Inspired by my passions for both music and craftsmanship, I spent much of my spare time during senior year of high school assembling a kit guitar. The guitar is a Gibson ES-335 clone, which came with the bulk of the carpentry finished. I worked on the detailing, fret leveling, and playability meticulously until I had a guitar body perfect for my own preferences. I then moved on to the stain and finish to make the guitar look as professional as possible given my resources. Finally, I moved on to teach myself about the electronic components and wired everything together in working order. I now have a fully functional electric guitar that I thoroughly enjoy playing.

This project involved a lot of independent research and skill development. It was my first attempt to ever work on a guitar, whereas previously I had only played them. Pushing myself to complete this project helped me to better understand how the instrument works, which I think makes me a better player. In the future, I would like to challenge myself to build a guitar from scratch. I do not currently possess the time or resources to do so, but I already have some sketches drawn up.

As mentioned previously, this project posed many challenges and opportunities to learn new skills. Teaching myself more about how guitars work increased my ability to learn on my own. Additionally, with this project in particular I learned firsthand how important attention to detail and quality of work can be for project outcomes.