First Acoustic Build - StewMac Kit

[kjwilks]

Hello all,

I recently acquired my first acoustic guitar kit. It is the Spruce/Rosewood Dreadnought kit from Stewart-MacDonald, and I started it yesterday. I got quite a bit of work done today and thought I'd start a build thread. Any advice or tips are more than welcome and will be very appreciated.

Note: This is not my first guitar build, but is my first acoustic build. I am about to finish my first electric guitar. Just needs dye and lacquer.

So, Here are my pictures.


I decided that I would try to take pictures of every step of the process for this project. I'm pretty unorganized so I thought maybe making a point of it to document everything would help me keep this build neat. So far it seems to be working.





All the parts are here.




I was not expecting a blueprint nearly the size of our pool table...


I tried using the heel block as a sanding block to make a clamping caul.


It ALMOST worked.... just not very well.


My dad suggested using wood filler so we put some wood filler on the blocks I cut, and pressed the heel and neck blocks to them with a piece of wax paper in between to make the shape.


It worked pretty well I think. The clamps are still on and the glue is still hardening.




I couldn't wait to do some more work so I started on the neck. This is just the little plug for the truss rod channel. The Hot Rod truss rod came with the kit, the channel already routed. I just had to glue that plug in so the nut on the heel end of the truss rod was flush with the end of the neck, and then shave it off to fit. I like doing things by hand so I used a carving set I had.




Here I am gluing the Rosewood veneer on the front of the head stock.




For the back, I used a scrap of wood with a v-cut in it as a caul. The v is because of the irregular shape in the back of the neck/headstock.


Here you can see the veneer on the headstock after I had cut it off. I just scored it with a razor blade and it snapped right out. Then I used my carving chisels again to shape the sides pretty close. The end grain isn't quite as easy to carve so maybe i'll just sand that tomorrow.






I was running out of things to do, so I started working on the rosette. The circles are already routed out to fit the inlay, but the thin inlays were a little too thick for the channels that were routed for them. I used a flat chisel on a 90 degree angle to scrape a little bit at a time off the sides of the inlay. It is very tedious.




The gap isn't really an issue according to the instructions, because the fretboard is supposed to cover the outer two inlays. Seems like a good enough reason for me to do the inner rosette last.


I got in a bit of a rush on the outer ring, but It should be alright. I'll smooth them all down flush after I get the third ring in.


To finish the night, I made a clamping caul for the braces that go on the back. I will likely spend as much time, if not more, making clamping cauls and other oddball jigs than I will spend making the guitar itself.


Thanks for looking, and please share your comments!

[tippie53]

nice pictorial

[kjwilks]

Well, I am in a bit of a predicament. I am working on my first acoustic guitar from a StewMac kit, and realized that I glued the neck block on backwards. As far as I can tell, This means I need to start over on that portion, which will cost me $150 in replacement wood. I need new sides, new neck and tail blocks, and new kerfing.

Does anybody have any suggestions of what I could do to get away with what I have? In a fantasy world, I could just unglue the neck block and turn it upside down and glue in a new piece of wood to fill the gap where I cut out the neck pocket. (Of course I realized my mistake not an hour after carving out the neck joint.

My build thread is posted here viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5237. I'll post more recent pictures in a minute.

Please, if there is any way around buying new parts, let me know. I could already barely afford the kit on a college budget and birthday money =(

[darren]

EDIT....
Rick beat me to it... :) what kind of glue did you use?

[kjwilks]

Part two of my guitar building adventure brings some frustration.... Everything was going so smooth.

I took my time and finished up the rosette.


There were two pieces of cardboard pre-cut to shape the guitar that came with the kit. I glued two blocks of wood in between them to make a sturdy form to clamp the sides on.


Some plywood underneath made sure I had room for the kerfing


Kerfing is glued on and held in place with clothespins


The kit came with a semi-transparent plan of the bracing pattern. I just punched holes in it at the corners of each brace and connected the dots




glued on x-braces. I tried making some cam clamps because they are too expensive, decided it wasn't worth it and just used some scrap wood and extra clamps.


The kerfing was glued on solid so I was able to do the other side.


This would have been much more simple with the cam clamps, but again, they're expensive, and I didn't feel like making them.


Cut out the neck pocket while waiting for glue to dry






I was squaring up the neck and tail blocks when I realized a fatal flaw.... The edge at the top of this picture is the back of the guitar.


I glued the stupid neck block upside down...... http://bit.ly/7C6b2K


I posted in a different section of this forum asking for advice, but my dad kinda beat everyone to it. we cut the majority of the block out with a sawzall. Then I used a small hack saw to cut in closer to the rosewood sides without cutting into them.




Then I realized that using that little saw to make a thousand cuts was a pain in the arse and very time consuming. I was using a chisel to cut out the little bits left over from cutting, and realized how well the chisel was cutting it out anyway, so i just finished up with that.
After a while, I had it thin enough that I could actually pry the chisel between the rosewood and the neck block (or what was left of it) and the neck block was just popping off in chunks.


And after a long day of work and quite a bit of frustration, I was at least able so say I successfully installed the soundboard bracing =)


Anyway, my plan for the neck block. Obviously, I am planning on buying a new one (about $15 on StewMac) which I will install the RIGHT way. This will, of course, leave a gap where I cut out the dovetail joint in the rosewood. The kit came with a peice of maple, which I think was intended for the back of the headstock. I will look into this a little further, but if that is the case, I don't think it would look good there, so I will cut that out and inlay it where there would otherwise be a gap in the dovetail joint. I think it would actually look pretty good with the contrast. It would just leave little inverse triangles next to the taper of the neck joint. Hopefully this doesn't turn out to be a pipedream. Wish me luck!

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Hey Kevin,
Sorry to see the mistake you made, but it looks like you have a plan to fix it and that is good.
It is too late now, but what you could have done is just turned the back into the top surface, and sloped the other side (suppose to be the top) to your neck block and made that your back. You would have had a shallower than planned body, but you may have found you liked that...many customs are built shallow and can be more comfortable to play, especially a dred. You would have had to remove the kerfing, but that could have been heated and separated pretty easily with a putty knife. Well, you won't be having a "next time", so move forward with your fix, and good luck.

Kevin

[Ben-Had]

If you don't have De-goo glu and alternative is KY Jelly and white vinegar.

[Ken Hundley]

I too am sorry to hear about your frustrations. An alternative to flipping it would have been to remove the neck block without cutting it out. Next time you need to do something like this (yes, there will be a next time, don't ask me how i know) use a regular clothes iron. heat up the surface of the wood over the neck block. Eventually, you will hear the glue sizzle or see it start to bubble...it should have the consistency of caramel or soft taffy. Gently pry the sides away from the neck block. Let the glue cool, sand it off, then reglue correct....no wasted pieces. I've done this a few times my self, works perfectly every time. It took me far too long to learn not to mix guitar building with Glenlivet.

[Ken Hundley]

Rick beat me too....I posted the iron idea in your other post. Good luck, let us know how it turns out.

Just a thought....post these issues before you take a saw to it. We CAN help you.

[johnnparchem]

The maple in the kit is used to make a bridge patch it should work but you still need the bridge patch. When you order the block you might consider buying a headstock veneer to fill the hole. I would fill the complete area. Sand it true to the existing sides and wait until after you route the binding before you open up the dovetail slot. You will have an easier time with the router.