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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Hellbourne
    Age
    41
    Posts
    4

    Default My First Ever Build

    Well I've finally decided to make a guitar. I've always wanted to make beautiful instruments and like Yoz said in his thread, I've got time on my hands and it's time to follow my dreams and call myself a luther hehe. I'm not the type of guy to die not knowing, trial and error is how I learn best, but I digress.

    For my first guitar, I've decided to make a classical guitar due to the fact I don't need a truss rod as far as I can tell. I'm not making this guitar to sound nice or anything like that and I'm using as much salvaged timber as I can, it's more as a proof of concept before I hack into some expesive timber and make something that would make God cry tears of joy (I'm not relegious, just cocky hehe).

    The body seems like the easy part to me (a little too easy so far which makes me uneasy), it's the neck/headstock/frets part which I think will be the interesting part but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

    I'm building it using an old guitar I had in my backyard for years (it was a horrible piece or crap) as a template (great idea, breeding crap guitars) but I can't find the neck/headstock to copy off so I'll hunt one down from somewhere, any ideas? I'll probably make a ukulele from the off cuts too just for fun.

    Anyway, I hope to have some pics of somthing for you guys by next Sunday but I'll bet $5 that I'll be here asking questions when I get stuck back into it tommorow.

    Cheers and sorry for the rambling,



    LG
    Nella tentazione,
    Cercando lagloria,
    Il prezzoda pagare,
    E'la caduta dell'uomo.

    - Judas Priest

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    sydney
    Posts
    2,370

    Default

    you spelt luthier wrong....
    on a side note, guitar builder.... luthier.... guitar builder.... luthier.....
    in my mind guitar builder is a title your given,
    luthier is a title which is earned....

    go back through martins older posts on here....
    he is the man when it comes to classicals and acoustics....

    i dont know why no one saw this thread?
    (maybe because the stupid guitar hero thread pushed it down the page!) lol

    where abouts are ya?
    i have a classical or 2 that iv pulled apart over the years to check out bracing patterns and to see whats under the fretboard.....

    as i found out, a few actually have a steel rod glued in the centre of the neck,
    its about as long as the neck from nut to heel area and about hmmm 8mm by 3mm... maybe...
    tapering at each end...

    a word of advice....
    NEVER go into a new hobby with the mentallity that it is easy.....

    theres alot more to an acoustic body than you may think....
    hell even i think it will be a few years before i attempt an acoustic....
    i have drawn up all the plans and done alot of reading and pulling apart and vissually studying various guitars....
    but im still not to the point where i am comfortable enough to say, hell yea i can build one of these and have it play and sound in such a way as to justify the price i pay for the timber and parts.....

    google is your friend.....
    theres many sites documenting various acoustic builds....
    and a hell of alot of conversations and arguements on the subject....
    theres a couple of acoustic only forums too.....

    in my opinion.... fretting a clasical neck seems alot more straight forward than fretting an electric or radiused acoustic fretboard.....

    a clasical fretboard is flat.... and flat means you can simply make up a press out of a bit of flat wood and stick it in your drill press and press those frets straight in with no worry that the centre will be raised (or any uneven frets) as i see happen often with radiused boards....

    ill take you up on that 5dollar bet.... i could do with the money to put towards our getaway next next weekend.... hmm where to go... lol

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Christchuch
    Posts
    58

    Default

    G'day Lucky. Good to see someone else talking their first step with trepidation.

    Looking forward to seeing the pics as your classical acoustic comes together. And will be interested to hear your ukelele experience vs. the classical experience.

    Cheers,
    Yoz

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Location
    Adelaide Hills
    Age
    66
    Posts
    3,803

    Default

    Welcome to the forum LG.

    My first piece of advice if youre thinking of doing a classical build.....get a hold of one of the many books around that take you through the construction process. Campiano and Natelson's book Guitar making - "Tradition and Technology" is a good start although its dated in parts and Campianos website should be consulted for updates to some of his techniques and philosophies. Another book Ive found useful is Roy Courtnal's 'making Master Guitars". The latter has coverage of the major makers and scaled down drawings of important parts of their most well known instruments. A very useful book and it'd be my first choice over Campiano and Natelson.


    Using a book will will save you endless hours of wasted time reinventing the wheel and overall youll save money.....at $45 a pop stuffing up things like a mahogany neck can start to get expensive. When you start writing of 3A grade spruce tops then youll go straight out and buy yourself a book.

    The hardest part of building a classical? Building the thing so that it has volume. Theres alot less energy coming off a plucked nylon string than a steel string.

    Cheers Martin
    Whatever note you blow youre never more than a semitone away from the correct one....(Miles Davis)

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Townsville
    Age
    59
    Posts
    23

    Default

    Hi LG
    Having build a couple of both steel string and classical guitars I'd say it is easier to build a steel string that sounds ok. I'd be building the guitar you want to play, be it steel or nylon string, so you can refine the build when you decide to build something special. Installing a truss rod is easy, maybe one of the easiest parts of the build. You will have to buy fret wire from a luthier supply, a few extra bucks and you could get a truss rod while you are at it.

    As martin said, a good book is a wonderful thing. Another wonderful thing is a set of plans (or three), even if you don't follow them they are a great reference. I don't know of any free plan downloads for classical guitars but this site has a few steel string plans and a bunch of electrics. http://www.best-eurospruce.com/24.html

    Cheers
    James

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