Your first build - how'd it go

[Bryan Bear]

This is really turning into a cool thread! Keep the stories coming.

[Steven Smith]

I don't think I am over-braced. . . judging from the bellying. . .

Ha, I resemble that remark

[Peter Wilcox]

I have MIMF to thank for getting me started building instruments. I joined a number of years ago to get advice on fixing my daughter's broken violin, and so was on the mailing list. I got an email in the summer of 2009 announcing the $100 Telecaster challenge, and since I'd just been laid off and had time on my hands, I entered.

When I found that this:

plus this:

plus this:

plus $5 and my (now worthless) time,
equaled this:

I was hooked.

[Bryan Bear]

I remember following that thread Peter. It was one of my favorites! I don't remember knowing it was your first build though. Even more impressive now.

[Waddy Thomson]

My first build actually went quite well, as far as I was concerned, but it sits in a case, and is rarely played. My player is my #2, still, even though my later guitars are significantly better in loudness.

My story is that I never had any interest in guitar until my son took up guitar in the late 70's after we moved to Charlotte. He bought a Hondo Classical, $39.95 at a local music store, and started taking lessons there. This was in the late Summer of 1978 as I recall, and by Christmas he had gone totally electric. I got the "hand-me-down" Hondo, and a Roy Clark Big Note Guitar Book for Christmas that year. He got an Ibanez Iceman Tobacco Sunburst. Anyway, I started to try playing, and realized that I was never going to get anywhere fast. I decided to take lessons. My teacher's father was a skilled classical guitarist and had graduated to classical from playing in Big Bands back in the day. He was, for a period, the lead guitarist for Stan Kenton. Anyway, he had also taken up guitar building, and he got me interested in the construction aspects of classical guitars. I bought and read a few books in those days of interest, Sloane's book, and Overholtzer's book come to mind as the primary ones then. Over the years I kept wanting to build, but life just kept getting in the way - job, my 1st son's band, my 2nd sons sports, Scouts, ailing parents, etc, etc.. Finally in 2006, I decided I had time. Parents passed, kids married, moved away and happy. I started re-reading the books I had, bought a number of additional ones, and read them. Started looking up stuff on line, and found a bunch of builder forums, including MIMF, and got on line to learn. Decided to primarily build my first using hand tools as much as possible. Finally broke down and bought a 10" Craftsman band saw while trying to make rosette tile logs. Trying to saw 1 mm strips by hand was a total failure for me. It took me a year to complete my first. I have never had the same feeling I had when I strung it up and nothing broke. I seem to experience that same feeling with every new guitar. I posted build threads on other forums, but did not here, as progress pictures were discouraged. I also maintain build albums for my builds in photobook, but was not allowed to post those here either. Never quite understood that, as it was not a commercial site, just photos of guitar builds. Anyway, guitar came out great. Zebrawood/German Spruce, Mahogany neck, Ebony Fingerboard. Romanillos plan was used.

[David Boehnker]

I built my first starting in 1983 using Sloan's steel string book. No neck angle, mortis and tenon neck with dowels locking it in (and epoxy, was scared to death that the neck would come loose). No concept of humidity control, so planed off the braces after the top potato-chipped and redid. Changed careers, had a kid, and finished it in 1993. 10-12 cans spray lacquer. It was maple and sounded tinny, but a couple years later I let a friend use it and he played it to death. Then it sat in my basement for say 15 years as I played my later guitars. Last year I happened to see it in the corner and played it for a while and loved it, even though the action is high, 15 year old strings and sounds pretty darn good. Now I go down at least once a week and play it. If only I could figure out how to reset the neck without sawing it off.

[Michael Lewis]

Slip the back on the neck block, trim the edge of the back and reinstall binding. OR cut off the neck and convert to bolt on.

[Peter Wilcox]

If only I could figure out how to reset the neck without sawing it off.

Here was my way:

Or you could go to Frank Ford's site for a more elegant way.

http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Luthier ... eset1.html

[Ryan Mazzocco]

Wow looks like I'm late to the party. I don't log on for a couple days and I almost miss one of the best discussions I've seen on here in a long time.
My story begins in High School. I wanted to build a guitar in shop class. My shop teacher said I could IF I bought the neck. He said it would be too hard to build the neck myself. But I wanted to do the whole thing, and I didn't have money to buy a neck, so I scrapped the idea.
Bryan Bear, I was fascinated to hear your story because in all the times we've talked I've never heard it, and in many ways it is eerily similar to mine.
A few years later my wife and I were on our honey moon. We stopped off for a couple days in Branson, Missouri and went to the Silver Dollar City theme park. For those that don't know it's a period theme park always set 100 years in the past. So there's lots of old-timey stuff and hand crafted furniture makers and glass blowers, that kind of stuff... and the Saloon Girls... "hubba hubba oooh la la!" (No I'm not being womanizing, that's part of the show. they make you say it.)
anyway.... As we are making our way out of the park, through the gift shop of course, we pass by a vendor selling mountain dulcimers. I'm sort of interested in buying one... but not really. With my background in guitar I very quickly figured out the basics of how to play it. but ultimately I just don't want to spend the money. Then the guy tells me that I can order a kit and build it myself if I have any wood working experience. My dad started teaching me wood working as soon as I was strong enough to lift a hammer. So I had that going for me. I figured I'd give that a try, so I took his card and then we went on our way. But I never called him back to place the order for my dulcimer kit. Instead I started thinking... 'I play the guitar. What do I want with a dulcimer?' And then it hit me. I'll just build my own guitar! I immediately started salvaging anything left on a job site that I thought could possibly be used to build a guitar. We built a Cedar deck. there were some very large drops from the 6x6 cedar posts. I used those for my top and braces. We trimmed a house while a prefinished walnut hardwood floor was being laid. a trip to the dumpster after they left scored my back, sides and neck. We built stair parts for a Brazilian Cherry staircase and some of the scraps became my headstock veneer and bridge. A piece of maple we had laying in the shop became my fretboard and binding, while other random pieces became purfling and rossette material.
My biggest mistake was that I really expected my first guitar to be perfect. I said I didn't, but I really did. So that first guitar took me about 6 or 7 years to build. I bought the B&N book, searched this forum and any other information i could find before I ever started processing a board. I've been working with wood so long that I thought I really had a head start. I was wrong. In doing trim, cabinets and finishing, etc..., there was nothing I had done to truly prepare me for what I was trying to do. The guitar would sit in various stages of completion for months or years at a time. Our shop was flooded and some of my glue joints failed. I had to dry everything out and eventually glue it back together. We had just got a 24" WoodMaster moulder/planer/sander in our shop which I used to thickness my top, back and sides. It's true what they say: power tools can help you ruin your work a lot faster. without realizing the damage I had done I thinned my cedar top to somewhere around .068". Once I finally got around to the body assembly I now understood that my top was WAY too thin. but I stubbornly didn't want to start over. my reasoning was, 'Ive come this far. I know this thing will probably blow up as soon as I put strings on, but at least I will learn from completing the steps.' By now I'm in 'just get it done' mode. Within a matter of weeks this thing is just flying together. I decide I'm not satisfied with the binding so I rout it off and reinstall new. As I'm gluing binding the back the body slips off the table and crashes to the floor. I just stood there and stared in stunned silence for what must have been 5 minutes. Finally I snap out of it and assess the damage. The top is completely busted, but everything else is perfectly fine. I still have some of that old cedar, so I split it and use it to make a new top, this time no thinner than .100". Other than placing my sound hole and inch too high this one went much more smoothly.
I worked hard on it for a few more weeks. I am now so anxious to hear and play it that I decide to string it up in the white. I put a shellac coat on it, but that's it. As I'm stringing it up for the first time, My dad comes out to the shop and informs me that his wife's mom, my step-grandma, has died. My step-mom's brother, my Uncle Gary, was one of the first one's to give me some very basic guitar lessons when I was a little kid. I pressed on though and got my guitar set up and playing. When Uncle Gary came over later that afternoon I was able to bring some joy and comfort to him through my new guitar. He was able to be distracted from his tears as he played it and really enjoyed it.
As far as the guitar itself? it's about the furthest thing from perfect that it could possibly be. I plan to do some work on it and fix a few things, if I can ever seem to find the time. I played it last night for a sing-along with my 3 year old daughter as we sang "Wheels on the Bus," "If you're happy and you know it" and "Old MacDonald." So I guess it's perfect for that.
But in the end it was a wonderful experience. I learned so much and always enjoyed myself even in the failures. I've got my dad into it. He enjoys it so much that by next year he wants to retire (he turned 61 yesterday) and just build guitars in the shop. I've since built 2 more acoustics an electric and have 5, 6 and 7 almost completed.
oops... I talked too much....

[Randy Roberts]

Peter,
I remember your challenge build too. And also had no clue it was your first. I rember all through your posts thinking "man, this guy is a genius!" I figured it was like your 5ooth or something.

Ryan,
Great story, and love that you got your dad addicted too.

[Bryan Bear]

Ryan, you mentioned that big power tools can help you ruin your work faster but you didn't mention what something like a planer can do to something like a set of digital calipers. <G>

[Ryan Mazzocco]

Ryan, you mentioned that big power tools can help you ruin your work faster but you didn't mention what something like a planer can do to something like a set of digital calipers. <G>

Oh yeah, it turns out letting your calipers go through the planer is bad. I recommend not doing it.

btw... I used the C&N book... not the B&N book. <----

[David Boehnker]

Michael and Peter, after all these years sawing off the neck and converting to bolt-on doesn't sound bad. But...first build, and in addition epoxying the neck on, I epoxied the fingerboard. It was 20 year old top grade black ebony 30 years ago, so I don't want to plane it off. Can I remove the epoxied fingerboard with a heat blanket? If I can't remove the fingerboard, I don't know how I'd cut around the truss rod.

[Barry Daniels]

Epoxied fretboards can be removed with heat very easily and cleanly.

[Michael Lewis]

Separate the fingerboard over the body first. You shouldn't have to cut the fingerboard. With a very thin kerf saw you can "chew" out the wood along the seam between the body and neck, as the typical mahogany is not overly hard to cut. Just keep after it and carefully cut as closely to the body as you can without damaging it. This isn't easy but you will get through it.

[Clay Schaeffer]

For cutting necks off, one of the handiest tools I've used is the oscillating tool now offered by several manufacturers. They use fine toothed thin metal blades and allow you to do plunge cuts to a reasonable depth. They also take sanding pads and other attachments that allow you to do a wide variety of tasks - very handy. Fein makes a nice one, but Harbor Freight makes a cheap one (which is what I own) that works O.K. too. Taping the body around the neck can help save some refinish work.
Using the oscillating tool you will be able to cut the wood right up to the truss rod.

[Bryan Bear]

I have heard of sawing the neck off and converting to bolt on from several people. I have often wondered about the amount of wood lost to meet and cleanup. Do you move the saddle back to compensate or is it so little material that working the surface of the saddle will take care of intonation?

[Peter Wilcox]

Bryan, the change in scale length shouldn't be any more than the kerf of the saw used, easily less than 1/32". Adjustments to the neck angle for high action improvement would remove material away from the fretboard, leaving the scale length (less the saw kerf) intact. I'd think this could usually be compensated for, if even necessary, by reshaping the saddle.