How To Build A Guitar

Required Tools

Drill and attachment

Bandsaw or jigsaw

Light sandpaper

Router

Required Materials

Two clamps

Three sheets of wood

Pre-made neck and bridge set

Wood glue

Lacquer or wood stain

No less than a dozen wood braces

Two small blocks of hard wood

Guitar strings

Two light weight sections of a durable kind of wood measuring 3 by 2 feet. These should be of ¼ inch thickness.

Instructions

1)The first thing that you will need to do is make the front and back of the acoustic guitar. This will be done by utilizing tracing paper to make the shape of the guitar. Use this tracing paper to create an outline of the shape on each guitar piece that will be utilized on either side. Once the shape has been formed cut the pieces of wood, for improved symmetry of both front and back you may clamp both pieces together and cut using the jigsaw or band saw.

2)Next you will need to create a sound hole for your guitar. This will be placed on the front piece. The smaller the hole the greater the bass or low pitched sounds while the bigger the hole the more pronounced the treble or higher pitched sounds. The choice will depend on personal taste. To do this use a large round drill attachment for more precision.

3)Make the sides of your guitar. This will require two pieces of wood that are adequately long enough to wrap around the edges of the larger pieces with an allowance of 5 inches. You can then shape the wood by hand by placing the pieces in very hot boiling water for a couple seconds. You may need to re-dip the sections of wood to get the prefered shape. This part of the process will ask that you be patient, though quick with your fingers while the wood is still malleable.

4)Affix the two sides with blocks of very strong wood glue. When gluing the pieces together you must ensure you let the blocks of glue remain on the inner areas of the guitar where they will be basically invisible. Make certain that they are glued securely and use your clamps to keep the pieces in position while the glue sets.

5)You will then have to glue the body sections to the guitar utilizing the wood glue. Like the creation of the base sections, you will have to allow them time to dry thoroughly before moving on from this point.

6)When the glue has set you can then sand the guitar body, but gently.

7)Place a lacquer or stain over the guitar body to infuse it with a nice finish. The stain or lacquer should come with its own specific directions for application.

8)You can now put on your neck and bridge these are best purchased pre-made for better accuracy. You will need to cut small grooves in your guitar to get these to fit perfectly, use a routing tool here. Take measurements while doing this for once again, precision. Once you are finished cutting you may then attach the neck and bridge utilizing the wood glue and allow to dry.

9)Install your bridge using tiny screws and some glue, this should be affixed just below the sound hole.

10)Install your strings as you would when replacing strings on any guitar.

11)Test your guitar to ensure that it plays the notes as you would expect and be alert to pinpointing any possible errors in the overall sound.

Tips and Warnings

The total time to finsih this project may take a few weeks to ensure the glue is set.

You can use templates to increase the accuracy of the guitar’s shape.

Look on a professionally created guitar to get some basic ideas and essential understanding of what your guitar should look like.

Inhaling the glue may be toxic, therefore it is best that you do this outdoors or in a properly ventilated area.