The Beginning

How to Start? I didn't have a clue.

First point buy a book. I bought a copy of Make Your Own Electric Guitar by Melvyn Hiscock. This is an excellent book with lots of good advice, practical examples and lots of pictures. Before I started, it made me worried though. It made my forthcoming task look too easy; just like the car maintenance manual, which advises to separate parts gently with a tap of a small hammer, when actually a lump hammer and large bench vice is needed to persuade the homogenous mass, which has fused with the passage of time and exposure to the elements, into more than one part.

Did I panic over nothing? Only time and effort would tell.

I had some tools for the job, but I expected to need more. I had some manual skills, I once was an engineering apprentice with British Leyland, making TR7 sports cars at Speke, near Liverpool, but I had not tried my skills at woodwork, not even at school. For the last twenty years I have worked in offices and not had the opportunity to get my hands dirty.