Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello everyone,

I found this website through APM forum, I play guitar for several years now and love it.

I myself never did any kind of woodworking, nothing!!!!
I dont know anything about building a guitar and all.

The other day I came across the stewert mcdonald kit for the triple 0 guitar. I thought to myself wow, that would be amazing to build my own guitar, ok not from scratch, but it seems pretty neat. The problem is that I dont have any tools, nothing but a hammer and some nails.

I really want to give this a try, what do you guys think, is it worth it and would i need to buy a lot of tools before? What would I need?

Thanks
Frank

you will need some tools. less than StewMac claims There is a thread from last week that gives some insite on this very issue.

Worh it? I can't answer that for you. I suspect that you will truly enjoy the project. but that is for you to find out.

A kit is a great way to learn if this craft is for you. And you will have a great group of guys here to help you through the project.MichaelP38748.6333564815

Welcome! I started building 2 years ago and aquired the "Wood Aquisition Sydrone" or WAS, a few months into building #1 from scratch. I was lucky to have found Robbie O'brien who helped me with my first build. I had no woodworking experience at all, and no tools. A desire to learn, determination, and strive for perfection is all that is needed to complete a guitar.

On another note, if you order the serviced kit from LMI, Robbie's DVD is included in the kit. You may want to look at that. Good luck, and ask lots of questions!
Tracytl50736238748.654224537

W.A.S.(Wood Acquisition Syndrome) the number 1 disease afflicting luthiers world wide and believed to be directly related to T.W.S. (Thin Wallet Syndrome). Also known to afflict luthiers world wide as well. MichaelP38748.729375

Hi Frank and welcome to the OLF. This forum is chuck full of good advice and good people. If guitar building is for you, you have struck a gold mine of info, advice, and products.
Glad to have you aboard.

I got hired to build a kit that a fellow bought and decided it was too hard for him to finish. I'll admit that having never before built a kit and being pretty set in my building ways, it was harder than I thought it was going to be.
One thing I would caution you about is that it WON'T look as good as a guitar you could buy for about the same money. If you aren't perfectionist, and those little goobers won't bother you, I'd say you'll have a very nice guitar. The kits are good quality stuff. And they will produce a great sounding guitar. But the details might be disapointing to you. For example, have you thought about finish? Sure you can buy rattle can nitro but if you haven't worked with nitro before, it won't look like what you expect it to look like. But you could always farm out the finish. There are a number of fabulous finishers out there.
I'm not trying to scare you away from doing this. In fact, I say go for it! But you should have realistic goals or you might be disapointed with the results.

Welcome Frank:

Consider contacting John Hall at Blues Creek Guitars...he supplies high quality kits at reasonable prices. The benefit with John is that he sticks behind what he sells and is always ther to help you through the project. I can heartily vouch for him from personal experience. I know a lot of other OLFers feel the same as I do as well.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Frank, welcome to the OLF, AND I SAY GO FOR THE KIT!

I built from scratch without the OLF and it was also a joy, but i lacked woodworking skills also and wished i had this group back then. it would have made it a lot easier on me. this group here is very generous and it will become your second family! we won't let you down friend!


Serge

Hi Frank: Glad you made your way here. Welcome to your new home away from home.

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

Welcome to the OLF, Frank.

As to your question; Do you like to build stuff? If so, you'll probably like building a guitar. If not, it might be a real struggle.
Like Paul, I'm not trying to scare you off, but you should realize that it won't be a matter of glueing together $500 worth of materials and ending up with a $2500 instrument. You have to love the journey, and not just the destination.

[QUOTE=BruceH] Like Paul, I'm not trying to scare you off, but you should realize that it won't be a matter of glueing together $500 worth of materials and ending up with a $2500 instrument. You have to love the journey, and not just the destination.
[/QUOTE]

And in some cases you will be gluing together $500 worth of materials, than taking it apart again, than gluing it together and adding another $100 worth of materials and having spent $1-2000 on tools, shop supplies, finishing, more finishing supplies cause the first one didn't workout, than spending $400 to have someone else finish it cause yours sucked (that's what I did with the first) all to come to the conclusion that the guitar would probably be valued at $500.

BUT

The journey will have been totally worth it, all the tears, sweat, blood (there may be some, watch those chisels and saws) pain, emmotion, agony and total joy will make this priceless.

Giddy-up, which ever you choose, kit or from scratch, you can count on us to help you out.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Welcome to the club.
I started from that exact same 000 Stew Mac Kit
I have been hooked ever since
Andy

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Building your own guitar is one of the most challenging things you will ever do but also one of the most rewarding. You are at the right place.
Good luck!

I just want to say thanks to everyone here for the support, I see that its harder than I kind of thought it would be. I will definetly give this a try, I will start up maybe later in the year. I look forward to this crazy time, because I am here stationed in germany, and finding someone here is pretty hard.

I hope you guys will be ready because there will be lots of questions

Thanks Tim Mcknight for showing me this awesome forum.





Thanks
Frankie

Bring 'em questions Frankie, don't be shy, there are no dumb questions being asked here!

Serge