Final Guitar Photos - Long Overdue Update!

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Finally, I got around to posting some final pictures of my finished guitar, just over a year later! Soon I'll record a video with decent...

Introduction

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When I discovered nearly a year ago that I knew someone who actually builds acoustic guitars, I was shocked. I knew that fine acoustic guita...

A Good Place to Start

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When I decided to build a guitar, I had no idea where to begin. Fortunately for me, I knew someone who could provide sage advice and could h...

Gathering Supplies and Wood

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Before buying wood and tools, it's a good idea to spend a little time designing the guitar. If you have access to any sort of AutoCAD so...

Building the Soundboard

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Although Cumpiano's book begins with the neck rough out, I chose to begin by building the body, and then construct the neck. The first p...

Building the Back

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While I had the tools out for jointing and planing, I decided to go ahead and construct the back too. The process is very similar to making ...

Tackling the Rosette

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I spent a great deal of time (too much time) trying to decide just what my soundhole rosette should look like. I really wanted a little bit ...

Oops! Soundboard Repair

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Sooo...I made an almost tragic soundboard mistake. I was using a tool (cough...mechanical pencil...cough) to fit (jam) some of the rosette...

Bracing the Soundboard

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Bracing the top of the guitar is the subject of great mystery and debate. Arguably, nothing affects the sound and tone of the guitar more th...

Bracing the Back

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Bracing the back plate is considerably easier than bracing the soundboard. Like the top, the back gets arched laterally--only more severely....

Bending the Sides

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Now on to something more intimidating: Side Bending. I borrowed someone's light bulb-heated bending iron and had practiced a little with...

Headblock and Tailblock

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Once I had braced the two plates and bent the sides, I began focusing attention on assembling the body. The first steps were to construct fr...

Installing the Sides

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The first step to convincing someone that all these pieces may actually become a guitar is to glue kerfed lining to the soundboard edge of ...