There is a monthly guitar builder meetup at the Rockler on Coit, on I believe the first Thursday of every month.
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I spoke with a gentleman Sunday who had just joined the previous day, he has been building guitars for a long time and wants to use the cnc router to speed up making bodies for his classes and is wondering about offering a class at DMS. I am bad with names but I remember his last name was Paul, Forgot to ask if his fathers name was Les ??
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I have built a lap guitar with a 2x4, a gold foil style pickup, an allthread rod and machine heads that sounds like vintage trashy gold but i imagine you mean a proper bodied guitar.
As has been said, you can CNC cut the base in a pretty simple process, i have seen tutorials in depth on Instructables. The electronics are pretty easy and is largely a few pots, a jack and wiring your pickups correctly. If you want it to LOOK pretty, you will going down the rabbit hole of tonewoods and will need to find a luthier. Most people tend to build with maple due to its higher availability and good rounded tone but that’s the tip of the tonewood iceberg. I would start with a more rustic functional build before investing in hardwood.
You may check cigarboxnation.com for some good builds that are entry-level. Building a guitar uses roughly the same concepts (resonator, tuners, pickup) and that’s a good way to get your feet wet.
I’d definitely drive up from Austin for that class.
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Sorry, getting to this thread late. I’m part of a local group of builders (Luthiers Interactive North Texas) that meets 6 times a year to share projects and guitar building knowledge. The primary focus of the group is acoustic instruments but we have folks who do electrics as well.
The next meeting is Aug 8th in Red Oak and anyone is welcome to come and test the waters before signing up as a member.
See www.lint.org for more details about the group and events/meetings that are coming up.
There is another group (I am not a member) called Guys Building Guitars, and my understanding is that they focus more on electric instruments. You might try to look them up online to see what they have going on as well.
Hope that helps!
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I’m a little late to the party on this thread, but for anyone interested in building guitars there are two local groups that meet regularly for that purpose.
Luthier’s Interactive North Texas (LINT) meets every other month somewhere in or around the DFW area. The club has over 40 members, including several professional builders. Primarily focused on acoustic guitars/mandolins/banjos, but some members build electrics as well. They also put on an annual master class and have several mini-classes throughout the year. www.lint.org is their website which is kept up to date with the events and other information.
Guys Building Guitars is the other group and, I believe, more focused on electric guitars/basses. As far as I know they do not have a website but you can find their group on Facebook. They used to meet at a Rockler store, but not sure if that’s still the case.
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Just saw that I’d already posted on this thread. Guess I was late to the party, just not as late as I thought. 
I’ve been working on an electric guitar. Been too busy with school to finish. Hopefully soon.
Heard of both of them. Haven’t really looked into them closely.
I realize it has been a couple of years, but have you completed the project?
I just joined recently and as soon as I checked out on the equipment, I plan to work on electric projects.
I have been building electrics at DMS and there is another member building acoustics. Let me know if you have any questions!
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I came up to use the band saw and found combination locks on the power. Any idea how I go about getting the combination?
I believe the plan was that in order to use one of the new (probably locked) Laguna bandsaws you need to take the new class, Bandsaw for Makers. If you took that class then the instructor should have given you the lock code.
The plan was also that at least one unlocked Jet bandsaw would remain. I can see the Jet saw in the camera but I can’t tell whether it’s locked.
Someone else in Woodshop, perhaps HB @got_tools can clarify if that class is the only way to get access to the lock code for the Laguna’s.
Thanks for the reply. I did not check that last one to see if locked. When I took the Woodshop Orientation, the Laguna was demonstrated. I did know those were “special class before using”.
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From what I understood from the class, the Lagunas are much better than the Jet. You will want to keep an eye out for the “Bandsaw for Makers” class. It fills fast.
FWIW, there are a couple of those classes scheduled in the next couple weeks - all full - but you can show up and take your chances that someone will no-show. Obviously if everyone shows up you don’t get in, but you might get lucky.
Thank you for the information
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