First build... come laugh at my mistakes. - Page 2

redir · #16 02-01-2021, 10:16 AM

At the same time I would be careful with that advice. I've told this story before but I will again... A friend of mine in my college days wanted to build a guitar. I had built maybe 5 or so by this point so he wanted my advice. I basically gave him copies of books I was using at the time. He's and engineer and no offence to engineers but... Well they can be pretty particular.

EVRYTHING had to be meticulously planned before it was executed. Every possible thing that could go wrong was thoroughly thought out before hand. IT took him two years to build this guitar and in the end it was just as good as if someone built it in two months. Mistakes were still made and so on.

So my advice is, yeah sure do you best, always do your best but don't take it so far the point of never getting it done.

In fact really if someone came to me and said, "I want to build a guitar" I'd probably say, "Then plan on building ten."

charles Tauber · #17 02-01-2021, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redir

In fact really if someone came to me and said, "I want to build a guitar" I'd probably say, "Then plan on building ten."

If someone came to me and said, "I want to build a guitar", I'd ask him or her why.

Any advice I gave after that would depend on why he or she wanted to do so. My advice would vary considerably based on his or her answer.

Skarsaune · #18 02-01-2021, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redir

So my advice is, yeah sure do you best, always do your best but don't take it so far the point of never getting it done.

100%. Don't fall into analysis paralysis.

Do your best starts with DO! :-)

warfrat73 · #19 02-01-2021, 12:32 PM

Thanks for the advice, guys. I'm just trying to set reasonable expectations for myself here.

As to Charles' question (not posed specifically to me), I want to build a guitar for the same reason that I garden, and bake bread, .and brew beer, and forage, and occasionally make cheese.

charles Tauber · #20 02-01-2021, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by warfrat73

As to Charles' question (not posed specifically to me), I want to build a guitar for the same reason that I garden, and bake bread, .and brew beer, and forage, and occasionally make cheese.

You have too much time on your hands?

phavriluk · #21 02-01-2021, 02:03 PM

OP's close enough to Malone to visit Dave Nichols (aka Custom Pearl Inlay) and discuss his one-week guitar building course. Participants walk away with a mighty nice solid wood guitar for a fair cost and learn an immense amount of stuff during that week. That's where my first one came from and I had enough experience that nothing was unknown territory (not that I knew what I was doing, but nothing was a complete mystery afterwards) when I started building in my own shop. Nice B&B in Malone to stay at for the week, too.

redir · #22 02-01-2021, 02:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

If someone came to me and said, "I want to build a guitar", I'd ask him or her why.

Any advice I gave after that would depend on why he or she wanted to do so. My advice would vary considerably based on his or her answer.

Yeah that's a good point too becasue if it's to 'save money' then yeah....

warfrat73 · #23 02-01-2021, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

You have too much time on your hands?

This has certainly been true for much of the past year.

warfrat73 · #24 02-01-2021, 09:12 PM

Decided I'm going to be building a 12 fret 000, ordered plans from Stew Mac.

I do currently have a Martin 000-17SM, but am planning on moving that along to help pay for a custom commission coming up later this year. I like the Martin ok, but always found it a bit lightly built for my sometimes heavy handed picking.

Made a bit of progress on building my work board today.

Quickstep192 · #25 02-03-2021, 07:40 AM

I've not built a guitar (yet), but I've made three banjos. Somewhat to my surprise, one of the most rewarding aspects of doing this was that I learned how to fix (or hide) mistakes.

I do lots of other woodworking and for the most part, if there's a mistake, you can just toss it in the kindling pile and start over. But if you screw up the inlay on the 9th fret of a fingerboard, discarding all of what you've done to that point isn't so appealing.

It's also made me a more patient woodworker. I tend to think things through a bit more (measure twice; cut once) and take my time. Although I haven't taken 2 years as the guy in redir's example, but I do take quite a while. Sometimes it's because of competing priorities and sometimes it's taking the time to learn on scrap before diving in on a piece of wood that cost a lot.

Am I striving for perfection? You betcha. Do I hit it? Nope! But I've learned a lot about how to fix or disguise the mistakes.

It's really rewarding when someone doesn't believe that I actually made my banjos. (Wait a minute, should I take that as an insult?

FPerezRoig · #26 02-03-2021, 08:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quickstep192

One of the most rewarding aspects of doing this was that I learned how to fix (or hide) mistakes.

I totally agree. I'm building my first guitar, and did screw up so many times. Had to fix or hide mistakes a lot, which proved to be a great learning experience.

As a new woodworker, it is taking months instead of weeks to finish the guitar, since I have to buy the tools, learn how to use them, sharpen them etc. Even started without a workshop or bench, and installed it along the way.

It's all this process that I enjoy the most, not so much the end product. At the end of the day, I can only play a few chords and licks, and some cheap massive produced guitar would probably do the trick for me.

Look forward to seeing your building progress. Best of luck

warfrat73 · #27 02-04-2021, 04:23 PM

I got the back joined. It was a bit more fiddly than the top. Decided I'd use the bubinga as a starting point because I don't have a bubinga guitar, and if I screw up it's a cheap set to screw up on. And also one of the back plates on the EIR set was pretty badly cupped. I sprayed down the concave side and put it under some weight. It got better but still needs some attention.

Anyway the 000 plans got here so I made a template marked them out and rough cut the top. I decided to try to do it by hand instead of using my new band saw because it was sitting on the floor waiting for me to build a stand for it. Then I promptly ended up splitting the grain on the lower treble side bout. Only about 1/2" into the profile. So I quickly set up the band saw and finished on that (it was much easier). And then I tried my best to get some glue in the split and clamped it lightly. Oops... should be ok, I'm sure I'm not the first to do that.

Gingerninja · #28 02-05-2021, 12:39 PM

I don't think I've made that mistake but I've made plenty of others! I don't tend to make the same mistake twice but I've made at least 3 mistakes on every guitar I've made. There is so much to consider and so many stages to go through but like others have said most mistakes can be fixed. Best of luck!

charles Tauber · #29 02-05-2021, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by warfrat73

... I promptly ended up splitting the grain on the lower treble side bout.

And, in so doing, you learned a valuable characteristic of working with thin wood that is guitar-shaped.

Also, it is not advisable to leave that much excess outside the finished shape. It invites exactly the split you experienced, particularly when it comes time to attach the top to the sides and route for bindings. I'd suggest not more than 1/8" of excess outside the finished perimeter of the top or back.

warfrat73 · #30 02-05-2021, 08:24 PM

I trimmed it up a bit tighter to the profile, and thinned it to ~.130 (the plan calls for .120). I'll sand and scrape the last 1/10th.

I took a couple of swipes at the bubinga and got some tear out right away. Need to resharpen the blade and figure how best to approach that.