How to Build Your Own Guitar
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Our project shall be the nylon string Spanish guitar, one of the finest instruments of all time. This is an instrument with a pleasing tone and oh so fine to sing along with. The guitar does seem to enhance and improve each and every singer. MATERIALS NEEDED You shall need a few woodworking tools. One tool you shall positively need is a bending iron. The bending iron is used to heat wood. Wood which is very wet can be bent with heat, enough heat to make steam. My bending iron is a short piece of aluminum pipe of about three-inch diameter and twelve-inch length. I have an electric heating element inside the pipe but it could be heated with a torch. Be careful of fire. Do not use iron pipe as it will stain the wood black and spoil your job. Be sure to have a bit of patience and let the pipe get hot. If you try to bed wood without heat you will simply break the wood. Sides and strips I am going to bend are soaked in water for twenty-four hours or more prior to bending. Factories have large heated molds but we can not afford that and I personally like the heating iron. With a bit of patience it does a good job.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
This book was written to show that there is an easier way to make a guitar. I have many books on building instruments but they were written by musicians, not wood workers. All too often, they are following a method many years old, but we now have power tools and there are wood shops where we can get boards planed to the correct thickness. The glue of today is far superior to the horse hide glue of yesteryears. I use two brass screws to secure the neck to the body. For me building a guitar is a fun project. When I am finished they look so nice and sound even nicer. Because of this, I decided to write a book on how to build a guitar and use many pictures to show better details. Here in the Northwest we have spruce, though it is becoming harder to find. Our local Maple makes good back and side wood. A logger friend brought me some quilted Maple and asked me to make him a guitar. The finished guitar was outstanding. It is a fun project to go searching for wood to build an instrument, although one needs a bit of patience and happy attitude.
About the Author
Glad is a retired shipwright. He has worked with wood all his life. Glad is now 83 years old and still very active, playing golf and ballroom dancing twice a week. He has just finished building a guitar. Guitar building is just one of his hobbies. He has built Appalachian Dulcimers, Marimba, and a flat iron mandolin. He gives these instruments away. If he accepted money, he feels that would make it like a job. His instruments are located as far away as the East coast even Hawaii.