Building an Acoustic Guitar                                                                            

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Hi, I'm Jay McMullan and this is my website.

Thanks for dropping by!

This is a thickness sander I built for reducing the sides, back and top of the guitar. On this site, I show you how I build things like this and why.

I am in the process of building an acoustic guitar. This is my first attempt at such a task and I started with very limited woodworking experience.

I finally decided to do it! I have decided to build my very own acoustic guitar! I have thought about this for a number of years and have read some books and followed different web sites where other people have embarked on the same journey.

If you have looked at prices of nice, custom built guitars, you have found that they are expensive. I can't say that the purpose of building my own guitar is to save money though. In fact, it may not save a lot of money anyway. By the time I purchase tools and spend the time building tools and buying materials, I may lay out as much cash as if I were to buy a very nice guitar. I could even end up spending more. Money is really not the object.

The main reason I want to build my own guitar is to build a piece of art that makes music and, if taken care of, will last much longer than I will. If I can make a guitar that lives up to my expectations, I would eventually like to build one for my son and my daughter. Hopefully each guitar will be a fine work of art that can be passed down to my descendents and will be a treasured instrument for decades, if not centuries, to come.

I want to build this guitar without having to spend a fortune on specialty tools. To do this, I began by buying some books that show me how to build luthier tools. The Internet has been a good source of information for this also. The best book I have found so far for building a guitar is "Build Your Own Acoustic Guitar" by Jonathan Kinkead. The book is full color, has tons of photographs and even includes full size plans for a steel string, concert sized acoustic guitar!

"Build Your Own Acoustic Guitar" by Jonathan Kincaid is the best book I have found on guitar building.
"A Guitar Maker's Manual" by Jim Williams is another excellent source if you want to build your own guitar.

Another good book I have found is "A Guitar Maker's Manual" by Jim Williams. This book goes into detail on building classical and steel string guitars. There are drawings for specialty tools like a side bender tool. I would recommend both books if you want to build your own guitar.

As I proceed with the build of this guitar, I will try to stay updated on this page. When I find good links to pass along, I'll do that. When I figure out things that make building a guitar easier, I will pass those along too. This is definitely a journey for me.

All of my life, I have been fascinated by about everything there is on this earth, how things are made, how things are built, why they do what they do, etc. My dad painted houses for a living. He was an artist in his own right. When he painted a house, it had to be perfect. As a young boy in high school, I would work with him in the summers. "I don't care how long it takes you, just do it right the first time", he would tell me. I found, as I did the job the right way, that speed came later. I will always appreciate my father teaching me by being a living example to me.

I have one problem that I will have to work around and it is a major problem that has plagued me for over 30 years at the time of the creation of this web site. I hurt my back when I was 18 years old in 1978. To spare you all the details, it will suffice to know I had my third major surgery in May 2011. I will have to work around chronic pain so building this guitar will be a test of my patience.

To put it simply here are some of the reasons I want to build an acoustic guitar:

  1. I enjoy playing guitar and I enjoy beautiful guitars.
  2. This will be a real test of my patience. I usually want to get things done quickly and building a guitar will take time.
  3. It will be an opportunity for me to learn many different things.
  4. The guitars I build can be passed down to my family.

I would love for you to follow along in my progress by clicking on the links on the leftt hand column of this web site. I will do my best to keep things updated and let you know the progress of the guitar.

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