Gosh twang it

I have had a hankering to try my hand at building an acoustic guitar for quite some time now, and came to the realization that I have to start somewhere. Granted this will not be as fine of a build as Alex Reids beautiful build or even close to it, however I'll give 'er the old 'never went to college try'.... Maybe we'll just call this a prototype run ;).

First a little background...no plans are going to be harmed in this attempt. Shop scraps shall be the majority of materials used, though I have bought some veneer strips and a slice of walnut to hopefully detract from all the errors of my ways :eek:. My plan is nothing more than roughly a parlor size 6 string, 14 fret to the upper bout, flying by the seat of my pants, faith in the ol' eyeballs, possibly using any recollections from previous threads, blogs, videos I've laid eyes upon in the past, guitar build.

So, like living with my wife, this too shall be an adventure of the hilarious, hair-raising, head against the wall, heart stomping good time.

forward without further adieu...

planed some cheap pine down to a hair under 1/8", glued & clamped them up...
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cut some veneer to size, glued, taped and clamped...
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Note: This is my first attempt at this type of work, so please keep the laughter to a low roar :D

Was not happy with the small middle veneer strip, as the edges did not stay as tight to the pine as I would of liked on this piece which is for the back of the git box... So I improvised and dado-ed a couple of strips of walnut over the veneer joints...I can live with that for this build...
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While the planer was out, I also did up a couple of 1/8" pieces of walnut for the sides. I used double-sided tape on a piece of pine to support each piece being fed thru... it was a piece of cake, though I did learn the hard way that 2 strips of tape are more than enough, separating the walnut from the backer board with 4 strips was as tough as explaining to the wife why a new tool now & then is required protocol :eek::rofl:
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Next up was a template and the cutting of what will become the body forms...
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A few more shots, in a few....
 
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I taped the templates together, and cut off the waste...
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Then began adding spacer blocks along the outside between the two pieces, until the form was well supported along that side...
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Then it was onto cutting a bunch of pine blocks for the front side, which will give support bracing to the face of the guitar sides when putting it all together... As you can see I need a new blade on my CMS, oh well, who doesn't like sanding fuzzies off of umpteen little pieces...
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Here they all all installed on this side of the form...
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I used a cabinet scraper not only to true the top & bottom templates, but also to make sure the support pieces stayed flush as I glued & brad-nailed them in place...
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One side down, one to go...far as I got this weekend, what with all the honey-do's and what-nots
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Oh yeah, my helpers quit the moment the AC was turned on...they're getting more & more like me every day :rofl:
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More as I get around to it....:wave:
 
Nobody's gonna laugh at you. Everybody's gotta start out somewhere.

If you're first attempt doesn't pass muster, than make another one.

Here is Billy Grammer from Grammer Guitar...(thought you might like enjoy this)

 
Nothing beats the sound of a good acoustic guitar, in my opinion. Going to watch this build for sure. I bought a book on build them, but I doubt is I ever get around to it. A lot of work just to hang on the wall! I can not play.
 
Got the other side of the form knocked out...
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and the first side bent into position...
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But not without a problem{par for the course right} Just started the first bend when I heard that sickening sound > Kerr-rack
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Luckily I started from an end instead of the middle of the form{learn as I go lol:eek:}, so a quick trim and we were back in biz...Thankfully I had left plenty of length, or the crack might have become 'crackling' singing out from the fire pit.

My bending jig is a simple as they come, a section of exhaust pipe & a propane torch...
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LOL I didn't get a picture, but I used the dogs{kiddie} pool to soak the side piece for a few minutes to ease the bending process

and a couple of side-note pics. First being the $1.00 HF clamps that work fine for this job, they don't have a whole lot of torque, actually very little, but enough to hold things in place. Going to pick up some more next trip so I'll have enough to cover both sides of the form...they don't have enough clamping pressure to dent the wood which eliminates one worry...
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and another HF buy which proves using a tape measure isn't the smartest move I've made...my 1/8 inch sides fell a little short... Hmmm wonder if my 40" waist isn't really a 39 & 7/8" :D
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again...more updates as I go
 
Good progress Ken, your crackling joke is cracking me up. Lol
Hey i wouldnt mind your tape measure measuring my waist but need the matching clothes so they fit. :)

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
 
Thanks again for the vid Scott, definitely want to try my hand at that someday...:thumb:

My problem here was clamping the lower bout outside/form edge, then clamping the middle of that bout and trying to work from there, the third clamp used was put on next to the first{outside clamp} which was totally off the wall thinking and that's where the crack occurred....After the trimming and some thought, realized the more common approach is to start from the middle of the form and work out{clamp} from there moving to the outside...

I have a hard time grasping, that when it comes to learning something new, I'm a little slow...but I always seem to get there :D
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Guess I jumped the gun on the crack :( pulled the side from the form just to see how much spring back there was and found a doozy...
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Weird as I only recall hearing one crack during the clamp up :huh::doh: Luckily I had enough left to make another piece...
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So, tomorrow we'll see if things worked out better. I left this piece in the water for a tad longer and took much more time in bending with the heat. Now where's that cross yer fingers smiley at :D
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Did make another trip to HF, picked up the last mini clamps they had in stock. You might of been able to see the staining and some minor denting from using a few f-clamps in the 'crack' photo above. Have to say again these cheap HF clamps do seem to hold well enough for this application...
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So needless to say, today was not very productive, took the wind right out of my sail one could say.
Did manage to ruff cut the neck to length and make the scarf joint cuts. Wasn't pressing my luck any further.
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Nothing like two steps forward and one step back...I at least got the yard work caught up...Yipee :rolleyes:
 
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