jointing and joining

SO in the good ol book, he tell sus to use a plane, i did not use a plane, because though it is the best plane you can buy, this method can be sped up by using a long flat tool (like a large level or block of wood) and using it as a sanding block with 220 grit on it this worked extremely well. i did plane some to get the bigger bumps out.

Clamps at both ends and a afternoon. 

Next came gluing, once you can no longer see light through the seem it is time to glue, i used a finger to spread good woodglue on it and then pressed it together and clamped long objects on either side to press it together, i put lots and lots of very big books on top. oh and dont forget to put paper or tape on the bench before clamping, or you will end up with alot more wood than you started out with.

Smells Like Wood

Took some time to snap a quick foto of the wood for ya.

A Very Pretty pile of wood on my good ol carpet. here you have... everything. 

                                      

                                                    The Myan "Walnut" is absalutly beautiful, it isnt glued in this picture but it will be soon. 

So FYI, this is Sitka Spruce, not Cedar, but for a 10 dollar piece of wood it is damn good looking, i am confused as to what master grade even looks like now, how could it be better, ima use his for my Ukulele.  

 Now, LISTEN UP: ALASKA TONE WOODS SENT ME THE CEDAR TOP ABOUT 3 WEEKS LATER AND FOR DOUBLE THE PRICE OF THE LMII ENTIRE SHIPMENT, AND TO TOP IT OFF, THE MASTER GRADE TOP WAS CRACKED! I GLUED HER UP, BUT IT WAS DISAPPOINTING.

aw well.

.

The Wood Is HERE!

The Box With everything in it, Very small for 250$ of wood. When the
FedEx man brought it to the door i thought he had left something
out, but no, its all packaged very well. Fits in its box right under my desk.

So today is my sisters Birthday and as she opens her new ele. piano and film camera the doorbell rings, the dog barks, and a box littered with LMI Tape and no dents to be found is placed on my doorstep. it took LMI about 5 days to deliver with ASAP shipping.
      Now would be a good time to list all the Materials i bought and unless Lmi has not sent something, i have a folded up guitar in a box right now.

Fret Board and PRE CURVED FRETS, Next to the FREE How too DVD.

I bought everything from strings to rosette, here is the rosette, a very simple
walnut creation, pretty. the ebony headplate and ebony bridge
strings and ivory, next to a wrench for the truss rod. they think of
everything! love it. 

 Sorry for the bad Pic quality, im into HiFi Sound not pictures, Sis it though. 

So the complete Parts list for me was (forgive me if i miss anything important.):

Ebony Fretboard

Walnut Back and sides 

Alaskan Yellow Cedar Top 

3 logs of Bracewood  (Spruce)

4 lines of Kerfed edging (Mahogany) 

Back Brace strip (spruce) 

Heel Block(Mahogany)

Neck Block(Mahogany)

Truss Rod

FretWire 

Tuners

Headplate (ebony) 

Bridge Plate

DVD.

all the finishes i will buy later (about 100$ for a simple finish) 

 Total for Everything including an extra sitka spruce top for a Ukulele Project was about $300.

The sitka spruce top was about 10 bucks and it looks damn good at that, pretty wide grain though. 

OBrian

Stumbled upon this resource for info. An excellent place for detailed instruction on building separate parts of the guitar, it cleared a lot of confusion for me last night.

http://www.youtube.com/user/OBrienGuitars

I believe Obrien teaches guitar building and had the greatness to show us for free as well.

MANY Thanks.

Wood should come soon.

Materials! Shopping is Fun.

Throughout the summer i changed my bill constantly. finally i settled on a Mayan Walnut guitar With an Alaskan Cedar top. I did not want to 'conform to the norm of sitka and rosewood or mahogany' and both materials were not widely used.



I used Mayan Walnut because of its stunning appearance and its easy workability, which was just a plus. I also learned that it is not in fact a walnut, it is called False or Wild Tamarid (I believe, forgive me for not fact checking), and that sounded cool to me because Walnut is a nut, not a guitar. Walnut has a tone in between mahogany and rosewood which seemed perfect   to me because i couldn't settle on one or the other honestly.

I used Alaskan Yellow Cedar Because sitka was too common for my non lutherie conforminismismism. It was a cedar so it would hopefully give me a good plucking tone and it was also closest to the density of Spruce so it would hopefully hold up better with strumming. We shall see how it goes. people who have used it say they smile when they play.

I bought ALL (except the soundboard)  of my stuff off of LMII Kit Wizard, Now wait, just because its called a kit wizard dose not meas it is all layed out for you and pretty already. no its simply an extremely convenient custom list of ALL the supplies and wood you need layed out for you, yo uchoose what wood you want what tuners, even what strings. Unless you buy pre carved necks of choose to have them bend your sides and trim your top and bottom, it is pretty much all the stuff you were going to buy anyway except in one pretty little box with a FREE HOW TOO DVD and a 10% discount (about $50all  for me). Mine is in the mail right now, and i cant wait to see all of it.

All of the material cost me about $300. an Amazing deal, though you could get as low as $250 if you use Sapele not Walnut.

Ill post Pics when i get the stuff!
http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/GuitarKitWelcome.asp

Too Start Off.. Research.

Starting in May and ending in late August (my "summer break") was a time i spent in deep research about Guitar Building, i Even built an Ukulele to get a feel of the art that turned out well though my wood choice was poor, and i dont want to talk about it... Any way, i kept a constant bookmark folder of all the websites i found useful for both supplies and or information. So i share:

Supplies:

http://www.lmii.com/  -  an excellent place for woods, hardware and varnish. I bought everything from Strings to neckwood and headplate veneer there. Except the soundboard which i bought at....

http://alaskawoods.com/   -  They have great prices for topwoods and excellent figured Sitka. And one of the few places where you can buy Alaskan Yellow Cedar, the wood i used.

http://www.stewmac.com/  -   an amazing place for not only supplies but for research, they supply excellent kits and plans, as well as tools and everything in between, though i only bought varnish there, i spent more time on it than most sites.

http://www.exoticwoods.com  -  Excellent prices on woods.

http://www.allenguitar.com/padauk_photos.htm   -   an amazing place for woods and much more. (love that Padauk). Sales on bearclaw woods all the time and parts you wont find anywhere else.

Information:


I would Strongly recommend  the Book:

Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology

Because unless your a woodworking God then forget about making a guitar unless you read a book on it and this one is the best. Step By Step Guitar building is also supposed to be an  easy to follow book.  But:

Also:

http://www.grellier.fr/plans.php?lang=en   -    FULL SIZED plans! Its a pain to print buy worth it. Its Free =). I made my own plans so that is would be MY guitar but these helped a boat load. \

http://gicl.cs.drexel.edu/people/sevy/luthierie/guitarmaking_guide/building_flattop.html  -   an awesome pictured blog on how to build a steel string. amazing reference, i learn more each time i skim it. 

http://acousticguitarbuild.blogspot.com/  -   First time builder makes a blog about it here on blogger, i love reading this story/prosess. lots of good tips there. 

http://www.youtube.com/user/bobloblaw1701  -  An almost complete vid tutorial on building a guitar, VERY helpful. 

All in all, i do not recommend taking on this task without researching the crap out of it. yo uhave to be confident in every step in order to come close. i still wake up at night and think..'wait, how will the top set right if the sides are trimmed to make an arch down but leave a dip at the front' and i pick up my Book and it apears all i have to do is sand, i think.