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Exactly! I'm trying to do as much research as possible, and you guys know your stuff. As far as what I'm looking for, I want a OOO or OM kit. I would LOVE to have the 3-piece back, but haven't seen one come w/a kit. As far as wood; mahogany or rosewood back and sides, and red or engleman spruce top. However, I would like to ask if any of you have any experience w/cedar tops. I know they use them on some classicals, but how would they sound on a steel string.

John Hall/Blues Creek is probably your best bet on the kit you want. He will really work with you in putting together exactly what you need, and the post-purchase support from him is invaluable. Call him, and you won't be dissapointed.

Great looking guitars! I'd just like to know if the necks are bolt on or Dove Tail joint? Also - how long did it take for you assemble them? I haven't attempted to build one yet - but I'm reading and researching to get as much information as possible. This forum is just what the Doctor ordered!

Since I'm the only one who has posted pictures I'm going to guess that you are probably talking about me. Anyway, the necks on the OM and 000 are dovetails - the parlor is a bolt on. I'm continuing to do bolted neck joints in my current and future builts and I seriously recommend a beginning builder do so on his/her first few. The frustration of a dovetail simply isn't worth it.

The one reason to consider doing a dovetail would be if you plan to do lots of repair work in the future and will be resetting necks on old guitars. Most are dovetails and its good to get lots of practice before steaming the neck off a prewar Martin.

It generally would take me one to two months of very part time (evening work) to assemble the guitar, another two months for finish and cure. That time would include all the fiddling around building jigs and a lot of time standing in the shop with a cup of coffee just staring at a piece of wood. I know I could build them faster, but the enjoyment of the trip is part of the whole experience.

This forum, the kit forums, various blogs and building threads, and John Hall's wonderful videos are all great resources (again, if you are going to do a dovetail, get Johns vid on setting them). Also, please don't hesitate to ask if there is anything I can help with.

Matthew, I'll just throw out my 2 cents on cedar tops. I haven't built any but I've played a few. In general they seem just a little mellower to me and common complaints are that they don't have the headroom of spruce and are much more easily damaged (the wood is much softer). There are some very fine cedar topped steel strings out their - mostly finger style guitars (Seagull, Taylor makes some) - I would suggest playing a few before committing to that wood. Also, please don't put down plain old Sitka spruce - there is a very good reason that most guitars today are built out of it.

Three piece backs on D35's were originally done to conserve wood - Martin had pieces of Brazillan rosewood that weren't big enough to make 2 piece backs out of so they made three. People do say that D35's have a special sound. John is probably going to be your best bet for this - most kits will be two bookmatched pieces.

When it comes to kits I believe the Stew Mac kits are much higher quality then the Martins. Martin kits are made from factory seconds/rejects that are not good enough for production guitars. Stew macs wood is all top quality yes sometime you may run into a problem with some pieces of their kits but their customer service is great at handling these problems. They usually have no problem replacing any defective on low quality part that you have an issue with.

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