Custom Race Car Guitar Body By 2018 Customs

Project Brief: At 2018 Customs and Studio we specialize in designing and fabbing custom guitars. For this build, my Maker wanted a custom race car guitar body that he designed which will be painted up like the #18 M&M’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race car. The design was sent to me on a sheet of paper at full scale. My Maker wanted three guitar bodies made in total. Two guitars will go to the race team. Each guitar body needed to fit existing Epiphone Les Paul Jr. hardware, electronics and neck which were supplied by my Maker.

Materials: Each body has a fixed bridge with a 1 humbucker pickup made of Alder, which is a realitively inexpensive domestic wood. The neck pocket was to be made so that an orginal Epiphone Les Paul Jr. 6-string neck would fit.

Fabrication Notes: To get started, a model of the guitar needed to be created in the computer using modeling software so that it could be transferred to the ShopBot CNC for cutting. Since my Maker supplied me with a full-scale design on paper I scanned in the image so that I could use that as a guide when creating the solid model using Lightwave in the computer. Once I had developed a good model, I used CAM software to create what is called a toolpath or Part File. Toolpath files are instructions that the ShopBot digital fabrication tool uses to cut out the parts.

Before cutting in actual wood styrofoam was used to check the scale of the model and to also provide a proof of concept to the Maker.

Several pieces of alder were cut to the correct length for the body blanks. Since the wood wasn’t wide enough to accomodate the width of the guitar body each body blank was laminated with additional wood to create body blanks that were wide enough and then each blank planed down to the correct thickness. At this point each body blank is ready to be cut. The digital fab tool will cut the shape of the body as well as the neck pocket, pickup pocket, and electronics cavity on the back. There is also a contour on the back where the neck attaches to the body to make it more confortable when your hand is playing the guitar in that location.

Once each body is cut all the holes are drilled by hand and then sanded. My Maker was going to get each guitar body painted by an artist local to him, so no extra finishing is necessary on our end.

Costs: In this build the cost of the wood to build three guitar bodies was around $195. The hardware and electronics were supplied by my Maker. About 8 hours were spent on the computer creating the model and toolpath files and around 10 hours of digital fab and hand work. The final price was $800. Shipping costs came to about $30 and was an additional cost to my Maker bringing the grand total to $830.

Additional costs for the Maker after receiving the bodies include soldering the electronics and having each body painted. Since each guitar body was receiving hardware and electronics from an Epiphone Les Paul Jr. that cost must be factored in as well. A new Epiphone Les Paul Jr. sells for $130. So a total cost for the Maker would be in the range of $1250 to $1300 plus the cost of getting the electronics wired and soldered, and getting each guitar body painted.