Build Your Own First Guitar – BYO 318 – Ray Benitez

Kill, Kill, Kill (switch)

BYO318 Ray Benitez 18/9/12

Bandsman with mahogany body, flame ash cap, mahogany neck (from a pew in a church in Glasgow) and ash veneer on the headstock. Black hardware throughout, tun-o-matic bridge, humbucker pickups and oiled finish.

I call this the ‘Ying and Yang’ guitar – built by me (a bass player) for my guitarist son – and with a dark side/light side to the book-matched ash on the front. Overall a wonderful experience. Thank you Mark and Carol, Billy and Fiona and my fellow builders. Ray Benitez

Ray came up from the depths of England to our build your own first guitar course – he wanted to make his own version of the Bailey Bandsman with some input into his spec from his guitar playing son, and although options on this course are limited, as you can see it is still possible to create something really individual.

Ray and his son had both wanted a kill switch. Not for each other…In guitar world which is much nicer than the real world a ‘Kill Switch’ simply enables you turn the signal on and off really fast – handy for plugging in or out without unnecessary noise, but also makes a great effect for playing around with. Any kind of switch can be used but Ray chose a mini on/off switch, another popular choice is a push button style momentary contact switch. Unfortunately, neither one was not available at the time- You sometimes have to accept that in the world of guitar making – trees don’t grow to order and parts don’t always arrive (or exist! but that’s another story…)

No problem – I just made sure the cavity at the back was large enough so all he had to do was drill a hole and wire up the new switch. I was hopeful that the course would give him enough confidence to do this job when he got home on his own…

Like many of our builders, the story doesn’t end when they leave the workshop. Ray went on to add the custom “kill switch” himself as you can see in the last picture. Well done Ray!

…and it didn’t end there…here’s what he said in an email we received soon after:

My son is absolutely delighted with it…. has really been enjoying playing the guitar I made with you last year. It has inspired him to build a guitar as a school DT project.  So I’ve been volunteered to help out 🙂

That’s what it’s all about.