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Can anyone recommend an inexpensive acoustic steel string kit. I want to give this a try, but have very limited funds at the moment. Thank you for you input........

Hi Tony. The least expensive steel string kit that I know of is from Grizzly Tools - they are regularly $110 but seem to be marked to 90 right now. The one that I encountered wasn't very impressive but a lot of that was the way the guy put it together - if you decide to get one PM me and I'll make some comments.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/H3098

Otherwise you are pretty much into the StewMac, LMI, Martin and similar kits. At one time Martin did have some laminated back and sides which brought the cost down. All of the others are quality materials which unfortunately costs four or five hundred bucks. You'll also have an investment in tools and finishing supplies and maybe hardware - the cost can easily be close to a grand.

I tell people not to build a kit if they are looking for a cheap guitar.

I bought a bunch of kits (enough for 4 guitars) from the guy mentioned in this post:

http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10122&t=35716

They were cheap. They require a bit more work than some other kits because they are factory 2nd reject parts from Martin but so far I haven't found anything that was unusable.

You might check with John Hall at Blues Creek Guitars https://www.bluescreekguitars.com/ . Give him a call and tell him what you are looking for. He might be able to help you. ...nice guy.

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

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Like he said, Talk to John.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/ this place sells complete packages tools, fixtures and all. Don't over look the cost of required specialty items not having an engineerrd kit/system can cost a bundle.

When we took over our shop we inherited a couple of Martin D-17.5 kits.... I call them D-17.5 kits because they are basically a D-18 but with no Martin decal....

Not sure if everything is there and these kits were also notorious for not coming with anything near the level needed to call them assembly instructions....

If you are interested next week I can pull them down and see how complete they are. I do know that the kerfed linings, not to be confused with kerfing.... are all broken into smaller segments but kerfed linings are easily sourced for very little or shop-made.

Let me know if you are interested in the possibilities and I will check out the kits and also ask the owner what he wants for one? I suspect that if we can make one of these kits complete sands the kerfed linings that he would let them go for around half of what Martin kits have sold for more recently. Also know that these things didn't come with decent documentation either - just trying to set your expectations as correctly as possible.

Tony, beware ! I bought my first kit for 325.00 12 years ago. That started my full fledged addiction

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