Planning every detail

[John J]

Just a guestion about how you plan a build. Do you have all the details worked out before you start i.e. all wood choices, rosette, head plate, inlay etc ? Or do you let the guitar as it takes shape lead you in a direction?
Just curious. I'm definitely in the latter camp.

[Ben-Had]

Nope. Plan it all out, buy it, build it. Very few changes along the way.

[MaineGeezer]

In my somewhat limited experience....

I planned out the guitars in quite a lot of detail, but as I built them circumstances came up that caused some amount of modification, or some new idea came to me that I wanted to try.

So...I plan a guitar, but don't dogmatically hold to it.

[rcnewcomb]

"In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Perhaps the same is true for guitar building.

[tippie53]

I start with the fretboard.

[John J]

I start with the fretboard.

Really. That's interesting. Do you mean the inlay? For me it tends to start with the back and side wood and the color palette they present.

[tippie53]

you want to start with the fretboard as everything is determined by the scale length. I want that so I know where the rosette goes , the bracing and soundhole. I have seen many guitars where builders assumed they are all the same. On some 12 frets they can have as few as 18 frets and as many as 22 , the body joint can be at the 12th 13th or 14th fret,
so once you set up the fretboard you can pay attention to the bracing and decorative positions.
If you do a 45 sytle the sound hole is 1/4 in lower in the body as the rosette is wider than a 28 or 18 series.

[rcnewcomb]

John,
Thanks for the explanation. That makes a lot of sense.

[Diane Kauffmds]

A body can be joined at the 13th fret? I didn't know that. I suppose, in theory, you could join it at any fret you want. Of course, it may not sound good, or look good....

I like to plan everything before hand. I like to have all of my materials before I start.

[tippie53]

Gibson has produced a few and I know of only 1 Martin 13 fret but yes you can do a lot of combinations.