Acoustic Guitar Construction

Hi my name is Patrick Wirta and this is my first post on AGC. A couple of weeks ago I came across Kens website KMG, as I am interested in building my first acoustic guitar, and read all the documents that were available on the site. After reading Ken's documentation, I was excited and ready to purchase his kit, complete with jigs. I contacted Ken via the website as to what I was looking for, only to receive an email from Laura that Ken had passed earlier this year.

So, moving forward I am interested in building a quality instrument and learning some new processes and woodworking skills along the way. I have my sights set on a HD28 derivative and looking for guidance from those that have built kits, where to start. I just ordered the Bill Cory book and have most woodworking tools necessary to build a guitar, except for the jigs. I have experience building electric solid body guitars and do my own setups and repairs when needed.

I have enjoyed reading various construction posts on AGC to understand the bigger picture to building an acoustic guitar. I look forward to being a contributing member of this forum.

Thanks,

Patrick

Welcome to the forum! There are a few placed you can get quality kits. I have used http://www.bluescreekguitars.com/. John Hall is small enough that you can buy a kit from his site or call him and order what you want. Also LMI has a kit builder that allows you to mix and match to build a kit as part of that you can order some of the parts services for example bent sides, joined plates, slotted fretboards ... Getting some of the components serviced allows you to avoid build a bunch of special jigs until you know you are going to build more than 1 guitar.

If you build post as you go or ask questions.

Welcome. If ypu are looking to purchase a kit John Hall at Blue's Creek Guitars sell nice ones but if you can bend your own sides you can get nice discounts through LMII kit builder (can save a lot on shipping costs that way too) or just pick your own woods from the suppliers available (tons of them).

LOL, you beat me to it John by about 5 seconds!

I have been in contact with John @ BCG and considering his HD28, he has been very helpful answering my questions. Two areas of concern for me, at the moment, is getting the radius for right between the top/bottom to the sides and cutting the binding/purfling once the body is assembled. Everything I have seen so far requires a special jig. I could be way over-thinking this as well.

I use radius dishes to get the profile sanded into my rims. I try to profile the sides such that when bent they have close to the correct radius for the back.

John Hall has a bunch of videos on how to set the geometry up to get the correct neck angle. His videos are really relevant because he mostly makes D sized instruments. One bit of advise, do not mix and match different builders processes when building a guitar. There are a lot of way to make them. Just as an example many builders put almost no radius (50') on the top and sand a small angle in the upper bout for the neck angle. Ken's process and a bunch of production guitars are built that way. Others use a deeper radius 28-30' and use the curve of the top to make the neck angle. If you mix the two process you can end up with a neck angle way out of whack.

On my first guitar I cut the bindings with a colt router using cutting bits with bearings to control the cut. The small radius on the top can be ignored. For the back I loosened the base and placed a thin (2 mm or so) strip under the outside edge of the router base to give it the angle to deal with the curve of the back. You just need to be careful not to tip the router toward the guitar. Or there are a lot of simple jigs to keep the router square to the rims. As I build more guitars I found it valuable to make or buy the jigs I need.

We can help you as you go but be aware that a lot of the advise can put you in the mix and match situation described above. So make sure you think through what you are being told.

John:

Thanks for the heads up on not mixing construction techniques.