"he's a "lone anonymous storm-trooper in a parking lot engaged in mock intercourse..."

But can he play the stick in that body armor? I have no clue where he puts the belt hook.

Guys that dress up as stormtroopers probably play their mom's megatars.

When I was looking at trying to do an instrument myself, I seriously considered starting with a pre-made neck from Warmoth or Carvin:

http://www.warmoth.com/Gecko/Gecko6Neck.aspx

http://www.carvinguitars.com/catalog/necks/index.php?model=nt6b

I certainly wasn't wanting to re-create a Stick for sure, but wanted a low-action tapping instrument. Seems to me having a well-built neck to start with might save a lot of aggravation later. The Warmoth is probably better crafted, but neck-through construction seems like it would be a lot simpler, IMHO.

Also read this:

http://liutaiomottola.com/construction/FretDressing.htm

As others have pointed out, build tolerances and set-up is going to be critical to get anything usable for tapping.

Hope this helps!

tritone, the PTOT, "Pos Tvac Of Trolls" was chompin at the bit and going through post withdrawals. LOL, ya'll feelin better now.

... all by himself with none of the requisite equipment to actually have intercourse. Kinda like dry humping in a instrument/music blog and not having any music to share. Just a dry hump all by himself.

If you're making it for your own purposes, though, you don't really need to use the EXACT same parts. tuning machines, truss rods, bridges, etc. that would function well enough are available. Early sticks just had guitar frets anyway, as well, right?

My comment was more in comparison with how one would go about building an electric guitar.

Compared to the guitar and bass, where there is a ready pool of parts with appropriate dimensions and string spacing, plans available online, etc, It's much harder to make a functioning Stick. The strings have a wide range of output levels, for example (something you'll hear home-builders and even some players of manufactured instruments complain about).

To compensate for this, Emmett developed his own custom full-range humbucking pickups with height-adjustable pole pieces very early on (even before going into production in 1974)

Except for a few cosmetic changes like the shape of the headstock, and offerings of new pickups, all the other changes Emmett has made over the years have been about making the instrument more playable and easier to set up, and to keep set up.

Conventional frets are a real problem for tapping instruments. Because they inevitably lift up over time, you have to get fretwork done if you're going to keep the action as low as possible.

If you want to see the process of how the instruments evolved, you can right here:

http://www.stick.com/articles/evolution/
http://www.stick.com/history/timeline/

While you probably couldn't build an instrument as good as a stick for the same amount of money as just buying one from SE, we probably shouldn't discourage people from trying. After all, if Emmett hadn't decided to muck about with his guitars way back when we would all be playing "normal" instruments now. I have a feeling that if someone had told him not to try and create, improve and personalize his instruments (and maybe some did) he would have gone and done it anyway. Lots of great innovations have been discovered by people attempting seemingly irrational things.

However, if you're trying to save a buck by building one yourself I doubt you would have much success unless you are a fairly experienced woodworker already with access to a well equipped carpentry shop. You might be able to come up with something more equivalent to the early sticks with the less sophisticated hardware (grub screws for bridge and nut and guitar type frets) as the only thing that is really unique on those is the pickup.

When you're done you can't call it a "Stick" though, you have to call it a taptar or an FTI or a chordaphone or a...

Right, but none of those problems have stopped Warr from being completely successful. Theyre very well built guitars. Different then a stick? sure. But they're completely playable to the point that several stick players have switched completely (Randy Strom, Trey Gunn for example).

Disclaimer: I have absolutely no experience in instrument building.

Why do you want to do your own tapper? If it is a personal challenge and you enjoy building thinks and working with wood? then go ahead .
You plan to save a few bucks? then think again. The B.O.M is not that extensive / expensive, but you will need lots of tools. If you already have a workshop with all the tools OK if not you will spend a fortune of a bunch of tools that you might not use again. Also realize that, unless you are EXTREMELY lucky or an VERY experienced luthier, your first attempt will not be successful. It will take 2 or 3 attempts to end up with something decent, so you will be spending quite more money than expected and it will take a long time.
Also ask yourself; Do you want to be a player or builder?

If you finally decide to build your instrument, you can do it with off the shelf guitar / bass parts. Beware that you will end up with a bigger string spacing that may complicate crossed playing.

My 2 cents.

Cheers, Daniel.

PS: There is a very interesting / instructive sub-section in tappistry.org on instrument building, start there.