing it. But after spending every day after work on it for a month, I was done.