Guitar built totally by hand without mechanical tools

[Jesse Matthews]

Hi Everybody,

Is it possible to build a guitar only with hand tools without any mechanical tools whatsoever?, i understand that i'm going to make it a much harder and longer process, i'm just asking is it possible?

Thank you.

[dekutree64]

Sure. The only power tools I typically use are a dremel router for inlays/saddle slot/soundhole, and hot pot for hide glue. I could do without either of them, but I would much prefer using a modern glue like Titebond than fiddling with burning fuel to heat the hide glue, and I wouldn't be able to cut inlay pockets as accurately with a knife and chisel (perhaps some tiny gouges could solve that, though).

I do buy pre-sliced top/back/side woods. Starting from live trees would be much more difficult to do without power tools

Also, I have a fancy Veritas plow plane for cutting truss rod slots. You could probably do it with just a chisel and straightedge, but it would be tricky to get the bottom level.

[mirwa]

If you possess the correct hand skills, then of course you can

Steve

[Ed-in-Ohio]

What about all that's done to make the parts and components the luthier uses to build the guitar? Does that count?

If all of that were to be taken into account (even timbering the wood, right?), it would become a nearly impossible, monumental task, no?

[HHP]

Making the tuners will be an adventure.

[LouieAtienza]

There's a video on YouTube of Romanillos building a guitar entirely with hand tools.

[mirwa]

Originally Posted by HHP

Making the tuners will be an adventure.

Pegs for tuning have been around for some while

Steve

[jwayne]

Originally Posted by Jesse Matthews

Hi Everybody,

Is it possible to build a guitar only with hand tools without any mechanical tools whatsoever?, i understand that i'm going to make it a much harder and longer process, i'm just asking is it possible?

Thank you.

By mechanical tools you mean power tools?

Somogyi use hand tools almost exclusively and certainly could do it entirely that way if he wanted (excluding non-peg tuners):

[Jesse Matthews]

I'm starting out so i would like to start on cheap wood or scrap wood around my area...i'm going to make a lot of mistakes so at least i'll make them on inexpensive wood...after i get better at it I'll move up to some good wood. i like the idea of wood working in theory, yet i haven't worked yet with wood apart from projects in high school for class a long time ago. yes, i mean with no power tools, no electricity needed. lets say like the first martin built he's first martin guitar .

[printer2]

How soon everybody forgets, not even twenty threads down.

I showed how to do most of it with hand tools although I cheated a little and use a table saw to help out resawing wood (I am having issues with my hand) and the use of a drill. I showed how to build a guitar out of a 2" x 4", a fence board and some maple.

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...d.php?t=496685

[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by printer2

How soon everybody forgets, not even twenty threads down.

I showed how to do most of it with hand tools although I cheated a little and use a table saw to help out resawing wood (I am having issues with my hand) and the use of a drill. I showed how to build a guitar out of a 2" x 4", a fence board and some maple.

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...d.php?t=496685

Fred,

I applaud you for showing how its done. Having started my guitar building endeavour nearly 40 years ago with nothing more than a router, a few hand tools, and a rickety work bench, it doesn't bring back fond memories. I still do most tasks with hand tools, but I like having the choice of whether to use them or a particular machine to do the work.

There are some tasks that are worth learning for the sake of building one's skills, such as "four-squaring" rough lumber, but machinery can make quick, nearly effortless work out of some manual tasks, freeing one's time and effort for "higher" pursuits and attention to detail.

While it is nice to romanticize work methods of olde, recall that before electricity was widespread, people used steam and water power to drive machinery. It is very unlikely, for example, that C.F. Martin hand-sawed each top.

It's up to each individual to decide where he or she wants to work in the continuum from hand tools to CNC machines. One can opt for working entirely with hand tools, but it is a slow row to hoe, particularly as one learns how to sharpen, maintain and use hand tools, AND, which hand tools are the right one's for the job at hand.

There is a lot to know to use hand tools well and effectively, starting with sharpening. For many in the modern age, "there is a machine for that", allowing many to side-step developing the skills that were traditionally used prior to a specialized machine being created. A simple example of that is modern gauged nut files vs. the traditional use of needle files. There are some advantages to gauged nut files, but they come with a price tag, vs. a $10 needle file.

My point is not to steer people away from learning and using hand tools, but simply to advise that it is an undertaking that requires a considerable investment of time and effort to learn what tools are required, how to set them up, maintain them and use them effectively. To do that on a budget can increase the difficulty of the task. If I were to give any one piece of advice it would be to learn from someone who is already skilled. Doing so will save a lot of trial and error and wasted time, money and effort.

[LouieAtienza]

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

Fred,

I applaud you for showing how its done. Having started my guitar building endeavour nearly 40 years ago with nothing more than a router, a few hand tools, and a rickety work bench, it doesn't bring back fond memories. I still do most tasks with hand tools, but I like having the choice of whether to use them or a particular machine to do the work.

There are some tasks that are worth learning for the sake of building one's skills, such as "four-squaring" rough lumber, but machinery can make quick, nearly effortless work out of some manual tasks, freeing one's time and effort for "higher" pursuits and attention to detail.

While it is nice to romanticize work methods of olde, recall that before electricity was widespread, people used steam and water power to drive machinery. It is very unlikely, for example, that C.F. Martin hand-sawed each top.

It's up to each individual to decide where he or she wants to work in the continuum from hand tools to CNC machines. One can opt for working entirely with hand tools, but it is a slow row to hoe, particularly as one learns how to sharpen, maintain and use hand tools, AND, which hand tools are the right one's for the job at hand.

There is a lot to know to use hand tools well and effectively, starting with sharpening. For many in the modern age, "there is a machine for that", allowing many to side-step developing the skills that were traditionally used prior to a specialized machine being created. A simple example of that is modern gauged nut files vs. the traditional use of needle files. There are some advantages to gauged nut files, but they come with a price tag, vs. a $10 needle file.

My point is not to steer people away from learning and using hand tools, but simply to advise that it is an undertaking that requires a considerable investment of time and effort to learn what tools are required, how to set them up, maintain them and use them effectively. To do that on a budget can increase the difficulty of the task. If I were to give any one piece of advice it would be to learn from someone who is already skilled. Doing so will save a lot of trial and error and wasted time, money and effort.

I tend to agree. If your main goal is the journey, then it can be a rewarding experience to learn and master hand skills. At the same time, there is a destination. And if you're going to do the majority of work manually, an investment in quality hand tools would be nice - and they can cost as much as some equivalent entry-level power tools. I got a Ryobi bandsaw and Porter Cable tablesay for about $300, about the price of a nice Lie-Nielsen plane. I love Lie-Nielsen tools, and own a scraper plane from them, but the bandsaw and tablesaw are a lot more practical for the money, and I'd still have left over for a Home-Cheapo plane.

That is not to say I love the romanticism of tradition and hand-work. But since I also use my hobby to fund itself and then some, as well as aspire to doing this more as a livelihood, at least partially. I started out in a cabinet shop where I did everything by hand at first - even trimming Formica, which really sucks. But to think about it - you can install that Formica countertop and nobody would nor even care that the edge was trimmed with a router or file. And they wouldn't pay extra for the hand work. I believe Benedetto gave the example in his book that you can spend a year or more carving out a guitar with a sharpened spoon, and regardless how perfect it came out, no one would pay you for the man-hours you put into it. You'd be living in a tie-dye microbus for the rest of your life. Not a palatable prospect if you have aspirations for a family. I remember the first electric guitar bodies I made and sold were cut with a jigsaw, contoured and sanded by hand (and they were one-piece hard rock maple). Even freehand-cut the control and neck pockets. Needless to say, I made jack squat on these, despite spending a whole day and then some just on one body. Then I made me some templates, got a 2HP router with a pattern bit, and voila! I cut the build time at least in half, and then some. Was there a difference between the to bodies? Probably not, and I'd argue the one made with templates has more precise contours and cleaner pockets. Now I cut electric guitar parts with the CNC. I can do other things while it's running, and I have no more need for templates - I have all the "templates" programmed in. It took a little investment, but the machine has paid for itself over and over again. Even make non-guitar-related parts for profit. While I do most processes for my acoustics by hand, I will rough out parts on the CNC, aside from my bracing and fretboards which are CNC cut. I don't think anyone would know the difference between what was rough cut on a CNC versus what is rough cut by hand, like the top and back plates, neck billets. I don't think anyone would notice that the fretboard and its slots were CNC cut as well.

Antonio de Torres didn't have power tools, though I'm sure if they were readily available and affordable he would have used them. I don't think he cut his own birdseye maple and Brazilian rosewood sets by hand, and probably procured those, though he probably split his own soundboard wood.

While Ervin Somogyi does say he does a lot of hand work, he still uses and relies on machinery and jigs and fixtures. If one reads his book, you'll notice he has a router set up for every single task that requires a router - that's a lot of routers! He also has a tablesaw, band saw, jointer, belt sander, orbital sanders, drill press, disk sander. I believe he also uses a Duplicarver-type jig for his necks. But because of these machines, it frees up time and energy to do all that incredible detail work and voicing that makes a Somogyi guitar.

Today, many urban areas have maker-spaces, and for an aspiring builder, it would afford access to machinery that would otherwise be impractical or unaffordable. I believe David Emm has taken advantage of such a place.

[printer2]

Charles,

There were time when I was wondering if it was worth it. And no I will not be doing it again. Much more time involved but I did gain a greater appreciation of my little block plane. I think I may have used it once or twice before this project. And for thinning the wood I have a better plane for that, not that I use it much with it being more trouble free sending the wood through my drum sander. But that little block plane can do a lot.

Many times I had to think of how to do an operation where I would normally use a power tool. The bridge was one of them. A router and an assortment of bits can make a job simpler. One thing that I never thought of much is just holding the piece of wood you are working on. I tried to do as much as I could without my vice but in the interest of a better product and less time involved I resorted to it.

No I was not out to glamorize building without many tools, just wanted to show it could be done. So if someone had the inclination but was being held back because of a lack of tools I wanted to show you could get by. And you could always buy your wood in a usable format and not have to cut them out of planks. I was surprised to find one of the sellers of wood which I sometimes buy had second grade tops on for $6. How can you beat that for being affordable? While there are some people that can make their first guitar look like my tenth, most of us get better after learning the ropes one the first few guitars we make. I like to encourage people to make a practice guitar or even ukulele to get rid of a few mistakes without too much stress.

[Rudy4]

Do a bit of research on the guitar makers of Paracho:

http://www.tejagerken.com/Article_Fo...cho_intro.html

[arie]

Originally Posted by HHP

Making the tuners will be an adventure.

who needs tuners? friction pegs will fix that.