First kit advice

[rcnewcomb]

There are some inexpensive kits on eBay for about $300 USD. I have used them in the past. You get what you pay for. These are likely factory seconds from some of the volume manufacturers based in Asia. The neck or neck joint may (or may not) have issues. Perhaps there other flaws that make these factory seconds.

Screenshot 2025-03-30 085754.png

You will have to spend time, not only trying to build your first instrument, but also overcoming deficiencies of the kit itself. If you make a fatal flaw you might end up buying a second kit to start over. Now you've spent $600.

I see that John has 2 different Martin kits for $640, which means you get a better quality kit to start with where you don't have to fight defects, but you also get John's support.

Screenshot 2025-03-30 091148.png

[Tomcat]

Thanks again to everyone for the advice!

Here are some brands that have showed up in my searches that have kits with pre-done boxes. Any feedback on the reliability of these brands would be appreciated.

StewMac obviously. Just one that I see on their website; the rest I saw have separate box pieces and braces, etc. But the one looks good. Sitka top, African Mahogany back & sides.

https://www.stewmac.com/kits-and-projec ... 39c9ec2997

Solo Guitars from Canada. Just one for each of the sizes they offer. "Spruce top with Agathis back and sides
Maple neck with Black Walnut fingerboard", but doesn't specify solid wood. This may in part explain the lower cost?

https://www.solomusicgear.com/product/s ... uitar-kit/

Grizzly Industrial from Washington state. Cheap, made of basswood with quilted maple veneer all around. I wonder about the tone.

Pango, from China, has a variety of kits with pre-made boxes. Very few reviews on their site - perhaps new? Some with solid top but plywood b&s, which are cheaper (but not as cheap as the Grizzly), and then some solid all around about the same price as the StewMac above (but then might as well get the StewMac, right?). A couple of the more interesting of the former I'll put in a separate post, since the max URLs in a post is apparently 2 on the board here.

Baosity from China also has a variety, but at first glance none stood out to me.

Any other brands with pre-made boxes I should consider?

[Tomcat]

Here are the Pango links, as promised in previous post:

https://www.guitarkit.shop/products/41- ... eq=uniform

https://www.guitarkit.shop/products/41- ... eq=uniform

[MaineGeezer]

This might help adjust your price concerns.

If a kit takes about 500 hours to build and finish, and the kit costs $500, it's costing you a dollar an hour for the entertainment. Lots cheaper than golf!

When I talked a local luthier into giving me guitar building lessons, he suggested I start with something easier than a guitar, so I built a mountain dulcimer from scratch, using some guitar-building techniques to make it as relevant as possible. For example, I radiused the back (dulcimers normally have a flat back) .

A ukelele was mentioned; you could build that like you'd build a guitar, even more than I did with the dulcimer. You could build it out of thin stock 1/8" lumber for under a hundred bucks, and you' could learn just about everything you need to know to build a guitar.

[Tomcat]

This might help adjust your price concerns.

If a kit takes about 500 hours to build and finish, and the kit costs $500, it's costing you a dollar an hour for the entertainment. Lots cheaper than golf!

When I talked a local luthier into giving me guitar building lessons, he suggested I start with something easier than a guitar, so I built a mountain dulcimer from scratch, using some guitar-building techniques to make it as relevant as possible. For example, I radiused the back (dulcimers normally have a flat back) .

A ukelele was mentioned; you could build that like you'd build a guitar, even more than I did with the dulcimer. You could build it out of thin stock 1/8" lumber for under a hundred bucks, and you' could learn just about everything you need to know to build a guitar.

For me, starting with a less complex and cheaper kit is not so much about justifying the cost per se, and more about not wasting something valuable if it doesn't work out. I could afford a thousand dollar kit, even if I fail miserably at it, but I don't want the pressure while I'm learning the various skills.

Radiusing - now that's one I know literally zero about.

I'm starting to lean towards a simple (pre-made box) guitar kit first, and *then* decide whether to do a guitar or ukeleke either from scratch or a kit requiring the box construction..

[JLT]

Welcome to the Monkey House!

My first steel-string guitar was a new '71 FG-180, which I sold fifteen years later to pay for a folk harp. I wish I'd kept it. It was one of the first ones produced, and was almost a direct copy of a Martin. The mellow sound of your '72 guitar is the result of fifty-plus years of finding its voice. But I suspect that it may be due for a neck re-set, since those early Yamahas had soundboards that would "belly up" after twenty years or so, raising the action so that it would be harder to play. (And, no, you can't correct it by tweaking the truss rod).

As for my advice, the Solo and Grizzly kits and the Chinese ones are all pretty much already made for you. All you do is attach the pre-made body to the pre-made neck, apply the finish, mount the hardware, and string it up. Easy peasy. But you don't really learn much about the art of making guitars, such as bracing the soundboard and back or shaping the neck to fit your hand. I can't vouch for the sound, since I haven't heard one, but I expect that they're in the quality range of a finished guitar you'd find in the $300-$400 range. Solid-top kits are nice, but spruce varies widely in quality, and I've seen some that were inferior to plywood-top guitars.

I think I'd go with either the Blues Creek or the Stewart-McDonald kits. They provide the shaped sides and the installed rosettes in the soundboard but leave a lot of work for you to do. You really don't need much in the way of tools, and some of these (nut files and such) can be borrowed if you live close to a luthier. (You didn't say what part of the world you're from, but almost all the luthiers I've known are very generous with their tools and skills if they see you're serious about building instruments.)

As for size, it really depends on the kind of music you want to play. I personally don't like dreadnaughts very much, since their main design criterion was volume... as they say, they were the "banjo killers" that could be heard over the banjos. My personal favorite is the OM size, and of these, my favorite guitar is still the cedar-top OM I built some years back. It has a volume to match the dreadnaughts I've played with, but it still sounds sweet at lower volumes.

I think it was probably one I built from scratch, although I might have bought the top from Blues Creek.

I still consider the Cumpiano book to be the Bible of guitar-making and I refer to it constantly. Other books like the Kinkade book have prettier pictures, but Cumpiano is still the best. All you need besides that book is this forum and the various YouTube videos that are available. For example, here's a great video on how to apply a Tru-Oil finish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6zmitxywKU


Happy building!

[Tomcat]

Welcome to the Monkey House!

My first steel-string guitar was a new '71 FG-180, which I sold fifteen years later to pay for a folk harp. I wish I'd kept it. It was one of the first ones produced, and was almost a direct copy of a Martin. The mellow sound of your '72 guitar is the result of fifty-plus years of finding its voice. But I suspect that it may be due for a neck re-set, since those early Yamahas had soundboards that would "belly up" after twenty years or so, raising the action so that it would be harder to play. (And, no, you can't correct it by tweaking the truss rod).

I'm actually lucky on this. The action is still low, which is how I like it. I've always used very light strings, so perhaps a little less tension over the years has paid off.

As for my advice, the Solo and Grizzly kits and the Chinese ones are all pretty much already made for you. All you do is attach the pre-made body to the pre-made neck, apply the finish, mount the hardware, and string it up. Easy peasy. But you don't really learn much about the art of making guitars, such as bracing the soundboard and back or shaping the neck to fit your hand. I can't vouch for the sound, since I haven't heard one, but I expect that they're in the quality range of a finished guitar you'd find in the $300-$400 range. Solid-top kits are nice, but spruce varies widely in quality, and I've seen some that were inferior to plywood-top guitars.

The bracing and box construction is something that I'm okay putting off for project number two. I have plenty to learn in just the finishing alone. Even the StewMac kit I'm looking at has a pre-built box. The StewMac is twice the price of the others, which I would think should translate into a better sounding result. A tradeoff I'm still considering.

I think I'd go with either the Blues Creek or the Stewart-McDonald kits. They provide the shaped sides and the installed rosettes in the soundboard but leave a lot of work for you to do. You really don't need much in the way of tools, and some of these (nut files and such) can be borrowed if you live close to a luthier. (You didn't say what part of the world you're from, but almost all the luthiers I've known are very generous with their tools and skills if they see you're serious about building instruments.)

As for size, it really on the kind of music you want to play. I personally don't like dreadnaughts very much, since their main design criterion was volume... as they say, they were the "banjo killers" that could be heard over the banjos. My personal favorite is the OM size, and of these, my favorite guitar is still the cedar-top OM I built some years back. It has a volume to match the dreadnaughts I've played with, but it still sounds sweet at lower volumes.

I think it was probably one I built from scratch, although I might have bought the top from Blues Creek.

This is something I need to explore more. It's hard to do at shops because they're always strung very stiff, which I don't like - I generally walk out feeling dissatisfied no matter how high-end the ones I try out.

I still consider the Cumpiano book to be the Bible of guitar-making and I refer to it constantly. Other books like the Kinkade book have prettier pictures, but Cumpiano is still the best. All you need besides that book is this forum and the various YouTube videos that are available. For example, here's a great video on how to apply a Tru-Oil finish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6zmitxywKU

Happy building!

Thanks so much for the welcome and the feedback, JLT!

[Tomcat]

So I decided to go for the StewMac kit with the pre-built box that I mentioned earlier in the thread. Wish me luck! And be forewarned I'll probably be begging for advice starting the day it arrives 😀

And thanks again to everyone who responded already!

[phavriluk]

So I decided to go for the StewMac kit with the pre-built box that I mentioned earlier in the thread. Wish me luck! And be forewarned I'll probably be begging for advice starting the day it arrives 😀

And thanks again to everyone who responded already!

You've made a reasoned and rational choice. Enjoy the trip. This will help you learn quickly whether this geetar stuff is worth your trouble.

Keep us informed. There's lots to do.

[Tomcat]

Kit arrived today!