Thread: Guitar plans with cutaway

For books, the bible of the (acoustic) craft is "guitarmaking:tradition and technology" by William Cumpiano and Jonathan Solomon. It's available at Carba-tec. I also found it locally in a Brisbane library. It was an interesting read

for websites, hang out on mimf.com there's plenty of info and plans there.

Thanks for your input Phil

The library system down here in Tas has a copy - hold placed and waiting with anticipation..

Cumpiano doesn't say much about cutaways. 'Making an archtop guitar' by Bob Bennedetto does have some good info on cutaways, pretty easy to apply his info to flat tops.

I made my first guitar with cutaway using these two books.

Andrew,

For my first guitar I'd steer away from tackling a cutaway...just my opinion of course but a cutaway is one of those tasks that could quickly kill your passion for luthiery if you &&&& it up.

Campianos book is good but also check out a few others...one thing youll find is that there are as many different approaches to luthiery as there are luthiers.

Check out LMI, Stewmac and GAL's websites also for info and links to other sites/books.

Cheers Martin

Paul B & Geo

Thanks for your input

I've been crook for several weeks so have got to the point of researching future dream jobs.. spent half of yesterday down at the reference library going through a batch of books on "guitar building" and dredging through a couple of forums that have already been mentioned and have slowly had my already addled brain overloaded with info..

I'm planing on cutaway because I already have a couple of flat tops?/ dreadnoughts? and would like something different. though do realise further complexities are involved..

Luthiery......a dream job? You bet ya! Unfortunately its a tough job in this country....a majority of people dont appreciate the amount of work that goes into a handbuilt guitar and aren't willing to pay enough to cover the luthiers costs.

For me luthiery is a hobby a passion and (according to my wife) at times an obsession. Im a late starter in luthiery and could never learn enough in the years I have left to feel comfortable selling my instruments, my guitars get "loaned" to muso friends and my reward is seeing someone enjoying playing them.

Dont let my ramblings put water on your fire though.....the guys that do make a living building guitars are the ones with a passion for the art along with alot of patience.

Cheers Martin

Told you my brain was addled how could I say something that could be so easily misinterpreted...

Dream Job = future project not a way to earn a living (though I have a few of those as well)

If I was going for the making a living angle I'd attack the Luthiers down here in Tas till one of them apprenticed me..I'm 33 now and I'm sure it wouldn't take more than ten years before I would feel confident enough to start selling my handiwork by that time the first ones would either be falling apart at the seams, or they would be just starting to get a nice age to them, reassuring me that they're not landfill

I am interested in making a cutaway acoustic and then later an Archtop (bennedetto).

At 33 Id be a tad hessitant going and throttling some fella for a apprenticeship mate... doesnt pay to well

I enjoy dream job threads... see my dream job would be a boatbuilder building wooden boats you know the type... bloody big schooners, fishing boats, cruisin boats, cray boats whatever... I dream of that job EVERYFRIGGINDAY!!! :eek:

See once many moons ago when living way outback without access to anything like a library let alone the internet or very much in the way of tools timber or knowledge or anyone for that matter I made a couple of guitars and thought to myself man Im gonna be a guitar maker... but sadly I realised that as a guitar maker Im a fanbloodytastic truck driver that realization came about after the first guitar did a major sproing and disintergrated while a mate of mine was tuning it... just plunk plunk SPROING!!! neck gave way headstock came apart and the body... well the body... sproing?... died a death it did... the other one survived a week longer (time it took for mate to recover and gather up the gronicals to try tuning one of my hand made one of a kind guitars again ) and it died the same way of course I blamed him and he blamed me and I blamed the timber and he blamed me and I blamed the glue I used and he blamed me etc... so it was decided that as a budding guitar maker Id make a dead set ripper of a truck driver

I left guitar building alone for a time after that... then after Id become ejoomakated and became a professional in the social sciences I decided I was smart enough to have another go... Id learnt a bit more over the years I thought... so I built an acustic and an electric this time... looked great too!!... great for a wall hanging!... the acustic died a death similar to the first couple while the electric survived till the flood of 2005 wherein as it was resting on the floor in its case it managed to get to be 10in underwater and by the time several days later I found the case amid all the other stuff covered in goop mud muck and crud had been full of said goop mud muck and crud for several days... it was totalled... such a nice guitar see Id become used to its idiosinkrasys and sound although others thought it sounded well... shall we just say shyte and be done? ... I realized that as a guitar maker I was a terrific truck driver mind you it was around that time that it dawned on me that as a counsellor Id be a aweflaminsome truck driver... and heck that only took me 12 years to figure out duuuhhhh

But as a boatbuilder? Im FANFRIGGINTASTIC!!!... of course Ive only builded a couple of wee boats but Im not fazed... I KNOW IM FRIGGIN BRILLIANT as a boatbuilder!!... see I also thought of throttling and belting some poor one eyed crotchety bloated old drunken boatbuilder into submission to take me on as an apprentice with an eye to the future... but then I found out the wages those poor apprentice sods get and thought FRIG THAT!!! so as a boatbuilders apprentice Im a stunningly brillaint truck driver

Ooooh I will get my dream job... no worries! Just gotta work at the mine a few more years and I will open up my own boatyard!! cause then I still have to do this without her bloody highness finding out cause she reckons as a boatbuilder I make a...

well you know

Dream jobs are awesome things eh mate! I wish you all the best for achieving it

Hi Wild Dingo

I am sure you are an absolutely phantasmagorical truck driver and an even better astoundingly bodacious boatbuilder..

The sproing factor is why I only attempt to inflict stuff on myself no one else.. as to apprenticeships at least they pay you these days (if it can be called that) not like in the old glory days when you had to pay the master to take you on but tis only for my own pleasure I'd be building a guitar or two (or three or four)

As for the dream jobs.. I'll work towards them slowly and by the time I'm due to retire I may have enough to experience, knowledge and capital accumulated to hang a pictures on the wall of things to do with them.

As to the dream project (topic of this thread) I am slowly gather info and trying to find the best way of going about things.. there are so many different ways of doing each step - what molding system to use, what bending method (going to start with the old heated pipe), what bracing, not to mention unraveling the lutherie jargon and tools then theres timber selection - all in all theres still a long journey between here and the sproing factor.

Andrew,

If youre serious about learning luthiery then another option is a guitar making course. There's one running in Wellington, New Zealand next January. I can reccommend this course as Ive actually done it myself. Its a 3 week long course and its run by Paddy Burgin and Dave Freeman, two very talented luthiers and both very good teachers also. You get the choice of building an OM or Dreadnaught steelstring or a classical instrument. Check out the following website:

http://www.burginguitars.co.nz/2K4_course.htm


The course usually fills fast so drop Paddy an email or ring him and check if there are still places available (maximum of 12 people on the course).

Cheers Martin