Anyone here building acoustic guitars?

[Treeline]

I'm sortakinda lunging ahead with a project. I've been collecting guitar wood for half my lifetime and have a decent stash for a guy who doesn't make a living driving splinters into his hands. I have a '59 Gibson LG2 that, while it has some major issues, has always been a really sweet guitar. It has a great voice for fingerstyle, is a primo blues guitar, and can compete in a bluegrass scenario. Pretty nice little design.

So I'm starting a project with a design that starts with the LG2 and then takes off from there. I'm at the very beginning stage - thinning sides and drawing details and all that good stuff.

So - is anyone else here messing with acoustic guitar design / build? Let's hear from ya!

Here's a few pics of stuff.

 

[ausrock]

I started buying timber about 4 years ago for an archtop build, got as far as gluing the top plate wedges and them put it on hold due to work issues........losing the works factory and all equipment in a fire and having to start that from scratch. The other project I delayed was building a still which I've recently started work on again so there's hope for the archtop.

 

[Treeline]

I started buying timber about 4 years ago for an archtop build, got as far as gluing the top plate wedges and them put it on hold due to work issues........losing the works factory and all equipment in a fire and having to start that from scratch. The other project I delayed was building a still which I've recently started work on again so there's hope for the archtop.

Have you seen the Benedetto building vids?
Aside from the self congratulatory air about them, they're first rate. He's very practical about this stuff. Decent book, too.

 

[DM60]

The other project I delayed was building a still which I've recently started work on again so there's hope for the archtop.

Like the kind to make ethanol If you are doing that, any information you have if you would share. I've been want to build one for the last few years.

 

[Treeline]

Well, actually.

Get the still done, and shortly the archtop won't be an issue.

 

[ausrock]

Treeline,

I have the Benedetto book and plans, etc., but not the videos......yet.

DM,

Yes the ethanol kind . A lot will depend on whether you want a neutral spirit (vodka) or a flavoured (whiskey/rum) product. In simple terms you use a reflux still for neutral and a pot still for flavoured spirits.......again, that is a very simplistic explanation. What I'm building uses a 9 gal keg as the boiler and a reflux column but it will be modular so I can run it as a pot still if I wish.

Do a Google search for Boka or (Alex) Bokakob, he did a lot of design drawings some years ago for relatively easy to build reflux columns, there's shitloads of info out there.

Also, the Homedistiller Forum is the best resource for information I have found.

 

[Chili]

Subscribed. Interested in how you make out with the acoustic build.

I did a couple of refinishes that came out less than I hoped. Then did a build-from-scratch bass (except the neck). It plays great, but has a hum I need to fix. Eventually I'll build a neck for it, but for now I'm using a pre-made neck from Guitar fetish.

and if you don't mind, I can move this to the Guitar section of the site.

 

[ausrock]

Hi Chili,

Mate, the archtop build will be a while away so no need to move this as far as I'm concerned. If and/or when "life" allows me to make a start, I may start a specific thread in the guitar section.

Cheers,

ChrisO

 

[Treeline]

and if you don't mind, I can move this to the Guitar section of the site.

Yessir! Go to it!

Aus, check out Beez's projects. He checks in here now and then, but is more active on facebook. He's designed and built a number of electric basses and is figuring that stuff out.

I'm at the stage where I'm jointing the top plates and the back plates - just bought a smoothing plane and now I have to figure it out. The idea is to have a center seam tight enough that it disappears when glued up.

Tools - they're just like gear! T.A.S. = G.A.S.

 

[Chili]

Tools - they're just like gear! T.A.S. = G.A.S.

Yup. I buy mine on the premise of building frames for my wife's paintings.
Guitar Projects = 3
Art Frames = 0

 

[Treeline]

Yup. I buy mine on the premise of building frames for my wife's paintings.
Guitar Projects = 3
Art Frames = 0

I need a good excuse like that! I've gotten a few decent automotive tools by rebuilding brakes on the Subaru. The only thing I don't like about that car is that it eats brakes and rotors for breakfast. I think I need to pull the calipers and sandblast them. (Saaayyy. . . That might end up "requiring" a small sand blasting hood).

The latest thing is new territory for me - a Stanley Sweetheart #4 smoothing plane. The excuse is that I need to joint the top and back plates. But I really just had a woody for it. Like a Lie-Nielsen at half the price. Now I have to learn how to use it.

 

[DM60]

You probably already know, but it looks like this place is a great place to start: Stewart-MacDonald: Everything for building and repairing stringed instruments! | stewmac.com

 

[Treeline]

You probably already know, but it looks like this place is a great place to start: Stewart-MacDonald: Everything for building and repairing stringed instruments! | stewmac.com

Yep. It's the only pron my wife will let me watch.

 

[DM60]

Yep. It's the only pron my wife will let me watch.

I was rebuilding a banjo and came across this site. Made me want to build a guitar so I could go and buy all of the cool stuff. $6000 of tools for a $100 guitar.

 

[Chili]

$6000 of tools for a $100 guitar.

Sounds about right.

 

[Treeline]

 

[Btyre2013]

I need a good excuse like that! I've gotten a few decent automotive tools by rebuilding brakes on the Subaru. The only thing I don't like about that car is that it eats brakes and rotors for breakfast. I think I need to pull the calipers and sandblast them. (Saaayyy. . . That might end up "requiring" a small sand blasting hood).

The latest thing is new territory for me - a Stanley Sweetheart #4 smoothing plane. The excuse is that I need to joint the top and back plates. But I really just had a woody for it. Like a Lie-Nielsen at half the price. Now I have to learn how to use it.

make sure it's flattened as well, stanley are really really poor quality thesedays, get an old one instead, and restore it, I recently picked up a 4 1/2 and 5 1/2 for not much money at all on ebay, it's all you need to start with.

 

[Bubba po]

Stewmac charge like a wounded rhinoceros.

 

[tieb]

This is the most beautiful thing i ever seen.

 

[Treeline]

Had some fun with this project so far. Here are some pics - I built a shooting board, which is like a bench hook with some more stuff happening. Basically you use it as a guide for your plane as it slides on its side and planes a piece you put in its way. This is a great way to plane a perfect gluing edge for the pieces that form a guitar top or back. So I jointed some top wood and got a pretty good line. This morning I glued up the top and cleaned it up. Wow - it came out pretty nice. Great medullary ray action happening. This is an aged sitka spruce top; I bought it about 40 years ago (about 1975) along with a big pile of mahogany, rosewood and so forth from Michael Gurian, and it was well aged back then. Still have all that wood and more that I've collected over the years, all stickered and seasoning quietly. Now its time to do something with it.