StewMac Dreadnought kit
Posted: Sat Oct 05, 2013 3:34 pm
I bought a dreadnought kit from Stewart-MacDonald back in 2007. Figured it would take me a couple of years to build, doing the work when I had time on my days off.
It ended up taking six, but it's finally finished.
There were long periods (entire seasons) when I did no work on it at all -- though I seldom stopped thinking about it.
And for two years I tried and failed over and over to get a proper fit on the dovetail neck joint. I think I may have skewed the joint while chiseling out some excess glue from when I fastened the top and bottom. In the end, I enlisted a luthier friend to fit the neck and then was finally able to put it all together.
In full disclosure, I also enlisted him to do the final setup.
But for the most part it's my work. (Just for fun, I contoured the top of the peghead and added some MOP inlay.)
I'm pleased with the results. It sounds like I hoped it would, and it feels good to play.
It's far from perfect, but I think I ended up with a good guitar.
It ended up taking six, but it's finally finished.
There were long periods (entire seasons) when I did no work on it at all -- though I seldom stopped thinking about it.
And for two years I tried and failed over and over to get a proper fit on the dovetail neck joint. I think I may have skewed the joint while chiseling out some excess glue from when I fastened the top and bottom. In the end, I enlisted a luthier friend to fit the neck and then was finally able to put it all together.
In full disclosure, I also enlisted him to do the final setup.
But for the most part it's my work. (Just for fun, I contoured the top of the peghead and added some MOP inlay.)
I'm pleased with the results. It sounds like I hoped it would, and it feels good to play.
It's far from perfect, but I think I ended up with a good guitar.