Building a fender-style guitar first is the easiest route, especially if you use a double-truss neck rod (get it from Stewart Mac). I recommend buying a pre-cut fret board as well. Also, you can use tung oil instead of clear coating. Trying to do an opaque spray job was my biggest regret. I could have oiled my beautiful mahogany body with much better results.
Tools:
* Flexible edge (for pegboard and body profile https://shop.pacificarc.us/products/flexible-edge-curves)
* Bandsaw (body and neck shape)
* Drill Press
* Router (For the neck and body cavities)
* Thickness planer (only need this once to plane the body wood before gluing)
* Curved carving knife (Like this https://ramelson.com/product/curved-hook-carving-knife/) to profile the neck.
* Pipe clamps
Nice to have tools:
* Oscillating spindle sander
* Belt sander
* Router table
I recommend using an easy to work wood like maple for the first attempt. I found mahogany to be a lot of effort to work. Expect the project to take quite a wile. I think mine took 200 hours.