Since I had already chosen to build a classical guitar, I had to decide on the type to base the design on. Aside from the general shape and size of the guitar, there are many different internal construction arrangements depending on the type of build you want to do; for example, you may want to make a small-bodied parlour style guitar or a guitar more suited to finger style or flamenco, or even a cutaway, which may have different bracing patterns inside to allow the sound to resonate and suit the size/type of guitar. I actually wanted to make a standard cutaway classical, but because this is my first guitar, was advised against it as it can be difficult to bend wood and making the jump to a cutaway guitar on the first attempt would probably be a step to far. The benchmark internal classical bracing design is the Torres construction which uses a fan style bracing pattern - he seemed to be way ahead of his time and surprisingly, this hasn't changed too much since the 19th century! There are many variations of his design, but from what I understand, the general style is the accepted standard to build the internal bracing. I went with this as it's been tried and tested. You will also be choosing the materials of the guitar like me which in my opinion, probably affects the sound to a greater degree than worrying too much about which bracing pattern is best.
I decided to make a standard sized classical suitable for most styles as I like to play finger style and other types of styles; I chose the Torres design, but with my own personal preferences for the guitar scale length, nut width and neck depth.
You can get all sorts of computer generated full scale design plans from luthier suppliers (see links to the right), or there are plenty more specialised suppliers with wider ranges of designs available if you search on the Internet.
You can get all sorts of computer generated full scale design plans from luthier suppliers (see links to the right), or there are plenty more specialised suppliers with wider ranges of designs available if you search on the Internet.
MATERIALS
Now's the fun part - choosing the wood. I decided I wanted to make a guitar with dark back and sides and a light top, but also had to sound rich with a reasonably deep bass, decent mid-range and clear trebles. The wood you choose has major effects on the final sound the guitar will make. Keep in mind that you'll have to bend, plane, sand, chisel and saw the wood - some types of wood are easier to work with than others, some bend easier, some sand easier, all these things should be taken into consideration as well as how you want the guitar to sound. The guitar top for example will sound more mellow if you decide to use cedar and more crisp at the treble end if you decide to use spruce. Deeper bass if using rosewood back and sides, or lighter in tone if you use cypress (more for flamenco) or maple. I decided on the following:
Top: European Spruce - good clear trebles, works traditionally well with rosewood tonally
Back and Sides: East Indian Rosewood - tonally responsive with a rich bass and good mid-range
Neck: Cedrela - a very light wood, easy to work with. I found this wood a bit too crumbly for my liking, but it does have the advantage of being very light
Binding: Ebony - very dense hardwood, difficult to work with, but looks good and thought I'd give it a go
Bridge, Headstock and Fingerboard: Rio Rosewood - I like the contrast of this wood to other rosewood, adds a bit more exotic feel to the guitar
This link may help you decide
TOOLS
Ah .. tools. You can never have too many tools I say. Whilst you can get all sorts of expensive tools and jigs to help you with different stages of the guitar, at the bare minimum, I'd say you'll need :Clamps - lots of clamps of all sorts, Klemsia wood clamps, C clamps, spring clamps, specialised bridge clamp, quick-action clamps, mini-clamps
Chisels - a good range is required, even some down to 2mm/4mm to help with some of the more intricate work, some of these can be expensive
Files - again, a good range of round, half-moon, flat files needed in different sizes, as well as some mini files
Saws - Coping saw, Gentleman's saw, flush-cut saw (Japanese flush cut saw from Axminster is superb), micro-saw (essential - Handiwork Microsaw - get from a luthier supplier)
Planes - large and small planes
Others - scalpel and #10 blades, sanding blocks, spokeshave, scraper, sharpening stones and oil, thicknessing caliper, digital caliper (£10 ones from ebay were fine), fret file, fret hammer, sandpaper of various grits up to about 320, wet and dry paper (for finishing) from 600, 800 to 1200, drill bits. Variable speed Dremel-type tool is useful, I found an inexpensive one on offer for about £7 from the now defunct Woolworths, which proved very useful for the headstock.
I built up my collection of tools as I went because I wasn't quite sure what I'd need and I suggest you do the same. Otherwise it's far too expensive and if you build it up as you go along, you don't notice to the same degree how much you've spent (!). Here are the sorts of tools I needed as I went along:
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| Clockwise from left to right: Bridge clamp (bottom left), clamps, saws and measuring tools, planes, chisels, files, Dremel type tool |
