I started building my first guitar about 3 weeks ago while I was on a two week break from college (between spring and summer semesters). I am very good with wood building cabinets, picture frames, and furnature but I had never built a guitar so I embraced the challenge. I decided to use Sitka spruce for top, mahogany for the back, sides, and neck with indian rosewood fingerboard and bridge because these were the cheapest materials I found. My uncle owns a cabinet shop with every tool imaginable and plenty of wood for sides, neck, back, bracewood, kerfing, ect. Everything else (fingerboard, bridge blank, sound board, ect) I purchased from LMII.com. All in all I spent around $90. I had purchased a book from amazon.com but it turns out it was a guy from england and his wording was hard to understand and his measurements were alright. I mostly used the pictures and experimented as I went. The only trouble I ran into was in shaping the sides but I only broke one before I had two almost perfectly shaped sides. That is a very long intro for my question of, "How long does it normally take to build a guitar?" I am in my 4th week of building it and have spent about 17 days total. I expect to be finished this weekend and I have, in my opinion, done a decent on it for it to be my first (picture to come soon).
The second question is for someone with a decent design brain. I have a pretty good one but many opinions are better than one. The concept is an all koa guitar. Koa front, koa sides, koa back, koa binding, koa rosette, neck, fingerboard. The only material that will not be koa on the guitar is the purfling and an inlay. Pearl purfling around the soundboard and rosette with black/white/black purfling everywhere else. The image below is the inlay that I want to do. Let me know what yall think.
The girl will be 7in tall standing on her tiptoes on the 20th fret. The 14th fret will be the "horizon" for the sunset. I just requested pricing for the inlay from luthierssupply.com so I am not sure how costly it will be. I have however been inlaying for years and I am confident I can do it. How much would you think a guitar like this would be worth if it was done to professional quality?Thanks guys and I appreciate your help.
