How to Build a DIY Electric Guitar Using Scrap Electronics That Will Amaze Your Friends

Building your own electric guitar from scrap electronics is an extremely rewarding project that will impress your friends. With some basic tools and electronic components, you can assemble a playable instrument without spending much money. Follow these steps to learn how to build a DIY electric guitar using scrap electronics.

Gather the Necessary Materials

Before starting construction, you'll need to gather some materials:

A Guitar Body - The easiest option is buying an inexpensive, pre-made solid body on sites like eBay or from a hobby shop. But you can also cut and shape your own body out of wood if you have some basic woodworking skills.
Neck - You can also buy a pre-made neck online or from a guitar shop. Make sure it fits the scale length of your guitar body.
Bridge - A basic hard tail/fixed bridge will work fine. Wilkinson and Gotoh make affordable bridges.
Tuners - Any basic guitar tuners will work, as long as they fit your headstock.
Pickups - Here's where you can get creative with scrap electronics! Old P90 or humbucker pickups can easily be re-purposed. You can also make your own pickups using magnet wire and scrap magnets.
Strings - Regular electric guitar strings with standard gauges. I prefer 9s or 10s.
Pots and Capacitors - These allow you to control volume and tone. Salvage old audio pots and caps from electronics if possible.
Jack Socket - An 1/4" audio jack to plug your guitar cable into.
Wire - 22 gauge hookup wire works perfectly.
Soldering Iron & Solder - Essential for assembling the electronic components.
Wood Glue or Epoxy - For securing parts to the guitar body.

Assemble the Headstock

The headstock is where you'll attach the tuners that allow you to change the pitch of the strings.

Carefully measure and mark where you'll drill the holes for the tuners on the headstock. They should be in a straight line parallel to the fretboard.
Clamp the neck down and slowly drill out the tuner holes. Make sure they are wide and deep enough for the posts to fit.
Apply some wood glue and insert the tuners into the holes. Let the glue dry completely before moving on.
Once dry, screw the washer and nut onto each tuner post.

Now you have working tuners installed on the headstock!

Install the Neck

The neck is what you'll press the strings against when forming chords and notes. Bolt or glue it onto the body:

Apply some fast-drying epoxy to the neck joint area on the guitar body.
Carefully align the neck to the pocket on the body. Make sure the scale length is correct.
With the neck in position, firmly press down and allow several hours for the epoxy to fully harden. The neck should now be securely attached.
Optionally, you can also add metal braces around the joint for stability. Just drill pilot holes and screw them into the wood.

Attach the Bridge

The bridge transfers string vibrations into the body, and anchors them at the proper scale length.

Place the bridge squarely at the bottom end of the neck. Make sure it sits flush to the guitar body.
Mark where you'll drill small pilot holes for the bridge studs.
Using a power drill, slowly make holes just deep enough for the bridge stud threads to catch.
Add a drop of thread locker and screw the bridge studs into the body. Firmly tighten them until the bridge sits snugly against the body.

The bridge is now secured! Time to move on to electronics.

Install the Pickups

Pickups capture the vibration of the strings and convert it into electric signals.

Choose where you want the pickups placed. Typical spots are near the bridge, middle, and neck locations.
Trace the pickup rings on the guitar body to mark their positions.
Use a router or chisel to cut out the pickup cavities to fit the dimensions of your chosen pickups.
Solder 2 wires onto the pickup lead tabs, with enough length to connect to the pots and jack.
Mount the pickups into the cavities using screws or bolts. Make sure they sit flush and have clearance.

Wire the Volume and Tone Pots

Pots, or potentiometers, allow you to vary the volume and tone of each pickup.

Drill holes on the guitar body for mounting the volume and tone pots.
Solder one wire from each pickup to lugs 1 and 3 on the volume pot.
Bridge the center lug 2 on the volume pot to ground via a capacitor. This filters the high end.
From the tone pot, connect lug 1 to lug 2 on the volume pot. Then connect lug 3 to ground.
Insert the pots into the holes and tighten. The electronics are wired up!

Connect the Output Jack

The output jack is where you plug in the guitar cable to amps and pedals.

Drill a hole that fits your particular jack on the side of the guitar body.
Solder lug 3 from the volume pot to the jack's tip contact.
Solder the bridge ground wire to the jack's sleeve.
Mount the jack into the body hole. It should snap or screw securely in place.

String It Up and Make Some Noise!

Now the fun part - final assembly and testing it out!

Lock the strings into the tuners and thread them through the bridge. Stretch them tight across the fretboard.
Use an electronic tuner and turn the tuners to tune your guitar to standard EADGBE tuning.
Plug into an amp and make some glorious distorted noise! Rock out and enjoy your hand-crafted guitar.

With scrap parts and some DIY spirit, you can build an awesome playable electric guitar without spending much money. Personalize and tweak the design to make it your own. Your friends will be seriously impressed by your musical skills and guitar-building talent. Let me know if you try this project!