Guitar Construction book

And it will scare the bejeezus out of you. :) A table just has to LOOK nice. A guitar has to look nice and PLAY nice. Great book, though.

You might want to check out the books page at

Tony

As some others have suggested the Cumpiano book is a good one. You might ask your question at rec.music.makers.builders. I'm sure some other suggestions would be forthcoming. Also, mimf.com is a useful resource for instrument makers. They do want you to register but there is no cost.

Mike

I have built guitars from the Overholtzer book. I highly recommend his methods and procedures, however, the book itself is hard to follow, not very well written. He was much more the builder than the writer.

Tim

In the knife-making world they refer to "knife-like-objects", things that look like knives but won't hold an edge. I figure if I can build a "guitar-like-object" or two and sell them in a pawn shop I might learn enough to be able to actually build an instrument.

Tim Douglass

The Griz kits are among those I've been looking at. I planned to start with a kit for sure.

Tim Douglass

C.F. Martin, makers of _excellent_ guitars, has kits with great instructions available. Maybe you can buy just their manuals? Techniques and materials are _very_ different depending on if you're building a classical, a steel-stringed, or an electric guitar. No point learning how to support a top for the wrong type, so if you narrow down your goals you'll be able to find more directly applicable information. Me, I'm planning to go with one of Martin's kits when I build one.

Dave Hinz

Guitar World (iirc) had an April Fools issue 20-ish years ago when brass parts were all the rage.

They machined a Stratocaster copy from solid brass. Their comments were:

"The heaviest strap wasn't much use, and besides, at over 70lbs, it proved impossible to hold it in playing positiong. So we used a Hurst engine hoist instead."

"Yeah, it was heavy, but you shoulda heard the SUSTAIN!!"

At this point my interest is in an acoustic steelstring. I don't have much practical interest in electric guitars (as instruments to play) and classical is not really my musical interest, so...

Tim Douglass

Tim:

Have you seen the site:

They seem to have great Kits for reasonable prices. Try building a guitar from a kit just for "practice" and then when you read up on the "how to" you can relate.

Phil

Martins are among the best factory made guitars, but do not compae with hand made guitars.

Tim

True. I have a Lowden that I just love, but if I was going to buy a factory-made, it'd be the Martin HD-28. You just can't match the hand-made ones, though.

Dave Hinz