Step By Step Guitar Making: Full-Size Plans Enclosed

It turns out that guitar making is a complex art and there are many different ways for a beginner to approach it. The most complete book is William Cumpiano's "Guitar Making, Tradition and Technology". However, I found Willis "Step by Step Guitar Making" useful and valuable. It is shorter and clearer than Cumpiano and interestingly, a lot of the steps, sequence of operations, and jigs are different. For me, the differences between the two books help in understanding which steps are the most critical and which steps can be altered to best accomodate your particular skills, experience, and available tools. If you are serious about learning guitar building, I would recommend getting both books.

This is my husband's 3rd copy of this book, having misplaced the previous two!

I found this book to be excellent. It is clearly written with crystal clear photographs on the page relevant to the text

so-so

Being a collector of luthiery materials, I had to buy this book to keep up to date. The photos and sequence of construction are nicely put together and there are a number of interesting techniques I've not seen in other manuals. That being said, I could not recommend the design offered as a viable first instrument for the beginning instrument builder.There seems to a movement of sorts in the U.K. for enthusiastic amateur builders to come up with highly personalized designs, ideosyncratic assembly techniques and then... publish. Doubtfire, Kinkead, and now Willis all fall into this category. Each offers us an instrument design quite unrelated to what's been considered "the norm" in North American steel-string building. Of the two, I'm more confident in the Kinkead design.Never having played one of Mr. Wills instruments, I can't comment on it's tonal characteristics. I am confident however, that this is an UNDERBUILT guitar. A dozen years of building and repair gives me concern about the following:-The assertion that 2mm is the "optimum final thickness... for spuce tops" is pretty much insane. Two millimeters is considered razor-thin for most nylon-string classical designs.-Couple that thin top with the X-brace layout described and you have a recipe for collapse. The braces are heavily decoupled, and they are at lacking at least 25% of the mass found on typical factory guitars.-The low-profile design of the heel is elegant, but structurally problematic.-The Spanish heel design with integral neck and top block can work for steel strung instruments, but is highly irregular.-The extreme back-set neck angle necessitates an auxillary wedge under the upper part of the fretboard. Why? This geometry results in 3/8" of saddle protruding above the hight of the bridge. Assuming one can find a commercially prepared bridge blank this tall, you've still got an awesome amount of forward torque on the top.-The assertion that, "a suitable height is about 5/23in (4mm)on the sixth string" is again,-laughable. Any repair person presenting a customer with a lightly built instrument obviously designed for fingerpicking with that sort of setup would be out of business in short order.If I'm reading the label afixed to the instrument correctly, this is Mr. Willis' 16th instrument. The text bio states that he started devoting his time to instrument building in 2003. This book is copyrighted 2006. I'd be interested to see what changes he's made to his design. (There are very few photos on his website, but quite a number of ads for this book).In summary, if you want to build a guitar modelled on the Martin OM design as was stated in the introduction, purchase a Martin plan from one of the suppliers. It's a time-tested design, unlike Mr. Willis'. And if,(again like the introduction says), you think the idea that starting a business making musical instruments is an exciting possibility, do follow his advice and consult a qualified business adviser. Perhaps he or she will suggest taking photos of one of your first guitars and publishing a book so you too can be a master.-In all seriousness though, please don't use a regular household fan to exhaust the lacquer fumes from your spray booth as pictured on p.23. A spark from the motor could cause an explosive fire that could end your luthiery career very quickly.

I am on my fifth guitar build, and bought this to help with some technical questions regarding adjusting the neck angle with a bolt on neck. It didn't provide any answer, so it was of no use to me. Se here is my general impression.I can't figure who this book is written for. On the one hand it assumes you have no tools yet and don't know how to organize your own workspace. Thus these handy tip; a good way to get tools is to ask for them for Christmas, and, don't subject your family pet to noxious fumes.On the other hand he uses very very advanced manual techniques and includes complex details that only an advanced craftsman could handle, with no overall benefit to the 'guality' of the guitar. Just funny embellishments (internally and externally) that appear to be nothing more than the author's personal preference.The real danger with it is that a novice woodworker might think that this book will help them to build their first guitar. That person would be doomed to fail. Only the author's traditional hand tooled methods are described in short one-paragraph captions to the photos. The level of detail is very poor. And that assumes that you want the exact single design that is discussed. For that matter I find the steel string 'OM' style with integrated 'spanish/classical' neck is a bit peculiar to begin with. Alternatives and optional choices that a person might made even with this design are rarely mentioned. The opportunities to make critical flaws without knowing it would be staggering, and you would be well past the point of no return before you realized something wasn't quite right.I am sure that the author builds fine guitars. I am an experienced woodworker with a very well equiped shop (hand and power tools), and I would never under any circumstances try to build a guitar as this book suggests. There are too many easier, safer, and more risk-free methods to choose from.On a positive note, as a documentary on how guitars can be made (one method only) the book is ok. Certainly well put together, lots of clear photos printed on quality paper. That's about all.

I have made one guitar and one ukulele, guided by Cumpiano and Natelson, so this book was the perfect follow on from that point. The photos and text are well set out and as a slightly experienced luthier, I gained much. The spanish foot approach is unusual in steel stringed guitars and Mr Willis explained it in detail, including how to construct the cutaway. I am now keen to try it. The only mild criticism I have is that I thought the section on truss rods was a little light, but apart from that, a great book, I am glad I bought it.

good book

I think this book is excellent on all accounts, with the major exception that if for tradition only, most people interested in building a steel-string guitar will want to do it in the American/Martin way, with a separate neck and body, use of a full guitar body mould (as opposed to a solera), etc. Here the author demonstrates a sort of hybrid construction between the Spanish method and design of classical guitars and that of the American steel-string. Thus while the design uses Martin-style X-bracing, it also employs an integrated neck design and building techniques typical of classical guitar making.With that major caveat, it's still a very worthy addition to the small canon of books on the subject and the author is a phenomenal woodworker with a lifetime of good advice. The writing and photography are excellent as well.The book also starts with what in retrospect was one the most motivational pieces of information I've ever read: a simple statement of the fact that as the guitar is a relatively small object, it doesn't require a large amount of space to build. That may not strike Americans' as being very significant, but for someone living in the UK (like the author), it's a huge consideration in deciding whether or not to embark on such a project.

I appear the contents for a deeper sight. PART ONE:planning and preparation: guitar anatomy,tools and equipment,the workshop,health and safety,building methods,schedule of operations,wood selection,adhesives,fittings and accessories. PART TWO:guitar making step-by-step:the template and solera,the neck and end block,alternative neck joints,the soundboard,soundboards for classical guitars,ribs and linings,the back,assemply,purfling,binding,inlay,the fretboard,shaping the neck,the bridge,classical guitar bridge,finishing,final stages,troubleshooting,care and maintenance,what next?,glossary,conversion table,fret positions,about the author,resources,index. This revised and expanded edition features new material on:power tools and jigs,neck joints,soundboard bracing,bridge for classical guitar,installing an under-saddle pickup, inlay,care and maintenance,troubleshooting,making alternative guitars,including a mandolin on pages 184-187 (in short). The book also includes full size plans of the whole instrument-enclosed.Highly recommended.

I bought this book because I wanted an idiots guide to making my own guitar, and wanted full sized plans thrown in. I got exactly what I wanted. This excellent text is a beautifully structured guide to anyone with a reasonable grasp of woodwork, and the choice of illustrations helped to clarify any points that I was having trouble grasping. The only reason I'm not already making my first acoustic guitar is the tiresom fact of having to save up for the few "essential" specialist tools, such as heated bending iron (I've tried gluing laminates for violin ribs, trust me, buy the iron!) and thickness calipers. If you are planning to build an acoustic guitar or are even just interested in how it's done, buy this book.

I am a full-time professional luthier and harpmaker. I have gone through this book carefully and I can heartily reccommend it to anybody who wants to build a guitar of this style. It is well written, the fact that full size plans are included make it fantastic value. The author has gone out of his way to create a building process that requires as few special tools as possible. For example, I have an electric planer-thicknesser and I am sure he has one too but he uses hand planes to great effect as this is what most amateur makers would start out with.This instrument uses a slipper style neck joint rather than the more common dove-tail but that is no bad thing. The final assembly of the back using a small shim under the neck ensures a really accurate neck set. This is probably a lot easier to get right. In other words, it is all very carefully thought out with the beginner in mind although I learned plenty too. I always do when I talk to other instrument makers and this was no exception.Yes, you might need a bending iron, but you could improvise.It is a good book and for under £20 I don't think you can really loose even if you ultimately pick a different building method or plan-set.Mark Shiner.[...]

I enjoyed this book largely because it gave me an insight as to how a luthier works and how an acoustic guitar is built. I would not, however, attempt to build one for the 1st time after reading just this. The book does go into detail but I found it lacking in certain areas (its probably just me)..If you are pretty skilled with woodworking tools already then it would be possible perhaps for you to make a decent guitar with this book and nothing else except money and time. I will have to read further and surf the net before I make my attempt. The book is worth a read and will be a source of frequent reference once I get some bottle!!