'Building' a Danelectro 58 DC

[Olav]

I have long since wanted a Danelectro guitar and especially a DC. I just think they sound so cool. The Made In China reissues don't exactly tickle me though and being a lefty there aren't many old stock DCs to be had.
Oigun, my luthier buddy, told me to get a cheap righty from the interwebz that we'd rip the top off to make room for a lefty-fied top.
I'm an impatient SOB and in the last year every Dano I came across on the eBay either went for more than I was willing to spend or was a MiC.
Then I found this neck;

It's got the Coke bottle headstock that I like way more than the goofy new style heads.

Some nice D-stamped tuners!


I figured a Dano wouldn't be real hard to make, and since I won the auction for the neck, seller included some other nice Dano stuff too, why not give building one from (kinda half-way) scratch?

[Veenture]

Hey Olav, that sounds great! Good luck to you and Oigun in getting this new project under way

[Sarah93003]

How sweet!

[Olav]

had some trouble down sizing pics. we're off again in a minute.

[Olav]

Oigun agreed a Dano wouldn't be hard to build, but he's busy with all sorts of other projects, so I'd have to do the body myself.
OK. Here goes;
Oigun was nice enough to copy one of his Danos to make a routing template for me, which helps a LOT!

There you have it. The GUN made template, a piece of 18mm plywood (birch! don't use the hardwood stuff Oi says, that'll get you in trouble when routing the second or third channel), a piece of 4mm MDF, which is basically the same as Masonite which is used on Danos. A bunch of clamps, box set of router bits, bottle of run-of-the-mill wood glue. All in all €75/$100. I own a circular saw, a coping saw, a router, powerdrills, a B&D workbench or two, cleaned out the garage, let's get cracking!

[Olav]

Pencil traced the template on the 18mm plywood. You might have to lean in to see the lines, they're there for sure!

[Olav]

Rough cut the outlines with coping saw. I stayed away from the lines about a mm or two. Cut away as much as you can, remember to allow for room to manouvre the router base.

[Olav]

I need another skeleton cut to get to 36mm thickness

[Olav]

Drilled some holes to allow for easier turns with the coping saw.

[Olav]

Clean what you're working on regularly

Outlines show way better in this pic.