www.KitGuitarsForum.com

First off, I dont have a temp/RH controlled shop. In order to take care of my mother-in-law, my wife and I have had to move to her home. Sooo, I'm doing this build in a HUGE basement. This is my winter sanity project (ma has Alzheimer's ) It's a might chilly and sometimes the walls leak a little water on the floor so too dry is not a problem. Gotta look on the bright side, right? This is a 000-18 kit I bought from Blues Creek Guitar. (Thanks John for the ultra fast delivery. I bet that is the first guitar you have delivered to a wastewater treatment facility but I didnt want the package sitting outside in sub zero weather)
I got the band saw in running condition and cut the back halves close to the supplied line then held the two pieces together and finished with a belt sander. That may not have been the way to go. Probably should have put the sides together first then cut the back to fit. I'll make it work. The worst that could happen is I order new back pieces and save old for another project. At least I restrained myself before I messed with the top.

Old, dead threads: As I am new, to me all these threads are new, so dont be disgusted with me if I refer to a 5 year old post :)

looks like a guitar so far

keep posting and asking questions we are all here to share our experiences

Thanks, I tend to do first, ask questions later. The instructions included with the kit are pretty sketchy, with only 15 pictures (one of the pics is of the whole kit and shows a set of full sized blueprints which, sadly are not included.)

Doug

Congrats to you for launching your first build! You can download StewMac's instructions for free. Not everything will apply but it could prove to be useful.


http://www.stewmac.com/How-To/Online_Re ... tions.html

Thanks for the Stew-Mac link. Some differences, but a LOT more information, especially about angle sanding the back kerfing which the Martin instructions made no mention about. Now, about side bracing. I own several acoustics, A Chinese build Fender and a Dean Exotica FM-TR. Note: The Dean listed for $450. It sounded better than the $700 Ibanez and identical to the $900 Alvarez sitting next to it. Neither of them have side bracing. Do they use thicker side wood perhaps? Since the Martin kit came with no bracing wood, what is the best to use? Some mention was made of using coffee stir sticks.
On another subject. I have salvaged wood from several 100 plus year old barns on my property. Red and White oak, Ash, Hickory, Maple and some Cedar. Some are in 1x12 planks, some are 10x10 x 30 foot beams. They built barns out of hat ever wood was local at the time. Can any of this be used for tone wood? Maybe not so much for acoustics but maybe electric guitars?


Doug (Having Fun With Next to Nothing)

All of those woods can be made into Tonewood. Maple and oak are used frequently. I've seen hickory for sale. Use hard woods for the sides and back, and soft woods, like cedar for tops.

I can't answer as to why your other guitars don't have side struts. Could they be laminated? Laminated sides don't need side braces. Side braces allow some structure, but they also function to stop side cracks from spreading, should one occur. You can use thin wood, or ribbon that's been dipped in glue. I use 1/2" wide brown ribbon.

When I use wood, I use leftover back/Side wood. Just make sure you cut it along the grain, so that the grain of your strut runs perpendicular to the grain on the side when installed.

Ash is a common wood for electric guitar bodies. Maple is pretty much the go-to material for Fender necks, especially those which do not have a separate fingerboard. It is also a very common material for body veneer.

OK, the top is on and I think it came out pretty good. However, I have been thinking about adding an internal microphone, and the best time to do it is before I close the box up. A condenser mike would be sweet but I don't want a battery pack or mess with phantom power sources for it. Not interested in piezo bridge pickups because they do not pick up body sounds when I fingernail click, slap or knuckle rap the body. This leaves dynamic mikes.. Does anyone know of any out there? Having a hard time finding one. In the meantime, I have the neck sanded down and I am now applying the third coat of Zinsser shellac (sanding between coats naturally).
Also, the supplied top is 0.1305 inches thick (Harbor Freight inches, the same as Starrett inches, but $500 dollars cheaper). What am I aiming for here?

Doug LaFleur

justdoug wrote:Not interested in piezo bridge pickups because they do not pick up body sounds when I fingernail click, slap or knuckle rap the body. This leaves dynamic mikes.

And contact pickups. I don't have any recommendations, as any acoustic-electric guitar I've ever had came with the pickup already in it, but contact pickups are more common than dynamic microphone elements, aren't they?

Also it might be interesting to have a bridge piezo and a pickup made for a cajon to get all that thumping and slapping, and blend them to taste. Or if not interesting, then at least mighty convenient in the studio because you could send them to different tracks.

Well, it’s a box now and it it even looks like a GSO. (Guitar shaped object). Things have been moving pretty slow while I’ve been having a debate with myself over wether to route or hand cut the bindings. After reading horror stories about ripped faces and instruments flying across the room, hand cutting won out. Just received my Schneider gramil tool from LMI today. Ready to rip...er, cut carefully I mean.

Doug