How electric guitars are made

An electric guitar makes almost no sound by itself. Its pickups turn string vibration into current.

stations: 8
things upstream: 60
raw sources: 22
steps from the ground: 6

The short version

An electric guitar is a solid body of hardwood with a bolted or glued neck and magnetic pickups beneath the strings. Bodies are cut, routed and sanded, necks are carved and fretted, and the pieces are painted. Pickups are wound from fine copper wire, then wired to knobs and a jack.

Cut the body blank

Planks of hardwood are glued together and cut into the outline of the body. A solid body does not resonate, so the sound comes from the string alone.

Goes in
Lumber
Rout the cavities

Computer-controlled routers carve pockets for pickups and wiring, and a channel for the neck.
Carve the neck

A neck is cut from a long board, thinned to a comfortable profile, and given a fingerboard. Frets are pressed into slots along it.

Goes in
Timber
Wind the pickups

A pickup is a magnet wrapped in a coil of fine wire. A moving steel string disturbs the magnetic field and induces a small electric signal.

Goes in
Copper wire
Spray and polish

The body and neck are sprayed with color and a clear lacquer coat, left to cure and buffed to a gloss.

Goes in
Lacquer
Fit the hardware

A bridge, tuning machines, knobs, switches and an output jack are mounted. Pickups are wired to the controls.

Goes in
Solder Brass
String and set up

Steel strings are fitted and tuned. The maker adjusts the neck, string height and intonation so each fret plays in tune.

Goes in
Steel wire
Play-test it

Each guitar is plugged into an amplifier and checked for buzz, dead spots and noise.

End of the lineElectric guitar

Worth repeating

The Fender Esquire and Broadcaster, later renamed the Telecaster, first made in 1950, were the first mass-produced solid-body guitars.
George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacker invented the electromagnetic pickup.
In 1940 Les Paul built a "log guitar" from a wood post with a neck attached, an experiment that later inspired the 1952 Gibson Les Paul.