Making a Guitar: Thoughts about the build and past projects

I have been pondering building an acoustic guitar for a while and until recently I really thought that it was too hard and wasn’t worth the time and effort. However, after reading other peoples blogs, watching videos and reading books about the subject, I’ve decided that it may be within my abilities. I am excited about the prospect and am motivated to make this happen over the next year to year and a half.

I of course have high expectations for this build – but I do realize that because of my lack of experience, tools, and help from an experienced luthier, this could end up being a nice little camp-fire at the end. But like all things in life, you’ll never know until you try it.

Some may wonder why not just go and purchase a nice guitar? And it’s true, building a guitar from scratch will cost more in tools, time and materials than actually purchasing a guitar. But you lose the experience of the build by just purchasing. I have made several things out of wood but still consider myself a noob, when it comes to wood-working. Projects completed:
Roll-top-Bread-basket for my mom (hope to take a photo of these items and post someday soon. UPDATE: see bottome of page.) Gum-ball Machine Penny hockey table - gone
Reindeer magazine rack
Deer antler mounts

Then I think my senior year or maybe I was in college i built an 8’ sailing dingy/rowboat.This was a huge project and I’m so happy I had the experience. I made this with one of the smartest men I’ve ever met, James Parsons. He was a boat builder – hand-making a 16 foot sailboat without any powertools (no really he was smart – trust me). I learned a lot from this man including how to make fan birds (carving) from one small block of wood. The plans for the dingy I made is in the book – Go Build Your Own Boatby Harold H. (Dynamite) Payson. I didn’t take care of this boat and ultimately ended up throwing it out – shame on me. But I would do it again in a heartbeat, just to have the experience.

A new friend of mine, Larry Bordine helped renew my love of building things. I helped him build a surfboard, along with a website, www.beachnutsurfboards.com. He also makes paddles, canoes and kayaks out of cedar and lately he’s been making skateboards and skim-boards Because of my past experiece with boat building, I really liked hanging out with Larry and picking his brain. He is very smart too. Larry helped me build a couple canoe paddles. which renewed my interest in woodworking recently.

I started making this chess set in early 2009 (still not completely sanded and finished – I work on these sometimes when I’m watching TV.)

Then in late 2009 I decided to start making other christmas gifts: boxes (paddle in background)

Then for xmas I received a drill press and a bench sander! Thanks Mom and Creig! This got me started on several little projects – Guitar hangers, Tool grease boxes, and a marking gauge (I will need this for the guitar build)