How to Build a PRS Guitar Contents 1 How to Build a PRS Guitar

How to Build a PRS Guitar 2 Planning the Build

Planning the Build 3 Choosing the Right Wood

Choosing the Right Wood 4 Cutting the Body

Cutting the Body 5 Book Matching the Top

Book Matching the Top 6 Routing Semi-Hollow Body Back I have always liked the way PRS guitars looked. They always seemed high end and classy to me. When I was younger, I could never afford to get a real high end PRS guitar like a private stock or Modern Eagle. Now that I am older and have much more knowledge about guitar building and construction, I don’t really want an actual PRS guitar. I know it sounds bad, but I have found many flaws in their designs. If you wondering how could this be, keep reading my articles about this project. I’ll point them out. This is why I decided to build my own PRS (look-a-like) guitar. I wanted to keep the same exact look of a PRS but fix the flaws in the design. Check out my articles from start to finish.

Planning the Build Taking the time to design your guitar project before you jump into it is the most important step in building any guitar. Before you can design your guitar, you must figure out exactly what you want in your new guitar. Your guitar’s design will be shaped by the playing style, hardware and overall feel of the instrument. I decided that I wanted to build a semi-hollow electric guitar for a few different reasons… Read More

Choosing the Right Wood Choosing the right wood for any guitar project can be tricky. Different types of guitar wood provide different types of structure and also create many different types of tones. Your choice of guitar wood should not only reflect the type of guitar you are starting to build, but it should also reflect your playing style. I decided to go with a Honduras Mahogany back, highly Quilted Maple top, and a beautiful Macassar Ebony neck… Read More

Cutting the Body Cutting the Honduras Mahogany body out is relatively simple. First, I used a pencil to draw the outline of the guitar body onto the piece of wood. You can either make a template or stencil of the body to draw the body on body blank. I prefer to make templates of all the bodies that I have made. This gives me a chance to make a full size replica of the guitar. I can hold the actual shape in my hands before I make any cuts… Read More

Book Matching the Top Almost all guitar tops are book matched. The book matching process starts by splitting a piece of wood in half. The wood is then opened like a book showing symmetrical grain patterns. Book matching is not only used for looks, it is also used because it allows the builder to make guitar tops with smaller pieces of wood. Once I book matched my piece of quilted maple, I had to get it ready to glue… Read More