Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Have any of you had any experience with acoustic guitar kits?
Stewart-MacDonald (a great parts company) sells Dreadnought kits and video for $360 (Mahogany) and $420 (Rosewood).
The idea of “building” (ok, assembling) my own guitar intrigues me.
The ad says “without needing a shop full of tools.”
I wonder what / how many tools I really need.
How difficult is it?
Will the guitar look / sound like ****?
Thanks!
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My gosh. 200 posts. Already. That averages to more than one a day. I gotta get a life.

Check this new site out:

http://www.kitguitarbuilder.com/

You'll also find some good discussion on the subject in the Acoustic Guitar magazine forums at:

http://www.acousticguitar.com/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi

Look at "Luthiers' Corner" in particular.

I believe that Martin also offers kits. These may require a bit more work than A Stew Mac kit. I'd build a Martin before I'd build a Stew Mac, personally...

I don't know about that claim that you don't need a shop full of tools. Maybe not a shop full, but you will need some, and of course, that's Stew Mac's business--selling tools!

A self-built Martin guitar . . .
Now there's an interesting thought.
Thanks for the info guys!

I would recommend that you get the video first and see if you are up to it. A friend who has experience building electric guitars built one of the Stew Mac kits. It came out ok but wasn't great sounding. I expressed my opinion that he should surface sand the top thinner because it seemed a bit thick to me. He didn't do it and had regrets of not doing so afterwards. For the cost of the kit I would look for something used. However the kit is a good learning tool.

All good advice.

Another thing I can recommend would be purchasing
the book "Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology" by William R. Cumpiano and Jonathan D. Natelson (paperback ISBN is 0-8118-0640-5)

All the online sellers have it, and it's been in print for many years, so you should have no problem with finding a copy. Cumpiano prints updates and answers questions on his web site.

In the book, every step is outlined for building an acoustic or steel-string guitar from scratch. Now, Cumpiano does not use a dovetail neck joint in his guitars (he used Michael Gurian's pinned mortise method, then developed one of his own), so if you build a kit using the traditional dovetail neck joint, you'll have to get advice in neck setting from some other source. But his methods of top-plate tuning, brace shaving and nearly all the other aspects of building a steel string are excellent and time-tested. The book pays for itself many times over.

That said, the Stew-Mac kit generally has good material, and the instructions there are pretty well done. Using the Cumpiano book as a guide, you can actually get away with less tools that the SM kit instructions call for.

Good luck!

Corey Keller

(Apprentice luthier)

Corey is spot-on. The Cumpiano book is one of the best and really the only one you need, if you only want to learn one way of building a guitar. If you want alternatives, check out other books with similar titles.