Guitar Building - Crafting Your Own Guitar
Find out how to build your own guitar, where to get guitar supplies, how to make jigs & templates and more.
Guitar Building. Are you ready for the challenge? This site will bring you through the initial steps needed to get started on this incredibly rewarding task.
Guitar Construction certainly is not for the faint-hearted, but if you have drive and determination and oh yes, a little bit of talent you can accomplish your goal.
Completed Classical In Form
Many people are under the misconception that you have to be a master-woodworker to build a guitar. While that would be a nice attribute to possess, not all that people attain that level of workmanship. Many average and beginner woodworkers have make fine first guitars. Ultimate Guitar Building will be looking over your shoulder.
If you have and any level of woodworking in school or as a hobby and you have the drive and spirit and can follow directions, you can do it. It is just a one-step-at-a-time process, just like any other hobby or task. I would only recommend that you be very anal about precision, as in order for everything to mesh correctly we have to deal with fractions of a mm for some of the operations. If you are a bit of a do-it-yourself person anyway, you will have no problem.
Zircote Tonewood
In our first section of Guitar Building, I will give you a broad overview of what will be involved and the kind of operations you will be required to complete. I will give you an idea as to what kind of money you will be into for doing this and what your choices will be.
Inside Form
Secondly, we have execellent very detailed plans available in our Plans Section that will get you started on the right foot and by having all the instruction you need.
Next we will review what tools are needed and which ones are optional. We will be reviewing the following power tools, hand tools, specialty tools, jigs & forms in upcoming articles.
Stationary Power Tools To Consider
Specialty Tools Required
Guitar Forms
Templates
Essential Jigs
Heal Detail
In Guitar Building you should ask the question - are you just going to make a guitar for yourself or one of your children or a friend? Will you continue to make more guitars, or just this one? Or maybe it goes so good you decide to make another guitar for another family member or a friend. Then you get another order and so it goes!
We will cover in overview fashion, what operations will happen on your way to build your first guitar. Do I have your attention?
Back Clamping Operation
So check out what type of guitar you want and we will help you on your venture to care for it, repair it and accessorize it. So buy a guitar!
Here is a true story about a one-man luthier shop where I used to give guitar lessons. He had a small music shop in the late 70's and decided to start construction on a classical guitar. Armed with Irving Sloan's book on Classic Guitar Construction and absolutely no woodworking experience, he forged ahead.
Things went very slowly first - several months to complete and after it was done? Well it really did look like a homemade creation - and sounded like one too. He had no one to guide him, no advice and very little access to luthier supplies and required forms and tools.
He persisted in his Guitar Building aspirations, branching off into acoustic and electric guitar construction and slowly the guitars started to improve. He also began to advertise guitar repair and over the years , built up his business and experimented and gathered information from woodworkers, fellow peers and customers.
For the last 15+ years he has sold his guitars to incredible musicians and now sells top of the line guitars for $3,000.00 to $25,000.00 and has a huge waiting list. He did it - can you? You better believe it!! By the way this is a close friend of mine and I promised to kept his identity confidential.
Bottom line? We will give you a wealth of information that he did not even have when he began his journey. So you can have a jump-start and get some valuable, insider information.
So take a look around these pages. I will be adding a lot of information in the coming months and check back often.
Tonewood
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