The most important question to ask when considering a new project is: Why am I doing this project? I don’t care what kind of project it is, if you don’t know why you’re doing the project, there is no way it will succeed. Whether overhauling a car, implementing a new software system, or building a new guitar (as is the case for me), if there isn’t a good reason for the project, then don’t even bother starting.
Why, then, am I building a new guitar? To start, about six or seven years ago, my master carpenter brother in law cut a guitar body. I then got a neck blank from which he cut a neck with some specs I gave him. But then, I did nothing. The neck and body that he cut and sanded sat in various closets and storage facilities ever since he handed them over to me.
Procrastinating isn’t a bad habit for me. It’s a way of life. No matter what it is, even if I like doing it, I procrastinate. A former boss once told me that the only way I know how to work is under pressure. I disagree. While I don’t have a blanket answer for why I procrastinate, in the case of my homemade guitar, I haven’t wanted to eff it up. So, the best way I know how to prevent effing-up is to not do something. If don’t want to dirty your car after cleaning it, don’t drive it. If you don’t want to make a crappy meatloaf, don’t buy ingredients at the grocery store. And if you don’t want to eff up a cool looking guitar, leave it in storage.
But procrastinating isn’t helpful. Eventually, whatever I put off haunts me and guilts me so badly that I have no choice but to act. For example, one recent day, I was looking through a storage closet when I found the neck. The body was MIA, but the neck was just lying under some junk. I scrounged around and found the fingerboard that I purchased for the roughed-out neck.
The dust that covered them brought me to my knees with guilt. I mean, a tree died to provide the wood and here it was all ignored. I dug through the storage area and somehow managed to find the body. Time and rough treatment scuffed an scratched the body. Talk about guilt.
At that moment, I decided that it was time to build. While guilt isn’t a great reason to do something, I really don’t want to feel like a crappy person. Plus, I want to build the coolest homemade guitar in the world. Then, I want to play it until I am the next guitar idol! And that’s why I am building a new guitar.
