Ideas for first guitar build

[Dennis]

but you've gotta be out of your mind to put steel strings on any neck without a trussrod.

Well, it can work quite well actually,

I have a guitar which is made of a really old piece of wood in the middle, with a carbon w/resin shell around it, and around that carbon shell wood again.
I have done everything with that guitar (and looking at the worn-down finish the previous owner did too!), different tunings, different strings / gauges, and it is a really stable neck,  and sounds very very good in my opinion....so it IS possible to build an electric guitar without trussrod.

BUT, I wouldn't recommend doing this stuff yourself, and especially not with your first guitar  :D

Maybe something nice for mr Window-Licker:
http://www.baileyguitars.co.uk/
they have a build-your-own-guitar course....maybe this would be cool to do?

I must say, having someone around that can prevent you making some mistakes is pretty handy sometimes. I am building my first guitar now, and you WILL make some mistakes, no doubt!

[WezV]

This is the problem, somone always comes along and says it can work - so people try it, and they end up with a dud!

thats why i purposely never said it cannot be done - but it is definately unwise - unless you have loads of money to invest in researching the ideal way to make a truss-rodless neck.

If you have one guitar - that is not enough proof that it can work, not to mention the fact a CF shell would be more work for most of us than routing a truss rod slot.

The course is a good idea if you are really worried about the neck