Mini Mockingbird Project


The story behind this guitar is that
I wanted to build a guitar and not spend a lot of money.
At the time I didn't have much experience, so I tried to
keep things simple. It started with some left over cedar
from remodeling my house, and 2 pieces of 4 x 3/4" maple
from the local lumberyard. I cut out the body sides, and
glued the 2 maple pieces together to make a piece 1-1/2"
thick, which became the neck. I also rough cut out the body
wings, and the neck. Here's a pic of these parts laid out.
For the body design, I decided to copy the BC Rich Mockingbird.
I owned a Mockingbird, and it was a beautiful guitar
that played and sounded great. It was stolen from me 20
years ago, and since I built this guitar, I got the original
Mockingbird back.  It's fun to compare the 2 guitars...
anyway, on with the project...

Here is the back of the neck.
Next, I slotted the fretboard. The fretboard is a $3 piece of
oak that I bought at the local home improvement store. I used a
miter box to cut the slots straight, and a caliper to mark where the
slots should be. It was very tedious. I buy my fretboards pre-slotted now.

Here is the trimmed fretboard laying on the neck.
This is a shot of the body after making the cuts around the
body/neck joint, and the end of the body.

Here a picture of the headstock, it's an unusual shape becasuse I
didn't follow my original lines closely enough when I cut it out.
I also cut outside the lines to leave some room for error. There is
a piece of walnut veneer on it.
Here is a shot of the back of the neck after shaping. I did
most of the shaping before gluing on the wings.

Here is the front of the guitar after the wings are glued on,
and the rough body shape is cut out. Still a long way to go.
Closeup of the back of the headstock. You can see the line
where I glued the 2 pieces of maple together.
  Pic of the front of the guitar after the frets are in, and some
body shaping done.
Back of the guitar. It's starting to look like a guitar anyway.

Here is the bridge I made, and the tele pickup I was going to use
laid out on the front of the guitar. I later decided to use a strat
pickup instead, as it would be easier to switch out pickups if I wanted.
Closeup of the bridge after installing.

Here is the control cavity routed. I drilled the hole for the volume
first, then I used a drill bit to remove most of the wood, then a dremel
to clean it up.
Here is the output jack hole. I just used a 1" bit, and a hand drill.

Here is the finished guitar front...
And back ...

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