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Hi all,

I just finished building my first guitar, a StewMac dread with rosewood back and sides and a torrified top. As I'm sure you've all heard before, the fun of building it, the sound of the finished product and the sense of accomplishment in finishing the project just blows me away! So I'm thinking of building another, even though I really have no real need for another guitar.

So what would you recommend as an interesting contrast to my current stable (3 dreads of varying quality)? I think I want to stick with a kit, as I don't have the really big tools necessary to thickness plane top, sides and back.

Yes, I think I'm hooked. Lol.

I just finished #9 and have never built a dread or a 14 fret 000. Blues Creek put together my first couple of kits - a pre-1929 Gibson L-0 And a 12 Fret 000. Then I started doing parts myself til at about #5 I was scratch building. I have also built a 12 fret 00, a Gibson J-165, a wooden resonator, 2 other Gibson L-0's, small parlor of my own design, and a 1916 dreadnaught uke. No need need to be stuck on dreads and 000 14 fretters

And like you, I don't need them. One went to my daughter who plays for real, and one went to a grandson who wants to learn. Others will go as soon as there is an opportunity

Have John Hall set you up with a 12-fret 00-42 kit.

How about an OM/000 or 00 size?

Here comes some of that "expert" advice . . . I have a L'arrivée dread and it's a wonder. BUT, my first two builds are Jonathan Kinkead designed OMs, (modified to 12 fret necks) and I have two more 14-fretters with the same body in the works. I play my OMs all the time, and find them much more comfortable than the dread. I think the Kinkead design is a little deeper than a Martin OM (better check) and I think it helps boost the sound. As for kits, I don't want to do any kit suppliers out of work, but maybe you should try a partial scratch build, and order things you can't do yourself, like thicknessed plates etc. And to add confusion, just last night as I played my dreadnought, I wondered if I should try making one, and see if I can do better. So maybe there is no "wrong" decision!

Thank you all so much for the suggestions (and lovely pics)!

Despite having been messing around with guitars since the mid-1970's, I am woefully ignorant about all of the distinct guitar types out there. I only started to sort out even the Martin nomenclature after I bought that kit, when I realized that it was trying to copy something that previously existed. So all the variations on Martin put forward here are an education for me. That 00 size guitar looks wild! And the woods used on those 000 and OM's are truly beautiful. But I think maybe custom-built stuff like that is still a bit beyond what I would feel comfortable tackling.

I didn't make a whole lot of mistakes in building the one kit that I did (so no real need for a do-over), but I did make a few custom cauls along the way, and arrived at a few thoughts on how I could do things easier and/or better if I ever did another. So I'm sort of inclined to just wimp out and build something reasonably similar but different. A D-18 maybe? Would there be any significant difference in sound between it and the quasi D-28 that I just finished? A dark binding and mahogany body would be considerably easier to sand and finish compared to the white and rosewood, and (I think) probably look classier and more austere when done. But probably not all that satisfying a project if it turns out to sound exactly the same.

Another possibility tugging at some strange corner of my mind is the Gibson-clone kit that I see on the Blues Creek web site. Any thoughts on that one out there? I have no idea why that appeals to me, but it does.

Well, those pics and suggestions sent me off into a mad week or two of reading about various guitar styles. Thank you, I love learning new stuff! This guitar business seems an awful lot like my long-ago obsession with craft beers - once you start to dig in a bit past the commonplace commercial stuff there is a whole world of interesting styles and traditions to learn about. Really enjoyable, thank you for opening my eyes.

Anyway, my first inclination was to maybe go with one of those smallish 12 fret guitars as a second project. Mr. Hall had a kit on his web site that looked good, but it turned out to be already sold. He offered to make me another kit, but the sheer number of options available scared me off - at my level of experience I'm really depending on someone else with more experience than me to put the bits together in a rational way to make a good result. So I started to think again, and eventually chickened out on the 12-fret business altogether. So today I ordered a 14 fret OM-18 style kit from StewMac. Not a guitar in the same league as those fancy ones that you showed me, but hopefully still fun to build!

Thanks again,

Andrew

Andy Mitchell wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 9:36 pm Well, those pics and suggestions sent me off into a mad week or two of reading about various guitar styles. Thank you, I love learning new stuff! This guitar business seems an awful lot like my long-ago obsession with craft beers - once you start to dig in a bit past the commonplace commercial stuff there is a whole world of interesting styles and traditions to learn about. Really enjoyable, thank you for opening my eyes.

Anyway, my first inclination was to maybe go with one of those smallish 12 fret guitars as a second project. Mr. Hall had a kit on his web site that looked good, but it turned out to be already sold. He offered to make me another kit, but the sheer number of options available scared me off - at my level of experience I'm really depending on someone else with more experience than me to put the bits together in a rational way to make a good result. So I started to think again, and eventually chickened out on the 12-fret business altogether. So today I ordered a 14 fret OM-18 style kit from StewMac. Not a guitar in the same league as those fancy ones that you showed me, but hopefully still fun to build!

Thanks again,

Andrew

You'll be very happy with the OM. It's a nice size with a well-rounded voice.

I think you'll like the OM.I've built three, and the sound is good. For the last one, I made the body about 1/2" deeper than "normal," and it seemed to boos the bass response a bit.
Don't be afraid to try new stuff. The worst that can happen is that it's a total disaster...but who cares? You'll learn something about what not to do.

I built a 12 fret OOO-18 which is the same lower body as a 14 fret OOO, which is the same body as the OM. I made it 5/8" thicker and it sounds just like my 1974 Martin OOO-28 and even a little clearer (I'm the original owner). I don't notice just a bass boost, but everything seems to be boosted. The problem with a thicker body is this - for a standard OM you can buy a hardshell case for as little as $50, whereas for a thicker one it is a special order. DAMHIKT

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby1638/ ... 913590767/