How to Build a Cheap Guitar

Purchase a guitar body. Look on eBay, Amazon, or check with a guitar luthier for a guitar body. Buying a guitar body is much more practical than designing one yourself (because it's tough to get access to the heavy equipment).

Do any necessary sanding or painting before proceeding. If any of the edges of the guitar feel rough, take a piece of sand paper and sand down edges by hand until they feel smooth. Use sandpaper to sand around chips and dents. If you want to paint your guitar, you can purchase paint made for guitars. Water-based lacquers, stains and glossy paints are common. You can paint the guitar body yourself or have a professional do it.

Purchase a guitar neck, pickups, knobs and tuners. Look online or at your local guitar store for the pieces you want. Make sure the neck has screws in spots that match the ones on the guitar body, and ensure the pickups are the right size to fit in the body of the guitar.

Install the pick-ups into the guitar using a solder kit. In simple terms, you need to locate and solder the "hot wires" to the color coded shafts for the knobs. Many guitars also have grounding wires that need to be soldered as well. Because the colors and processes vary a lot, it's best to check online to find instructions on wiring the type of pickups you selected. The Seymour Duncan website and EMG websites have more detailed instructions for installing specific pickups. Install the switch and tone knobs, and test out the pickups by vibrating a string a short distance above the pickups.

Install the tuners and attach the neck to the guitar. Use a screwdriver to attach the tuners onto the neck. Use the screwdriver again to attach the neck to the body of the guitar; drill holes in the neck if needed. If the tuners or guitar neck didn't include screws, check the local hardware store for the right size screws.