Almost looks like a guitar

[Eric Knapp]

It’s not done yet but this is a big milestone for me. I needed to string it up to see what the action was like. At first I thought it might be too low but as it is settling in it is getting too high. I’ll keep trying to get the neck angle right. I am not much of a player anymore but I am able to strum a few chords. It sounds pretty good but I don’t have any other flat-top steel-string guitars to compare it to. This is a 7-string, something I’ve wanted for a long time. The 7th string is a low A and seems too thin. The biggest string I could find was a .059”.

I’ve wanted to make guitars for a very long time and it was a surreal moment strumming one I made. This is my learning guitar that will be labeled #0. There is a growing list of things I’ll do differently on the next one. I made this with books, blog posts, videos, and the help from all of you. I have a guitar-player friend who will make a video of it being played once it’s more playable. There’s a lot of fretwork to do and several other little adjustments before then. I’ll take more photos too.

Thanks for all the help, everyone.

-Eric

[Karl Wicklund]

Congratulations, Eric! Looks good, and I still like that rosette!

[Barry Daniels]

Looks good from here, Eric. Sounds like you are hooked now.

[Eric Knapp]

Congratulations, Eric! Looks good, and I still like that rosette!

Thanks, Karl. I like that rosette too and I'm starting to see the flaws less often. Learn and move on seems the only good approach to this craft.

-Eric

[Eric Knapp]

Looks good from here, Eric. Sounds like you are hooked now.

Thanks, Barry. I am most certainly hooked. I have been planning the next one for a while now and maybe even the one after that. I have the wood, tools, and desire. I just need the time.

-Eric

[Bryan Bear]

Congrats! there is nothing like hearing your first instrument for the first time! Looks great!

give it some time before you try to do too much work on the neck angle. The guitar will move a bit as it settles in. Just keep an eye on it for a while. Spend that time paying it and sorting out the things you can that don't involve final set-up. Once it has been under tension for a few weeks, then evaluate what needs to happen to get the action right.

Set the neck relief and get your fretwork sorted out.
Adjust your nut slots to be as low as possible.
Then measure the action at the 12th fret. You can compare that to what your action goal is to see what you need to do. Often, you can decide you want to take the action down by X amount and get there by removing 2X amount from the saddle height. Sometimes you don't have enough saddle height to do that and you have to change the neck angle.

[Matthew Lau]

Congrats! And nice work!

Keep that first one for life. You'll treasure where you started and came from.

[Bob Ionta]

That looks really great!

Check this place for your seventh string. I've tried several different gauges on my 7-string, ranging from .059 to .070.
https://www.stringsandbeyond.com/singlestrings.html

For example, here are phosphor bronze up to .070:
https://www.stringsandbeyond.com/dphbracsist.html

Or you can search specifically for acoustic bass guitar strings but watch out for the scale length on those.

[Pat Foster]

Congratulations! You never forget the first time. Same with guitars.

[Matthew Lau]

That looks fantastic

[Eric Knapp]

Thanks for all the encouragement, guys. I’ll post more about it when it’s playable. I took the holidays off from the shop and then got a new dog. I’m starting back on it and I’ll get it going the best I can. I have a friend who can actually play guitars, as opposed to me. We’ll make a video eventually.

-Eric

[Karl Wicklund]

Looking forward to the video’