BudK

I alway's wanted to do this and it got me out of renovating the upstair's bath. It's a work in progress and requires level of precision that is daunting . (at least to me ! ) I'm using both hand & power tools .
The plan :
Dreadnought shape ,Lutz spruce top , Bigleaf maple back & sides , ebony fingerboard , bridge , headstock overlay , laminated maple neck .

Mahogany binding's and accent's .(recycled from old church kneelers )



I'm using book's and an online buildalong for inspiration & help with techniques and matl's .
So I got some wood together .P1010001.jpg
Not shown is bracewood and the longer mahogany that will be milled for the bindings .Kind of a homemade "kit". Wish me luck .
Bud

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Kenbo

Good luck with the project. Keep us up to date. I would love to see the various stages of the build and of course, the finished product.
Ken

smitty1967

DITTO!! Keep us posted with as-built pics, if you can, Bud. My 16 y/o has been after me to get us to build a guitar. I've told him I'm not that good yet, but he keeps pushing me in that direction. Maybe an electric solid-body first, huh?

Many of us I'm sure would love to see your clamping, design, finishing process, etc. If you have the time, please keep this thread alive as you go.

best of luck!
smitty

firehawkmph

Bud,
Looks good so far. Ditto what the othes said. Keep us posted as you go. What the heck, it can't be that hard, I only see thirteen pieces of wood.
Mike Hawkins

BudK

Thank's all , Ive been working on this on & off for about a month .
First thing was the plan . A gifted luthier named Steve (from Texas) hand drew the plans.( also happens to be the head advisor for the buildalong . ) While waiting for the wood I cut templates from masonite for the body shape and neck laminations .P1010001.jpg
I also built a form , workboard , go-bar clamping deck & bending iron .P101t0011.jpg P101g0001.jpg

Then I got started on the neck lams.
Bandsawed 4 pcs 6"x3/4 flatsawn hard maple and added a slice of mahogany . P10100r13.jpg
Glued 'em up . P1010092.jpg
Then bandsawed them to the layout line .
Please forgive the messy shop .


Bud

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knotscott

Awesome challenge Bud! I'll definitely be interested in seeing your progress. I built a hard body electric for my son a couple of years ago, but haven't mustered the nerve to attempt an acoustic, which appears harder to construct....maybe someday. The electronics should be a little simpler for the acoustic though!

Keep after it!

BudK

I set the neck blank aside and took the maple plates to the bench to joint an edge for joining them to the mahogany center strip .P1010003.jpg Actually that might be the top , same procedure though .
After a few tries I got the hang of using the smoothing plane and got no light seepage when holding 'em up .
Placed them in the jig and glued them up ...came back an hour later to find they had shifted and had to saw the bastids apart .p1010006.jpg
Thats the improved jig .
Here is the rough back with the neck blank .45 (14).jpg
I have been thicknessing the back with a toothing and a smoothing plane .45 (1).jpg
BAK01 (4).jpg
Slow going , a drum sander would make quick work of it , but I ain't got one ! It's pretty cool doing it as it's been done for centuries though .
I have some photos of the top but seem to have lost em . I joined the top differently as it was two peices of spruce and didnt need as much pressure .
BK

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BudK

Worked on the rosette today , made a circle cutter out of a popsicle stick , brad & x-acto blade .
Scored the mahogany and ran it thru the bandsaw .
Prosette (1).jpg
Prosette (7).jpg

Time to drill some holes in the base of my router .
Bud

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Kenbo

Looking great! Keep the pictures coming!

jdixon

Bud, Thank you for taking the time to document your project. You are doing a great job and it's alot of fun to follow. I'm in the same boat as Smitty, I have a 15 yr old son that has an electric guitar(Christmas last year) but now wants this and that and this. I have thought about building one and have looked at the kits from Grizzly. Anyway just wanted to pass on the thanks to you. Nice work!

John

BudK

Hand planing/thinning down the sides . Bottom , raw side , middle , in progress , top is a piece of hard maple I ran thru the planer to .100 to use as a gage to my progress .side1.jpg I'll get it close , then use a hand scraper to finish .
The Bigleaf maple for the back and sides is much too prone to tearout in the thickness planer , as is the Spruce top . Learned the hard way . Had I started building these 35 years ago , would have appreciated and taken better care of my guitars .

The hardest part for me , (so far)was just to get started making this thing . Cant be afraid to make the mistakes .
Notice I am not using rosewood or cocobolo for this first build . Hmmm...

Hey Daren , you got any black walnut scraps lying around for a budding luthier ?

Bud

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BudK

Well , I got one side to thickness . (Thinness?)
sidethik.jpg

There is some curl in the maple that makes for minor excitement .
Also when swapping around the side on the bench, clamping etc. I learned to keep the bench spotless under the workpiece .
Bud

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BudK

Finished planing the second side last night . pi.jpg
Did I mention , this is the first time I ever used a hand plane for more than five minutes on a project ? Learned a lot about grain direction , plane tune up and why a toothing blade is a good thing .
Also how I need more planes . And a thickness sander .

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Kenbo

Just a thought, but if you want, I know a guy that has a big pile of curly maple shavings to add to your shavings from the guitar.

I stick to my original thought that it is looking great.

BudK

Cut the rosette channel in the top . Used a spiral downcut bit , turned out clean .rosette.jpg
Flooded it with ca adhesive, and placed the donut in .(Slightly proud of the surface) Then scraped it flush .rosette (2).jpg
Cleaned the show face some , and finished thicknessing the sound board .
Cut out soundhole .sndhle (3).jpg

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BudK

Got a bit done today , mostly practice for bending the sides.
Resawed some Poplar to 1/5 " Than ran it thru the 12" planer to get around .095 side mat'l and sprayed them with water .
Heated up the bending iron & put my hand bending lack of skills to the test . Clamped them in the form . Challenging and almost frustrating at times .
sndhle (6).jpg
Some burn marks , and cupping . It seems that as they dry they are looking better . I'll pull them out of the form tomorrow and see If I have any tooling or technique issues to address . Probably have to make some caul's for the metal clamps .
Better to make mistakes on the inexpensive stuff .

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frankp

Looks great, Bud. Your neck doesn't look quite thick enough to me though... is that just a factor of the angle the pictures were taken at or will you have a thick fretboard?

__________________
"I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!"

--Theodore Roosevelt

BudK

Hiya , Frank ,

It's about 15\16 " thick, give or take . My old Martin has a thinner neck and seem's to suit, so I'll try to go for a reasonable facsimile .
Tell you this , its too easy to obsess over the detail's to the point of slowing thing's down to a near standstill . I catch myself doing it too often on this . Sometimes ya just gotta boldly spring into action .

So I figure it may have a lump or two here or there .

Thank's ,


Bud

BudK

Mornin'

Got some work done . Bent and trimmed the sides to length . I let the sides over lap in the form , taped them together & ran them thru the bandsaw .P1010036.jpg

Then cut & shaped the head & tail blocks of mahogany .P1010039.jpg
I then moved over to my tired table saw and cut some strips for kerfing .P1010033.jpg P1010035.jpg

A productive Sunday . This week I hope to upgrade my R.A.S . There seems to have been a recall on it and thousands of others . The free upgrade comes with a new table , trigger handle and blade guard mech .Radial Arm Saw Recall
I registered and A huge box showed up two days later .
I hope to use it for slotting fretboards and the kerfing strip's
Keep safe .
Bud

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Kenbo

When you are done, you definately have to post a video of the maiden voyage of the guitar. It's looking great!!!
Ken