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Hi all!!

When I purchased my Martin D28 I was blown away!! Ever since, I have had a really bad urge to build my own acoustic!! I received a Martin 000 kit for my birthday which is awesome! I now find myself hesitating!! I am almost looking for reasons not to start it. I guess like many newbies I'm worried about ****ing it up completely!!
I just need to get started but feel a little overwhelmed by the task ahead!! I guess the added pressure is that a few people have already got me down to fail before I've even get started!! I really want to do an amazing job of it and stick two fingers up at the doubters!!

Thanks any advice and encouragement would be greatly appreciated!!

Steve

take your time . Think it through and get it going.

spmonkay wrote:Hi all!!

Thanks any advice and encouragement would be greatly appreciated!!

Steve

You have yourself a kit that was not cheap. Perhaps you would consider going on to eBay or asking tippie53 for a price on a kit built from parts that are 'seconds' and will be less expensive. Probably better to exhale and make your mistakes on the cheap stuff and then tackle the 'real thing.'
Others will certainly have different opinions......................

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Build the guitar one bite at a time too. Looking at the whole thing can certainly be intimidating. But each step, by itself, is manageable.

Besides, suppose you totally screw it up. You will have gained invaluable experience for your second try. Chalk up the time and money to "education" and go at it again.

If you're working with a kit, that will simplify the job somewhat, but it's all do-able. Just figure out what you need to do, and when, an do it! This forum can help you through the difficult bits.

What's the secret of the Old Master? The only "secret" is to know what good work is, and to take the time to do it that way.

What will you use as instructions to build the kit? I found that there is a lot of information to be found on each step including John Hall's great videos, but it is also useful to have a start to finish step by step guide to building a guitar or kit. When looking for information you will find a bunch of seemingly contradictory information as there are many ways to go about making a guitar. The guide that comes with the Martin kit assumes a lot of knowledge and is not much more than here is a kit and this is what the finished guitar looks like.

There's Bill Cory's two books, Building Martin-Style Acoustic Guitar KitsandBuilding Kit Acoustic Guitars that will be very profitable reading before starting anything. In fact, as I write this, the ad selling the books shows up in the left margin of the forum page.

Yep get Bill's book that is how I started 7 years ago. You CAN do it man.
Get the book and get going. :)

Hi Steve,

Have you started yet? If not, don't worry. I had my kit for several months before I started.

I'm going to give you the same advise that another member gave me; it was the BEST THING I could have ever done.

Get a trashed guitar and work on it. Take it apart, play with it and do what you need to do to get it singing again. I bought a old Silvertone guitar from ebay for $9. I replaced the top, fretboard, I put binding on it (it never had binding), I had to repair the back and sides, and refinish it. I trashed the first attempt to make the top, because I wasn't satisfied with it. I installed a rosewood fretboard, with abalone fretmarkers.

I learned so much from that guitar, that I felt very confident when I started my OM. If I had made the mistakes that I made with that first top, on my Carpathian spruce for my OM, I would have been devastated.

There are tons of trashed guitars out there. Find one and get into it. You won't believe what you will learn, which will give you the confidence and knowledge that you need to do a decent build. I've definitely made a couple of mistakes with my build, but nothing that will affect the sound. There are a couple of tiny cosmetic flaws, but I'm very proud of my build.

Don't be in a rush when you build. I triple measured and did a dry run (including clamping), on every step of my build.

BTW, that little Silvertone sound amazing now. 2 people have offered to buy it.

You'll build a great guitar!

Diane

Good idea. I think I'll hunt up a cheap guitar to practice routing the groove for the binding.

MaineGeezer wrote:Good idea. I think I'll hunt up a cheap guitar to practice routing the groove for the binding.

It was a lifesaver for me.