Professionals View On How To Model This?

I’m pretty much a noob at modeling, I’ve dabbled in it a bit but I still have no idea what I am doing.

I was wondering if I could get a professionals view on how to model these:
http://www.gamersgizmos.org/images/guitar-hero-ii_51.jpg
http://www.lydogbilde.no/getfile.php/261618.919.uqdftrabvv/Guitar%20Hero%20-%20gitar.jpg

I figure they will be easy to start out with. I’ve watched a few video tutorials and I still have no idea how to go about it.

What I personally wanted to do was put it as a background image (witch i learned) Then place vertex’s down and kind of trace it like a vector. Then extrude it and bevel the edges.

Example:

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/1470/examplelw4.jpg

I know this is alot to ask but It would be greatly helpful. If anyone knows of video tutorials where they use background images to start out their model those would be greatly appreciated too.

Im not a pro, but extruding is a good start. Remember in editing mode CTRL+R is a good way to split loops and add more vertex points so you can make extruding different directions easier later

There are many ways that you could do it, all of which can end up in “good” or “bad” results. Just make sure to have as few triangles as possible, because they tend to screw up meshes.

Yes, basically you got a good way to start with this - use a background image to get the basic outline done and then go on to add details to the mesh (or meshes) you’ve created that way and to make it “3 dimensional”. That means, extrude heights and depths.

Also, you don’t have to trace the outline with only vertices, I’d actually recommend to start with a plane and extrude from there. That way you don’t have to manually add the faces later on and since this object is rather simple, the results should be good enough to work with them.

Not exactly a pro here, but I use background images regularly for logos and the like. I’d start with the background image, then trace it using Bezier Curves. Then Alt+C to convert to mesh, then model the whammy bar. I’d probably model the tuning pegs seperately too, as well as anything that sticks out overly much. Good luck!