Document, document, document

I'm helping a friend build a guitar. He doesn't want to spend a lot of money on wood until he has some idea of what he is doing (quite reasonably). I started to think about the 2x4 guitar and other ways to use "cheap" wood.

I wondered over to Home Depot and looked for the cheapest wood they had. While not the cheapest, per se, I pulled out several cedar 5'x6"x5/8" "fence" board for ~$1.80/each that where perfectly straight-grained & quarter-sawed. I ran them through my planner. The tap-tone is good.

Encouraged by the results, I picked put a couple more boards. I grabbed a wildly figured one for the back, and straight-grained ones for the sides, braces, etc. Looks like it will take 5 boards to build an entire body (~$9).

Of course I'd still need a neck. Looking around, I wondered if I could temporarily "borrow" the neck off my cheap "pawn shop" electric guitar. A chunk of 2x4, a band saw, and several clamps later, it looks like it is indeed feasible to use an electric guitar neck on an acoustic guitar.

So here we are a couple hours later and I have a 1/2 finished guitar and not a single photo. If it sounds like a $9 guitar, no real loss. If it sounds like a $900 guitar, I'd really wish I would have documented everything I've done so far...