Building My First Guitar

[printer2]

Walnut would be too soft for the fretboard. Probably best to laminate the neck with flatsawn wood. Get quartered for the back and sides.

[Josh S]

Thank you for the advice!

[SJ VanSandt]

Gibson's J-15 has a walnut fingerboard and bridge, so I expect it would work just fine for you. Good on you for choosing all native woods.

[printer2]

Wood hardness

Mahogany 800
Walnut, Domestic Black 1010
Red Oak 1290
White Oak 1360
Hard Maple, Sugar Maple 1450
Black Locust 1700
Hickory 1820
Osage Orange 2040
Honduran Rosewood 2200
Ebony 3220

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janka_hardness_test

Hey, if I could make a fretboard with red oak I guess walnut will do.

Really not serious, still think it is too soft. Mesquite looks like an interesting wood from North America, if you can get a piece of flooring.

[JLT]

Originally Posted by Gerald Sheppard

Hi Josh,

Great replies so far. Another thought - depending upon how much time and money you want to spent on the guitar, the tools, and making jigs, you can either do it from scratch or consider a kit. A top quality kit is a great choice if you are strapped for tool experience, time, and money. The better kits can make wonderful instruments and provide a lot of knowledge for a beginner.

I totally agree. Making kits is how I got started in lutherie.

And there is a forum dedicated to the kit builder. It's at:

http://www.kitguitarsforum.com/

John Hall, who contributes to AGF from time to time, moderates this forum.

[Aubade Acoustics]

Josh,
Walnut is a fine wood for guitars. For fretboards be aware that the wood has larger pores than a lot of woods which would tend to fill up with oils and dirt from your fingers. If you decide to use it I would recommend filling the pores before fretting, with CA or a pore filler. Also make sure you pre bend the Fretwire before installing it and I would even consider using a fretwire with a longer tang than the standard to help secure it since it is a softer wood. Have fun and look forward to watching the progress.
Michael

[JohnM]

Originally Posted by Josh S

Hey all,

I'm currently a 19 year old college student, and despite my proclivities for school, I find myself more than anything having a desire to build guitars. I recently became obsessed with tonewoods, bracing patterns, etc. I think I'm realizing it's my dream to do something with guitar manufacturing on a larger scale when I'm older....

Anyways, back to present day, and I want to build my first guitar. I've been looking for about a year now on which guitar would be "right" for me, and only recently did I realize how nothing could be better than one I make myself. Because this is my first build, I'm gonna keep it pretty simple-- 000 style, Martin standard (maybe scalloped) bracing, left handed, Sitka over Hog, simple black binding, probably a simple rosette.

Also, I can't really start this build until summer (much to my disappointment, as it's all I think about). I'm currently in New York, but hope to be spending the summer in San Diego (fingers crossed about working for Taylor), and will build in my spare time.

My woodworking experience is minimal, but I have such a strong desire to do this that I feel I can learn via books, YouTube, blogs, etc.

My hope is that in this thread I can get some tips and suggestions by the expert luthiers I know inhabit this site. As I actually get to building, this will be the thread in which I post pictures of my progress.

Thanks for tuning in!

I also sell some DVD's on building as well does Robbie Obrien. His are narrated pictures and are excellent. Mine are video. Might check into one or the other or both.

Best of luck to you! You can do it.

[JamesO]

Originally Posted by Josh S

but haven't looked into Gore's books. They sound fantastic, but they are a bit pricey. Maybe it's for the future...

Try signing up for the OLF classifieds and post a Want To Buy thread for the the "Build" volume. Chances are that you'll be able to find one for $130 or so. In my opinion, it's hands down the best how-to book out there. If you think of it as a tool, it makes the price easier to swallow

If you're not interested in that, check out Robbie O'Brien's Online Guitar Making Course. Phenomenal resource, and one you can purchase chapter by chapter as you progress through the project.

I think either of these would better set you up for success than Cumpiano.

In any case, good luck!

[SJ VanSandt]

Originally Posted by printer2

Wood hardness

Mahogany 800
Walnut, Domestic Black 1010
Red Oak 1290
White Oak 1360
Hard Maple, Sugar Maple 1450
Black Locust 1700
Hickory 1820
Osage Orange 2040
Honduran Rosewood 2200
Ebony 3220

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janka_hardness_test

Hey, if I could make a fretboard with red oak I guess walnut will do.

Really not serious, still think it is too soft. Mesquite looks like an interesting wood from North America, if you can get a piece of flooring.

That's good stuff to know. If it were me I'd probably shy away from either walnut or oak (not that I'm ever going to build a guitar myself), but black locust and hickory are native woods and harder than maple - they would do nicely I would think. Another one you might try to find is Texas Ebony - I understand it is very hard, though I don't know how it compares to African ebony - it's probably not really related.

[Glen DeRusha]

Here is one that my wife made. Koa fingerboard, bridge, and head cap. It don't get much softer then that. Of course the light colored wood shows finger dirt. Rub some lemon oil on it, every once in a while, and it darkens everything up for a little while, and the finger marks kind of go away. Or leave it with the "It gets played a lot" look.





It took her 4 days to put the binding on the headstock. I hope that she was doing butterflies, flowers, and hummingbirds before Harvey Leach. She did this one in 2003.

This one has a walnut fingerboard on it. Obviously, we don't care about scratches, or if it looks old. Barn wood over walnut for the body. Barnwood head cap, and cherry neck.



We painted the whole thing with mineral oil. Fingerboard and all. This is it in raw form.





Glen

[redir]

I started building in college when I was your age too. Back then the only book around was Sloans book which was decent enough but by todays standards is outdated. Of course now with the Internet good hands getting off to a start.

Like you I had absolutely no wood working experience. It took me about ten guitars to actually have one that I thought was pretty good. Not to say that the earlier ones did not sound good but they didn't have the fit and finish that is important if you want to sell them. So it would be high hopes to have a fast start building guitars especially if you can only peck away at it during the summer, which is exactly what I did too. But don't let it get you down, it's an extremely frustrating, humbling and rewarding thing to do to build guitars.

Also for all I know you could be a gifted prodigy. I have seen this too. A young person who desires to make guitars and the first one looks and sounds as good or better then my 50th. It's important to be patient and want good results however if you take that to an extreme it will take you 5 years to build a guitar and probably mentally destroy you in the making. People are different and will have different approaches but my approach coming from an unskilled background was that it would take me a few years and at least ten guitars before I start seeing results. So I would make mistakes and simply move on as it was part of my 'curriculum'. Now I am less tolerant of mistakes but it's been 25 years.

My only other advice is... Don't call mahogany hog

Good luck.

[printer2]

Showed my first acoustic to a local luither. He gave me some tips and said I should come back with my 10th guitar. There must be something magical with the 10th one.

[Tom West]

Originally Posted by printer2

There must be something magical with the 10th one.

Not really.................but the journey getting there is.......!!
Tom