People making their own guitar, before Dr May

Anybody know any examples?

Not many known guitarists did this quite frankly.

However, building your own guitar due to not having money to buy a real one has happened for decades!

Most well-known type of home-made guitar is the Cigar Box Guitar. (just google it)

And for anyone interested, watch the intro to 'It Might get Loud', where guitarist Jack White builds an electric guitar from scratch in 5 minutes.

Fascinating.

seasick steve

I thought the question was people Before BHM?

Historical example discussed briefly from 0:14

http://.youtube.com/watch?v=990GRjtnkDc

You can bet lots of woodwork classes tried, god knows if any were playable!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=990GRjtnkDc

Sorry try that ^

Indeed BEFORE BHM.. that's why I mentioned the Cigar Box Guitars.

From the 60s on I bet lots of people gave it a shot.

Bo Diddeley?

[QUOTE] [b]Fireplace wrote:[/b]
Bo Diddeley?[/QUOTE]

Bo Diddley, but yeah, that was the first example to come to mind for me, too.

Les Paul

Paul was dissatisfied with acoustic-electric guitars and began experimenting at his apartment in Queens, NY with a few designs of his own. Famously, he created several versions of "The Log", which was nothing more than a length of common 4x4 lumber with a bridge, guitar neck and pickup attached. For the sake of appearance, he attached the body of an Epiphone hollow-body guitar, sawn lengthwise with The Log in the middle. This solved his two main problems: feedback, as the acoustic body no longer resonated with the amplified sound, and sustain, as the energy of the strings was not dissipated in generating sound through the guitar body. These instruments were constantly being improved and modified over the years, and Paul continued to use them in his recordings long after the development of his eponymous Gibson model.

Paul's innovative guitar, "The Log", built after-hours in the Epiphone guitar factory in 1940, a 4" × 4" chunk of pine with strings and a pickup, was one of the first solid-body electric guitars. Paul Tutmarc of Audiovox Manufacturing Co. built a solid body electric bass in 1935 and Adolph Rickenbacker had marketed a solid-body guitar in the 1930s and Paul A. Bigsby had built one for Merle Travis in 1948 and Leo Fender also independently created his own (the Fender "Broadcaster" later changed to "Esquire" for copyright reasons, a single pickup model) in 1948. Although Paul approached the Gibson Guitar Corporation with his idea of a solid body electric guitar, they showed no interest until Fender began marketing its Esquire which later had a second pick-up added and became known as the Telecaster.

Bill Wyman made his own fretless bass in 1961.

Bo Diddley, which I think Brian acknowledged when he passed away.

Jeff Beck

im pretty sure Abraham Lincoln did it

My grandfather