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Thread: To Anyone Who Has Built An Acoustic Guitar From Scratch

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Location
    Punta Gorda, FL
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    3,028
    Thanks for the thoughts, Mel. I think I'm good, as long as figured sapele will work. The piece I have is perfect.

    Now I have a confession. I was wrong about the brace dimensions not being given. They are on the plans. I simply missed it.
    “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." - Mark Twain

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Mar 2018
    Location
    Piercefield, NY
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    1,638
    I have built three acoustic guitars so far following the Kinkead book. The only change I made was to make the body a uniform depth along the full length rather than have it deeper in the lower bout and shallower in the upper. The first two were cherry and the third was walnut. I used the lowest grade Sitka spruce soundboard wood from Stew-Mac and it was about $20 per guitar, the wood was very nice and I had no complaints about it at all. If you'd like to see the guitars I made, or links to videos of how they sound here's a link to my website.
    Zach
    https://hoytbanjos.com/acoustic-guitars/

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Location
    Punta Gorda, FL
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zachary Hoyt View Post
    I have built three acoustic guitars so far following the Kinkead book. The only change I made was to make the body a uniform depth along the full length rather than have it deeper in the lower bout and shallower in the upper. The first two were cherry and the third was walnut. I used the lowest grade Sitka spruce soundboard wood from Stew-Mac and it was about $20 per guitar, the wood was very nice and I had no complaints about it at all. If you'd like to see the guitars I made, or links to videos of how they sound here's a link to my website.
    Zach
    https://hoytbanjos.com/acoustic-guitars/
    Thanks for the link, Zach. The guitars look great! Nice to know someone who has built guitars with Kincaid's book.
    “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." - Mark Twain

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Location
    Punta Gorda, FL
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    I started working on the braces then stepped back and reviewed the book. It was then I realized I'd have to cut the rosette and soundhole before doing to the braces. Glad I checked.

    I have two bases for the Dremel, the StewMac original and a Micro Plunge base. The Dremel comes in a pretty complete kit. I thought with all that I'd have some way to cut a circle. I was wrong!

    So I designed something to fit on the StewMac base because the Micro Plunge is a bit bulky for cutting small holes. The jig I created is made from 1/4" plexiglas.


    I gave it a try on the test soundboard.



    I had cut two passes on the soundhole and almost finished it when I realized I need to cut the rosette first. Whew! The only issue I had with the circle cutter was with the StewMac base. I hadn't tightened the depth adjustments enough and on the second pass it wiggled off the circle.

    I only did one rosette ring and filled it with African mahogany. I'll have to give future rosettes more thought.



    I didn't put a shellac seal on the soundboard before applying CA to the rosette. That's why the bleed marks.
    “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." - Mark Twain

  5. #20
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    Jul 2012
    Location
    Punta Gorda, FL
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    Been messing around with the braces in between the kitchen cabinet job and doing taxes. The guitar work has kept me sane.

    I picked up three sets of soundboards. Two of them cost $8/ea and they will be my learning boards. A couple of GAL videos on making a soundboard. The presenters said they have found scalloping the braces has little effect over straight backed braces. The first guy seemed very credible but the second guy was on the order of having multiple PhDs in lutherie. The research he's done in soundboards and guitar design is mind blowing. So I decided to make one soundboard with scalloped braces and the other with straight braces and see how it goes.

    The first set of braces are ready for glue up.


    Next is to get the first $8 soundboard glued up, shaped, etc. I'll probably take that pine soundboard and put it next to my first solid body experiment.
    “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." - Mark Twain

  6. #21
    Join Date
    Mar 2018
    Location
    Piercefield, NY
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    The braces look great, good for you. I don't scallop mine, and the guitars have sounded good to me, but what do I know. I use Titebond 1 to glue the rosette in, I make a channel 1/8" wide and try for the wood for the rosette to be .123" to .125" wide before bending. Then I bend it and once it's dry I put glue in the bottom of the channel and tap the rosette in with a hammer, very gently. Each little bit of the circle will sort of pop into place, and then I push the next bit into place and tap it down. I don't cut the end off till I get all the way around the circle, and then it's easy to do with a knife. If I was clever it would be nice to precut the length but I'm not sure enough to do it. My rosette/soundhole cutter is a piece of 2x2 SPF scrap that I drilled a hole in and threaded the Dremel into, back before I had a base for it. I have some different holes in the 2x2 for making different radii, but I have to be careful to put the right hole on the pivot. It's rather primitive compared to yours.
    Zach

  7. #22
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    North Carolina
    Posts
    41
    Really nice work on that guitar. I can't offer you any advise except maybe to see if your local library can get you a copy of Trevor Gore's book on guitar design and building. I bought it as a present to myself, but I don't think many other beginners are crazy enough make that investment. .

    I've got most of the other books mentioned here, or have borrowed them, and I will never open them again for advise on design. Gore and Gilet made them all obsolete by explaining the physics. They don't tell you what sound to aim for, but they do tell you how to design to get the sound you want, and how to test your wood and such. Pretty amazing. There's no tapping and guessing if the tone sounds good. It's tapping and measuring frequency curves and stressing it with weights and measuring deflections. You use some simple tools and a microphone. I get through a few pages a night. Cool stuff if you want to understand what makes a guitar sound like a guitar, and also how to manipulate parameters to affect volume, eq, overtones, etc.

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