Official Luthiers Forum!

Once again I did not mention or say that my list of minimum tool was Stewmac’s list of recommended supplies.. I did say Stewmac’s manual showed you could use cardboard and shims instead of a radius dish and a simple plywood form instead of an assembly mold. The rest was just the bare inexpensive tool needed to complete a Stewmac kit as I did in 1994.


I do not think what I pointed out as being anywhere near the best option…by any means……. I thought I was clear on that


Hesh you win, I concede

Four things to comment on:

What Waddy and others have said, that a guitar that you build your self is priceless is absolutely true. The evening that I strung my first up and the neck did not snap in half, which was my biggest fear, I was grinning like the idiot that I am..... I was also amazed that the tone was pretty good, not great, but pretty good. And when we consider how many people in the world can and have built a guitar it certainly is something to be very proud of.

Mike buddy the divorce was far cheaper than what I have spent on wood since........ Just kidding of course........

Ken yes there are quite a few builders in say a 2-3 hour drive from us. I don't know why this is because most of us have learned about each other here on the OLF. We do get together from time to time and have lunches as well so stayed tuned it would be great to meet you my friend.

Michael bro I think that you won At the end of the day what was really important here was to encourage people to build guitars and you did that better than I did! I just got hung up on the costs and could not see that the value, in all respects including building one yourself was more important.

I am not at all concerned with winning I just got the opinion that you guys seem to think; 1. I was implying that my list was Stewmac's supply list....2 that I was recommending going this rout.

Besides I did leave of the C clamps and bar clamps I bought when I did the kit I mentioned.

My real point that I did not make too well in the post that started this was with a fully serviced kit it possible to complete it with $200 in cheap tools. Cheap tools and not the tools I would recommend. Heck I can't even believe I said anything about buying cheap tool because I don't do that and don't recommend that to anyone.

But if a builder is really going to do this one time and one time only it is a reasonable way to approach it.

I started with a Uke thinking I could save some money on materials and about break even with the purchase of a new quality uke. Then, if I liked building, I could justify the expense of materials for a guitar. I ended up with a uke I really like. It is a great source of pride to be able to pull it out and say I did that. I learned so much in that build. So now I'm hooked on building. However, as far as a dream Uke (or guitar for that matter) goes this is not it. I over braced it and probably could have thinned the top a bit more. I like it, but I could have bought a high end one for way less money. I will definitely build a guitar sometime in the near future. But I am going to work on improving on the work I have already done. One day there will be a dream guitar that I will make, but today I just haven't learned how to do that.

That all being said, I still suffer from a serious case of GAS. Fortunately life has been keeping that in check, but if I had the opportunity and I found it, I would go ahead and buy my dream guitar. I keep the dream guitar and the guitar building dream as separate items. One day they will come together.

The other thing that has been left out of this topic is shipping cost. Every purchase has at least a $10 minimum for shipping from a luthier supplier. If you buy your tools and materials in stages the shipping cost will add up.

So I’m saying build, but build as a learning experience.

Good Luck,
John

i play my first guitar daily. the water based finish sucks and feels terrible on the neck. the purfling/binding looks pretty bad. but the action and sound are stellar - if i do say so myself. about $400 in materials. about $400 in tools. made the hollow forms and outside mold myself.
i'd say do it!!
i think a big key to getting into this is to realize that for all the magic that builders and afficiianados speak of, there are very common numbers that will get you right into the ball park of good hand built guitars. around 2.4mm back. 2.2mm sides. a top somewhere between 2.4 - 3mm. bracing that is 6mm wide and 14mm tall at the x. a bridge that is 8 - 9mm. once the braces are glued on the top, you find a picture of the bracing on a guitar you admire, and try to copy it.
doing this gets you in the ball park.
you still might have over-built and not achieved balance. or you might have built too lightly with the materials in hand and end up with a guitar that starts to deform after a few years. these are the risks in learning to build. learning to maximize the materials and build with lasting integrity is a process that probably takes at least 20 or 30 guitars - and some might say a lot more than that. but sticking with the common conventions will get you into the ball park.
good luck.
phil

For what it's worth, I started building from a course given by Sergei DeJonge. Built 2 guitars in 4 weeks (very long days, and one all-nighter to pull it off).

Both guitars sound fabulous, the second only has a spit coat of french polish finish. One was a classical and the other an OM steel string.

I believe if your long term goal is to learn how to build, then learning from a master is the best use of your time and money.

Otherwise, I believe you'll get a good result from a well manufactured kit with a modest investment of time and money.

Greg

Not to rain on anybody's parade, but....if you're looking to save money, go do something else.

If you want an incredibly rewarding, challenging, fantastic passion/obsession ('hobby' doesn't begin to cover it for most of the non-professionals here), by all means, dive on into the deep end of the pool. Honestly, if you're looking for a high-quality, boutique luthier-style guitar with fancy woods and styling, and it's about getting that guitar to play on, just save up the 5000-7000 (or more) dollars and buy the instrument. Not as fun as building, but it'll get you a top quality guitar for about the same money you'll end up spending on tooling, parts, wood, etc. for your batch of instruments.

I don't really want to think about how many thousand dollars I've spent on instrument woods, tools and parts over the past 4-5 years, but it's at least several thousand each year. I could quite easily own a couple of Lowdens, and with today's dollar, possibly a second-hand Ryan or something of that caliber, but instead I've got big piles of wood that should keep me building well into the next few decades. And I don't regret the choice for a moment.

But I do not currently have any guitars that quite reach the lofty heights of a great Lowden. Yet. I hope to get there some day, and I've got the materials, but finding the time to build poses its own challenges...

Would I do it all again?

You betcha.

Hello Everyone,
Thanks to all who responded to my thread!
It took me a while to get back to it -- everyday life beckoned.
There was a goldmine of advice in their though.

It turns out I had an impulse buy -- Taylor 414CE Seasonal special (upgrades) used for a hair over 1k.
And I'm actually really happy!

However, something inside of my still wants to build my very own. Something about choosing the woods,
designing inlay, etc...

Excellent advice on taking a master class. That makes a lot of sense.

I'm definitely going to keep sneaking around these forums. My guitar will be built someday!

Thanks again!!
-Daniel

P.S. In an interesting turn of events, I found out that Kerry Char's shop is literally blocks from my house.
Awesome!!!!

As our resident Archie Boy (Archtop builder) Anthony Zlahtic once said, 'Any fool can commission a 7000$ guitar, but only a real man will spend that kind of money to build a first, mediocre one'... or something to that effect.

Truer words were never said. Incidently, that's about the exact amount I spent in my first year of tooling up and buying zoot. The chances of building 'the' guitar, first time out, are practically unconceivable. Next in line on the probability scale is building just one! Ha! If you ever finish one, you'll have been planning the next for quite a while... And why not, I ask you? Why...you have this shop full of tools now...

_________________
I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

I don't know...I guess I just have a different perspective from Alain.

I got the idea to build my first, ordered a partially serviced kit from lmi, bought tools, and built it all within about 3 months.
I spent probably $800 on tools, close to $500 on materials to build my first. It's got its cosmetic flaws, but I love it dearly. It sounds great, much like the $4000 guitars I see in shops.

Now, one month after I finished...I need a few more tools, probably $400 worth, but I'm ready to order the wood for my 2nd. (I'm selling my Gibson Hummingbird Artist to fund it.) I've also got 3 friends asking me to build for them at cost.

So I say build and learn -- just my opinion.