Guitar Building Progress Report

[john whittaker]

Thought a few folks would be interested in this guitar building project. This post would be WAY too long if I explained everything so I'll just hit the highlights.
LOML gave me a Martin guitar kit for Christmas. I bought a few books as recommended and after reading...went searching the net for more info. Didn't really start building until the end of Feb.

Kit is very high quality and included most of the material needed to complete a dreadnaught designed after the Martin D-16. What it does not include is:

* Good instructions
* Tools (there are many "specialty tools", some required, some just optional but a huge help. Some cost quite a bit but most can be made. I have had a blast researching, designing and making some neat tools specifically for this project)
* Finishing material.
* Extra purfling and binding material to enhance the instrument beyond the very basic items supplied

There are two basic methods used in guitar building...open style and form building. The open style allows more flexibility in design while using a form limits you to building a guitar the exact shape of the form you make. The form style is easier and recommended for beginners. Guess which one I choose?

I'll say that anyone with greater than 1st year beginner woodworking skills could do this. The kit comes with most of the wood pre-bent to shape. I would expect that most seasoned woodworkers would be comfortable with cutting and forming (bending) their own parts and would not require a kit. But a kit is a great way to start your first instrument regardless of experience.

You will need router skills, gluing skills, tool sharpening skills and plenty of clamps (some things never change). But the most important skill you will need is patience.

First pic...Shows the work station I put inside my house. I also brought in a work bench (not shown). Building in a climate controlled environment (not my garage) seemed like a good idea. You can see the cork lined form and the start of a guitar.

Second pic...Would not post…but if it did you would see the Brazilian rosewood (laminated) sides trimmed to size and placed inside the form. Note that the form can be opened by taking off the metal brace. This form keeps things aligned and square. As you can imagine, accuracy is important.

Third pic...Head and tail blocks (supplied with kit) are glued to the sides.

Forth pic...Linings (supplied w/kit) are glued along the inside rim of the top & bottom. These 1" clamps work great for this as the linings are angled and the claps feet swivel to the angled shape. (Bought a whole tube of these clamps for 2 bucks at Woodcraft) These linings give more gluing surface when the top and bottom are glued to the sides.

Fifth pic...Shell is complete and out of the form. Next post will show the top and bottom being prepared and glued to the sides.

[john whittaker]

Pic 6...Supplied braces must be carefully glued to the top and bottom. There are many ways to do this and you must come up with a method appropriate with the tools & clamps you have.

Pic 7...I used home made cauls and clamps to glue the braces to the top.

Pic 8...Braces finished on the top.

Pic 9..Gluing braces to the bottom is made more difficult because the bottom has a radius. I'm sure experienced builders will laugh at this pic but it is how I worked out the glue method....I placed many shims around the bottom that matched the radius of the bottom and them used cauls and anything I could find to get-er-done. FWIW - the bottom came out perfect and this maze of clamps and cauls worked great.

Pic 10...Shows the bottom being glued to the sides. Note the spindle clamps made from a hardwood dowel and carriage bolts. They are cork lined. These little clamps have come in handy for some other small glue-ups. Also note that I am not using the form when gluing the top & bottom. I have a reason but just so you know, I found a way to keep the sides perpendicular to the top/bottom. (a function normally accomplished by using the form)

[john whittaker]

Pic 11...Top view of bottom being glued to sides
Pic 12...View of top being glued to sides
Pic 13...Finished sound box. Now the binding and purfling need to be done.
Pic 14...I didn't take any pictures of the channel routed around the sides to accept the side binding & purfling but this pic shows the binding being glued and taped. Tape is plenty to hold it till it dries. I used my router table to do the channels and it was much easier than expected. You will see in the next pic a piece of blue tape in the shape of an arrow...put there to remind me what direction to rout in order to avoid chip out.
Pic 15...Close-up of the top complete. Note that the kit only included one plain white binding strip and no purfling. I added the black white stripe to the binding and a classic herringbone top purfling. This matches the rosette and is the classic Martin look I was going for. Also note that the bottom channel is not done yet.....Again, the radius causes a few issues with this process.

[john whittaker]

Pic 16... Shows herringbone purfling on top and the cut-out to accept the truss rod.
Pic 17...Started putting the fret wire on the finger board. The finger board is supplied with the kit and the slots are pre-cut. The fret wire is supplied in one long piece. You must cut it and press it into place. I did not want to spend the cash for a fancy dancy fret press so I ended up using a 1/8" strip of hard maple and a "C" clamp to press the wire in place. This did a good job but it took a few hours. FYI - I made this technique up...If you try making a kit you will undoubtedly come up with some good ideas as well (and not so good DAMHIKT)
Pic 18 & 19 This is a tool I made to consistently angle the sides of the frets. (about 35 degrees) It's just a piece of left over walnut with a groove cut in it to accept a fine metal file. Suede cloth is tacked on so it glides over the frets without marking them.
Pic 20...Almost finished frets. After this pic I filled in the little spaces (with black dyed CA glue) where the frets didn't go all the way to the bottom of the slots. Mama of pearl dots were also glued in after this pic.

[john whittaker]

Last pics for today...I actually have not touched this guitar project for several months. The next step is finishing and I do not own any spray equipment. Lacquer is the finish of choice and I will be ordering an HVLP system soon and get this guitar done. There are other ways to finish a guitar without spraying but none are as good and I didn't want the finish to be the weak link.

Pic 21...Fingerboard with dots glued in. Not quite done leveling and dressing the frets. Blue tape is marking a few high spots.

Pic 22...I also added side dots which goes along with the look I was going for.

Pic 23...This was not part of the kit but I added a back center strip that is the classical Martin look of yesteryear. You can also see the bottom binding in this shot.

Pic 24...This is how the guitar looks today as it sits waiting for me to buy an HVLP conversion gun.

Pic 25...Another shot waiting for a finish. The neck is not attached to the sound board yet. They will be finished separately. The nut and bridge are also not glued on yet....just there for looks now.

Thanks for looking. I will be happy to answer any questions. I'm not an expert...didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn recently. But I have learned a lot from this first attempt at a guitar and could answer questions based on this limited knowledge.

[David Wilson]

John.
Your guitar project looks great. I've watched Hand Made Music a few times on DIY and thought this would be an interesting project. When you are finished it would be interesting to hear the finished project. Maby SMC can allow sound files to be attached to posts.

[Corvin Alstot]

Very cool project, it sure looks like fun.
Looks like you are progressing quite well. I am sure there will be a lot of
questions but let me start with the first couple ones. . .

Looks like you have revised the kit in several areas to make it more like a
specific Martin- which Martin? If you mind me asking, how much should
one budget for the special tools (assume one has most standard power and hand tools)
should I buy the same kit? What type of glues are you suppose to use?
Do certain areas require different glues?<O:p</O:p

Best of luck- I hope to start one of these projects in the future- how man hours do you think it will take?
Regards, Corvin

[Vaughn McMillan]

Looking great John. You may have mentioned it in the past, but I don't recall -- who was the source for the kit? I've not really started researching guitar kits yet, so I'm trying to learn who sells what.

- Vaughn

[Corey Hallagan]

Wow John, I am impressed with what you have done here. Excellent!!

Corey

[john whittaker]

Corvin...if I recall, you use quite a few hand tool so this type of project would be right up your alley. I think the only power tools strongly recommended to build a kit is a router (trim is best but I used my hand & table router set up) a drill press and some type of spray equipment. All the rest can be done with common hand tools and a few specialty tools which are all available in neanderthal styles. If you were to start a guitar from scratch, larger power tools would be useful in shaping the wood.

I saw where you had asked earlier about the neck. The kits come with a neck that is +95% shaped already.

I'm trying to make a guitar that looks like a Martin D-28 I played years ago. I have a friend that has a D-28 and it's the beast sounding acoustic I've ever heard. This kit was a D-16 from Martin but as you saw, I have embellished the outer decor to mimic the older D-28 I remember. The inside bracing on the sound board (top) is a D-16 style however as that is what was supplied with the kit.

As far as what kit I recommend...I (LOML) got this one from Martin and it is a high quality kit. But I would buy my next kit from Stewart MacDonald. They also sell high quality kits AND include a video and better instructions. Stew Mac also sells anything else you could possibly need in the way of tools and materials. HOWEVER...even if you get the Stew Mac kit with instructions, I think it best to research other books and web sites. There are so many ways to perform the many steps involved and it's cool to see how others have done things. Besides, you will get a bunch of suggestions on how to build those "special" tools I spoke of. FYI - High quality kits run about $350- $450.

I can't tell you how much you might need to spend on special tools as it depends on what you currently have and how you expect to do certain tasks. The tools I did purchased were almost all because they are very specific to instrument building and I think I spent about $200 on them. Common woodworking tools that I had already include card scraper, good chisels, VERY accurate straight edge & square, calipers, router & bits, clamps, drill press, & Dremel. I guess the tool I used most is the scraper.

You also asked about glues. You will find that there are varying opinions on which types to use where. I used Titebond I for most of the sound box assembly. I used epoxy for the truss rod and the binding, purfling & tail wedge were glued in using Duco cement. Many folks use hide glue on the sound box as it is easier to repair. I do not have a glue pot and decided on Titebond I which many other builders have used.

As I mentioned once before...the two most important tool to have are patience and passion.

[Jim Hager]

Looks like you are doing a really good job. I did one of those in a D-28 kit a few years ago. I was surprised at how well it plays.

It was lots and lots of fun to put together and I'm sorry to say that I didn't document my build up as well as you did. Good job and thanks for sharing.