The Easel guitar-making community

Build guitars together, with Chris Monck as your guide

Design your electric guitar’s body, neck and fretboard in Easel.

Meet Chris and the makers
Chris Monck holds a freshly carved guitar body beside his CNC in the Highline Guitars workshop Chris shares his guitar buildby Chris Monck / Highline Guitars A blue electric guitar with a pale wooden neck resting horizontally on a workshop bench Electric Guitarby Steve Carmichael A natural-wood electric guitar body with a white pickguard, black pickups and metal bridge against a red wall Picciuto Guitar Bodyby David Picciuto

Start in Easel. Build with the community.

Design your first guitar with Chris’s Easel app

To design your first electric guitar, open Apps → More Apps → Electric Guitar in Easel, the app designed by Chris Monck of Highline Guitars. Choose a body and headstock shape, scale length, fret count and nut width; then choose your pickups, tone controls and hardtail or vintage-style tremolo bridge. Preview the guitar, check the Hardware tab against the parts you will buy, set your blank thicknesses and generate the body, neck, fret-slot, fretboard and pickguard workpieces. The app lays out matching 1/8-inch neck-bolt pilot holes in the neck heel and body pocket, plus tuner holes and pickguard screw pilots. These are not universal mounting templates: mark hardtail bridge screws and pickup mounting screws from your actual hardware, using the generated saddle line to position the hardtail bridge; enlarge small pilot holes where your hardware requires it.

Follow Chris’s My Easel Project Guitar videos below as you move from design to carving, finishing and assembly. Whether this is your first build or your fiftieth, bring your progress and questions to the Easel community Hub.

1. Get to know Chris, then follow the build

Visit Highline Guitars on YouTube · Open the build playlist

Jump to your build stage: Design · Fretboard · Body · Finishing · Assembly · Share your progress.

Part 1: The design — Start with Chris’s guitar design before moving into the Easel project.

Part 2: The Easel project walkthrough — Follow the project walkthrough in Easel to connect the design with its carving files.

Part 4: Make a fretboard — Move from the design to making the fretboard.

Part 6: Make a guitar body — Follow the body-making stage of Chris’s build.

Part 7: Finish sanding and side marker dots — Continue with finish sanding and adding the side markers.

Part 8: Polymerized tung oil finish — Watch the application of the finish used in this build.

Part 9: Control cavity cover and frets — Make the control cavity cover and move on to fret installation.

Part 10: Polish the finish and install the neck — Bring the finished body and neck together.

Part 11: Begin final assembly — Follow the start of final assembly after the earlier woodworking and finishing stages.

Part 12: Make a guitar nut — Continue the assembly work with making the nut.

Parts 3 and 5 are not currently available in the public playlist; the numbers above preserve Chris’s order.

Hear how Chris got started

In Easel Podcast episode 3, Chris talks with Zach Kaplan about starting with a guitar for his daughter, moving to CNC and building more than 500 guitars. Listen for the story behind Highline Guitars and his advice for a first build.

2. Bring your guitar build to the Easel community Hub

Have a body sketch, a carved neck, a finishing test or your first assembled instrument? Open the Easel community Hub to share the stage you have reached and the question you are working through. Include a photograph and the component, hardware or fit you are trying to understand so other guitar builders can follow along.

If you have built guitars before, share the detail you wish someone had explained on your first one: how you checked a neck fit, chose your hardware or approached a finish. A work in progress gives newcomers and experienced makers something specific to learn from together.

The guitar projects in the Easel gallery below offer more builds to learn from. If you are keeping an existing neck and only need the body, the guitar-body guide covers that narrower task.

First guitars, shared files and the makers behind them

Begin with Chris’s walkthrough, then meet Steve, David and christopher. Their notes and remakes give a first-time builder something concrete to ask about—and experienced builders a place to share what they learned.

See more guitar projects in the Easel gallery →

Lessons from the builders

Learn from the builders’ own notes

Bring a fret-slot question to Steve’s project discussion or a neck-fit question to David’s. Share the part, bit or hardware you are working with so another builder has context. Sign in to comment; a reply is not guaranteed.

Fretboard alignment · Steve’s cutting sequence

In step 4 of Electric Guitar, Steve Carmichael cuts the fret slots first, changes to a larger bit, and cuts the fretboard profile without moving the machine’s home position. He also notes that the slot width must suit the fret wire.

Project notes by Steve Carmichael: read the source.

From Electric Guitar by Steve Carmichael.

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Neck fitting · David’s checkpoint

David Picciuto’s steps 6–8 cut the neck pocket, then the pickup and control cavities, and finally the outside shape. He asks for a snug neck fit.

Project notes by David Picciuto: read the source.

From Picciuto Guitar Body by David Picciuto.

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Explore techniques

Your work in progress belongs here

A body sketch, your first carved neck or a finishing test is enough to start a guitar-build conversation. Create a free Easel account, then bring your progress and questions to the community Hub. No credit card required.