14 Mistakes to avoid when building your first acoustic guitar
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 พ.ค. 2024
- In this episode of DIY Guitar Making, I talk about some of the mistakes that beginner luthiers make on their first acoustic guitar.
#1 using woods of opportunity or reclaimed wood
#2 using expensive wood
#3 using highly figured wood
#4 biting off more than you can chew
#5 buying tools in bulk
#6 skipping the dry run
#7 using dull edge tools
#8 using routers inappropriately
#9 using edge tools to carve the neck
#10 thicknessing parts to final dimensions
#11 getting started without the end in mind
#12 sides not square to plates
#13 sanding out of sequence
#14 perfectionism procrastination
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I don't normally comment on videos but I have to say great job on this. I have not built a guitar (yet) but have been in woodworking for over 20 years as a hobby and have built paddleboards and boats from wood. I think all of these principles are excellent for any woodworking project including a guitar. As with any woodworking project, it takes a lot of planning with the following steps in mind. There is a certain process. If you are in a hurry or just trying to get to the end, you are not going to be happy with the final product. A lot of good points brought up here! Lastly, if you have never worked with a sharp hand tool, it is smooth and sweet! I would prefer that to power tools for any fine tuned application any day and, yes, it is a whole other aspect of woodworking (keeping your chisels and planes tuned, that is). Again, great job on the video!
Thanks mate, that means a lot to me. Realy appreciate your comment and thoughts about it.
I'm profoundly impressed with how clearly you articulate the points you make. I'm almost 60 years old and a couple years away from retirement, looking for a hobby or avocation moving forward. I have a lot of Stewmac tools from projects over the years and a decent workshop. In addition, I have a friend who has a super equipped shop with pro quality thickness sanders, table saws, you name it. Still I find there are a lot of things I don't have and have resisted the urge to over buy. I stalled out in the carving stage of a maple violin back, partly because I left too much hand work for a novice builder. Recently, I've considered a kit guitar build. Also, I am stranded between maybe an upper lever mediocre guitar player (have a dozen years of competent club band experience in the past) but can't seem to reach what I consider an advanced player. At my age, wondering if I can continue to work on improving my playing while simultaneously trying to learn building. Your last point seems to stymie several aspects of my endeavors, but your advice has also given me some renewed zeal to get into and get finished with a build. I love the amount of natural light you have in your shop by the way.
I am just now starting to build acoustic guitars. I’ve spent about 5 years building electrics. I would highly recommend that if you want to build guitars, start with electrics. It really gives you a ton of experience that you can then transfer to acoustic.
You can make a ton of mistakes with electrics that can be be fixed fairly easily.
Great realization about the finite energy to spend on a project. I am submersed in one now that has gone on for years, much more than it should have. Good to k ow and realize.
My dad cut down some wide Mesquite logs around 15 yrs ago. It was so beautiful I cut some 4/4 board out of it quartersawn. It sat in my dads shop for 5yrs were he has a woodburning stove. I then resawed it and build a bajosexto( basically a baritone Mexican 12 string guitar). That was 10 yrs ago and that guitar has the best sound of any bajosexto Ive ever played. Its straight as an arrow and super stable. Wish I could get my hands on more Texas Mesquite wide enough without cracks to start drying.
Hi, thanks for your playlists. If your found of acoustic guitar, from a belgian man whose work shop is in switzerland (UE): Construction d'une guitare haut de gamme (1)
Bernard Jeker. It's in french, it's beautiful to see.
The important thing is that the Mesquite was properly cut and allowed time to season in the proper way. Eric is talking about a dude who goes outside cuts down the family walnut or whatever down and cut bits off it to go straight inside and make a guitar without proper process. Quite a bit different to your experience..
You're totally right. As Salvador Dali said; "Have no fear of perfection, you will never reach it"
Thanks for your videos.
I wish i had lived next to your property to give you a helping hand after my work hour and getting that much of knowledge face to face. I am crazy about learning new things..
I made a lot of things on my own after learning from TH-cam.
So glad I stumbled on this vid. I've built a few guitars, but gotta confess to having committed more than one of your cautionary principles. Good stuff.
I started building in 1983. Lots, and lots of mistakes. I used Irving Sloane's Steel String Guitar construction book, or, I wrote, via mail, to LMI. This video is loaded with great advice. All I can add is the safety factor. Use goggles with power tools and beware of wood allergies. Buy quality tools, especially chisels. One big tool I really did not need is one everyone gets seduced by it. The band saw. I solved that by using a hand held jig saw and a spindle sander.
about your last point: I was (...ok I still am) a perfectionist but when it came to building the guitar for my journeyman's examination, I had so little time, that I came up with my 85% rule/target (sorry my englisch is not the best). Let me try to explain my theory :). 85% is a "degree of perfectionism" that you can achieve in a reasonable amount of time. The amount of time you have to spend, to achieve every single percentage after that rises (I exaggerate a little bit) exponentially. 85% ist plenty good for most people and still is a good representation of your workmanship. With this target you get (so to speak), "the best bang for the buck". I managed to finish in time, and even though I had very strict teachers I finished with top grade. I like to be an perfectionist and to take my time, but sadly I can't always afford to do so. Nice Video!
I am on my 4th guitar now, and I have to say this guy is right on. I had over 60 years of general woodworking and joinery experience but when I tackled my first guitar, I had no mentor except books. I learned the list of mistakes the hard way, and recommend this video wholeheartedly!
I reclaimed some spruce from a remodel on a 100yr old house here in Texas. The grain was so close Ive yet to order bracewood as nice as it. They were 2x4s and quartersawn but these were real 2x4s not 1 1/2 x 3 1/2 like they sell nowadays. I used them as back braces and later top braces. Those guitars are still super stable and thats been over 8yrs. Sometimes one just hits the jackpot.
Cracked sound boards from old discarded pianos.....
Ah skipping the dry run... I remember those times of stress frustration and self-loathing after a properly and painstakingly matched glue joint ends up horribly skewed... Good times
Great info man. Thanks so much!
I know I commented few years ago but reflecting on that
Video as far as affordable tone woods
Just because it’s cheaper doesn’t mean it’s going to sound bad
The reasons could be people just don’t use it very often or it’s not in high demand cause they’re used to the usual, it’s simply that it’s readily available easy to harvest or even just that it’s rough sawn so you’ll have some work to do
I found some beautiful Cuban mahogany back and side set for under $100 aud
This was rough sawn about 4mm thick so a bit of work would have to be done but it’s a good way to get some experience with a hand plane or easy to thickness through a drum sander if you have one.
Just thought I’d put in a few cents
Your advice is bang-on, and you spent just the right balance of time between being thorough and droning on. My list would include #15: "Just Breathe." There's a time to step back and "regroup," and it's not all about mental bandwidth. Case in point: I'm in the middle of a build with cedar/figured walnut, and the workshop humidity won't drop below 70%. So...I breathe. I'm mentally ready to keep going, but the wood/RH isn't. So, I'll go practice doing inlay in scrap wood until I'm a ninja. Thanks again!
Biting off more than you can chew really resonates with me. Kinda goes hand in hand with that purist mindset. Sometimes we kinda let our ego's get in the way and when you start thinking you have to do every little step yourself to feel good about your accomplishment, that's the ego taking over. If I had to build my first guitar again, I'd go with a kit.
Great Job Eric, Thank you for this video...I have a Stew-Mac Dreadnought in my garage that I'm getting ready to start...Feeling better with your tips...
Thanks for the tips.
thank you Eric great points
Very educational, thank you! Subscribed.
Great video! Glad i saw this before I made any purchases on my first build!
Some excellent advise! Brilliant 👍
Signs of a good teacher! Love your video, Thank you !
Thanks for taking the time to sit down and go over common mistakes that first time wood workers or guitar builders might make. It is very good advice. I'm in the process of building my second guitar. The first one was a bust. Didn't understand bracing very well. But I will be taking my time with this one and hopefully get an half decent sounding guitar with minimal tools. Have a great day! I will be watching more of your videos for sure. I like your honesty.
Really admire your skill and work ethic. Sharing your knowledge is a blessing to the world. I agree about those Japanese Shinto Rasps. They make short work of carving out a guitar or banjo neck.
Fantastic tips.... great video. Thank you brother🙏🏻💜🇨🇦
Nice job! I've heard that you cannot focus on the finished product or you'll get discouraged. You have to focus on doing a good job on just one thing at a time. "A long series of small steps that when combined together result in a thing of beauty" (or something to that effect). Thanks for posting this.
I wish I saw this earlier! I experienced many of these mistakes. My biggest mistake on number one was the neck angle. The straight edge test showed that my bridge was way too low. My pride prevented me starting off with a kit, but I see the wisdom in that now. Also, I used walnut for the neck which was way too figured for "edged" shaping, and very resistant to truss rod action.
This was such a great video to watch before venturing on my first build. Thank you for taking the time to make this to help guys like me out!!
Glad it helped, David! Thanks for the feedback.
I'm dreaming of building an acoustic. I'm not a wood worker and have no experience with building instruments at all. I just love guitars and their music. These tips are super helpful to me. Especially about getting some of the parts pre-fab. As I keep tallying the dollar cost of what I'll need for a total scratch built guitar, it seems I'll never be able to just from financial constraints. Spending the cash on a kit will likely save me hundreds or thousands because I won't need to buy so many tools. Thanks so much for this!
In 1972 I bought a piece of Brazilian Rosewood 8" wide 36" long and 2" thick. It cost me $45.00 Dollars. In 1975 I built One guitar from it. My first guitar build. Had I had the proper tools I could have possibly built Two Possibly Three form that piece of wood. While I owned it, it was best the best brightest sounding guitar I had ever heard. It rang like a bell and could sustain well over five minutes. I got harmonics on every fret. I traded that guitar for $2000.00 of body work on a car I had. Please never tell another person not to use the best pieces of wood they can afford to build a guitar with. My goal was to build the most awesome guitar I could with the best materials I could find. Sure there were some mistakes along the way but they all seem to have worked out.
#14 !!!!!!!!!!! But I'm changing in the good direction now :) So many useful tips for beginner (and even experienced woodworker). Thank you.
Fantastic advice. I just completed my first kit, and went into it with the mindset that if it a good wall hanger woodworking project I would be happy. If it was playable I would be elated. Well it is playable, though not perfect, it has given me the confidence to try an actual build. I will definitely follow your advice. Thank you for this.
Excellent video.
#1/#4... I worked years in a harp factory but wanted to learn how to make a hurdy gurdy, so... I made one out of plywood/guitar strings, knew it'd sound like garbage but it only cost me £8 GBP for 2 attempts, (first one went in the fire, second one made it as a rasping but functional disgrace) so now I'm ready to shoot for a good one & ready to pay for good wood :) Thank you for your awesome advice!
Planning is key , do your research and always aim for the best you possibly can do to improve you skill , I have being working with timber since 13 and playing guitar from an early age
Your advice is spot on.
👌
That's solid advice on mistake #8!!! Even (and especially) veterans need to be reminded of that. My brother just had a close call on his table saw after 20+ years of working on it. It only required a few stitches and it missed the tendon, but being too confident leads to complacency.
Thanks for the good advice
I have built several guitars, acoustic and electric over the past 15 years. Everything you have said Eric is sound advice for someone starting out. Terry from Oz.
Very true. I encountered and avoided most of these mistakes when I built my first classical 10 yrs ago, esp. #4. Took me 14 months to complete :)
Agree, "woods of opportunity".
When your building probably for over a year with your first guitar project, it is very sad to see a result using cheap bad material that you will not be happy with.
I knew little when I started, and this advice was the best I got from my guitar builder friends.
Thanks.
Great advice Eric. I’m gearing up in my shop now. Finishing up the thickness sander. You’ve saved me a couple hundred with LMI & StewMac already. Going to build the shooting board this weekend.
That's awesome, Robbie! Glad to hear you're moving along so quickly!
I‘m glad I took the time to watch this. So much good info! I‘ve been contemplating building a guitar for 7 years or so, but I have been easily overwhelmed by the amount of specialized tools and amount of time I would need. Finally decided to take the first step. I am going to get my feet wet on a small scale by building a ukelele from a StewMac kit. I will then move on to a guitar kit after that and just keep adding new skills as I progress, the way you said you did it. I will plan on buying your online course in the future too when I get to that point. Thanks for the motivation!
Just because a uke is smaller it is easy to think it will be easier. Not the case. Start on a guitar
orbodman already finished the uke. it was a fun build and a great experience. Now moving on to a guitar. I should be receiving all of the materials for it in the mail today, in fact.
WOW, did you really hit the nail on the head with your last pointer. Perfection Procrastination. Probably my worst flaw. Thankfully, I am also very stubborn about quitting something I have started. Just may take a long time getting to the end. Thanks for the great review of errors to avoid in really any first time project.
Yeah lol sometimes it's hard to know when enough is enough. Often perfectionism is a good quality to have, but occasionally it's just holding us down. As long as your stubborn enough to keep going though, I would say it's a good thing! Thanks for the feedback!
Hello Sir I'm very excited to learn with you making the acoustic guitar please explain me how to go ahead on this journey, and which tools need to building it and how to mapping the measurement, please help
Sepele is beautiful! OMG really, really, really good advice to not buy "tools in bulk."
Hm. Seems risky to trust any builder (of guitars or anything else) who is trying to keep me from buying tools. Especially on the flimsy grounds that I may not need them! LOL! What's that got to do with anything? Building things is just an excuse to buy tools!! Thanks for sharing your experience with us, the part about perfectionism procrastination is REALLY helpful!
Great video. I wish I knew all of these 14 items 14 guitars ago. Best tip for beginners is to start with a kit. Second best is to purchase tools as you build. You should expect to spend as much on tools as you spent on the kit. Finally, be aware that finishing is a whole other skill that you will need to learn. But it’s all worth it. It’s addictive.
Dude. Great content man. I'm 26, been playing since I was a boy. I'm going to start building my first one in the spring. I want to be as good of a builder as I am a player someday. It just feels like the right progression of a musician. After you learn multiple instruments- whats left besides practice and building?
Thanks Eric ,I am guilty of 4 of the 14 ,wish I had found you earlier would have done the online course . Building my first guitar ,cut away version, 5 sides later I finally did get the cutaway side successfully ,2 paduk,2 fiddleback maple & 1 walnut , My biggest problem is overconfidence as I am a curved stair builder/railing installer, different trade , different set of skills, Radiuses I deal with are much bigger or cut from laminated blocks either way ,I am now subscribed
Thanks! Yeah, cutaways are particularly difficult. I still crack a side occasionally on that bend.
@@EricSchaeferGuitars my first build was a highly figured cutaway. I wish I had seen this vid first. I got it done but not without serious difficulty.
I've been considering going into luthiery for a while. I've never worked with wood before, but I am hoping to start basic carving soon (not gonna touch trying to build a guitar until I understand how wood works as a medium) and I've been wondering if I can avoid power tools. I might have access to some if I can't, but I would prefer not to use them if possible.
Have u ever used cedar for the side of a guitar and are u able to do it
Thank you very much for this informative video. I am about to buy a 000 kit from Stewmac and your advice is very valuable.
I am more of a guitar player than a wood worker so this will be a completely new experience for me.
I appreciate very much your effort.
Best wishes
Thanks Staffan! Good luck with your build!
Burch is a better choice over pine .. Burch and spruce go good together .
Eric, I'm in Australia, and I have some very old , used Douglas Fir (no, wait) and it is completely quartered, and tight grained, at up to 33 lines per inch. Rings like a bell, but would not be a 2 piece, would a be a 4 piece.. I can make even small pieces of it ring quite clearly. It has a few old, stained nail holes , which I like. Your thoughts as to whether that's a good idea?
I do have a question. I'm in the process of making a couple violins with some help. My question is on the back and sides of the guitar, is there a certain type of cut that the back has to be or does that matter, I was just curious as with violins they need to be quarter sawn?
Or are the backs not as finicky as the top soundboard or like the plates of the violin?
I definitely suffer from some of the procrastinating
For me glue jobs get me very anxious
Even after a dry run (sometimes doing more times than what I need to)
knowing I have only so much time to get everything clamped up “perfectly” makes me panic a little
So definitely next guitar I need to relax and not panic
Great advice, but you could probably just start and end with #4 😂. Biting off more than you can chew applies to trying to use either non-guitar woods or high-figures exotics...buying tools you don’t need, trying to skip a dry run, not knowing how to sharpen edge tools or run power tools, etc. It’s all trying to run before you can crawl and walk. I’m a pretty expert woodworker (using tools 40+ years most of it professionally) but I’m still a noob with luthiery many years in. It’s a different animal altogether with a stiff and unforgiving learning curve. Start slow and plan on doing lots of builds before anyone will pay you for it LOL.
I wonder how you sharpen that rasp? Replacement?
Brother how much budget will it take for first guitar including everything ??
#14 too true, some say players can make bad builders, they start with a plan, maybe a good plan, then they keep thinking of extra things they'll want when they play it so they take it apart, add something, think of something else, take the project apart again... the instrument rarely makes it to completion!
I was in the woodworking business for 45 years The most dangerous tool i know of is a radial arm saw i bought one during that time my brother in laws brothers cut some fingrrs off with one also a shaper man i knew a shaper man that was old missing several pieces of fingers.
Good advice, well said, but as you did with the dry run explanation onward using examples is better than just talk, good luck with your channel 😉
Thanks for the feedback! I agree, the examples do help and they keep me from rambling too much lol
My neighbor Jim was very offended by some of these tips.
Was that Jim weed whacking around the tree in the left side window @ 13:15 ? He looks pissed. He's getting ready to cut that pine for some tops. With some bulk-bought tools.
@@MrMooseSlayer He does look pissed. And then he went and got a push mower which he didn't need at all. Probably a self-propelled job, the wasteful scoundrel. He should do all his mowing with the weed whacker.
Jim told me to tell Eric that he wants his walnut stump back.
I started with luan plywood. It bended easily and didnt mater when i fukd stuff up.
Now im using black limba and wood in that moderate price range
If you are going to practice bending sides you should do it with the same species. and you should practice.
Erik it is a pleasure to salute you, I am from Argentina and I am a big fan of your videos. I have a little cuestion for you, and if you can help I'll be very very greatful. I'm starting my first acoustic guitar proyect, I bought mahogany for sides, bottom and soundbar but I'm not sure about how thick that should be. Could you recommend me the thickness of each part?, mainly the soundbar around the bridge wich I think should be the most rigid part.
Thanks a lot.
Thanks, Patricio. When your building your first guitar you definitely want to err on the side of too thick. Far often new builders start at near-final dimensions and then oversand through the process and end up way too thin. So I'm going to recommend .110 - .125" for the soundboard, .100" -.110" for the back and .085" for the sides. Don't worry about having a variable thickness around the bridge. Your bracing pattern should be what supports that area appropriately.
@@EricSchaeferGuitars thaks a lot, you are a genius. I'll try to do exactly what you told me.
Hello. I was considering trying to build an acoustic guitar. I would like to know if I can use cedar and mahogany together since it's the most common wood where I am from. There is mahogany, cedar, rosewood (dont know which type), samwood(also called laurel here), cabbage bark (a type of very hard wood here, sometimes they have ebony, bullet tree and hardwood or atleast that's the local name here), as some of the few woods I know are sold here. Can I have any advice which to use???
Oh also they sell woods called zericote, jobillo and poisonwood as hardwoods and Santa Maria and prickly yellow as soft woods
@@selincruz3783 this depends on so many things relating to your preferences that it is hard to even answer the question.
But I will say that Mahogany is always a solid choice, especially if ease of use and workability is a concern, which for a first time builder, it should be. Cedar is a great wood. I just built a guitar with a cedar top. However, for a beginner, it can be frustratingly brittle.
Ebony is also a great choice. For beginners, It has the added benefit of being the easiest wood to hide wood repairs.
Ziricote is a really beautiful wood, however, It is difficult to bend and is not ideal as far as workability.
Most of the other woods you mentioned I am not even aware of. Hope that helps!
@@EricSchaeferGuitars thanks for your advice. I've worked with these woods in carpentry, reason I have asked. But I'll keep it in mind. Thanks Eric I really appreciate it. Love your videos
On that cutaway guitar how do you bend the cutaway
Great question! I'll be answering your question in depth in an upcoming video: th-cam.com/video/dpiqBqrU5ig/w-d-xo.html
Off the subject... Where are you getting your black and white Fiber veneer?
Stewmac, but LMI has them as well and Michael Gurian's purfling supply business (cant remeember the name) and I'm sure others carry it too
Ya mean the 1/2 inch CDX I found in the scrap pile won't work??
Hmmm....... Your name, location(Pennsylvania), & your connection to Luthiery is familiar to me for some reason! I would also recommend to anyone interested in building that they search the various books on Luthiery, such as the Sloane, Cumpiano, Overholtzer(take some of Art's suggestions w/ a grain of salt), Williams (Charles Fox covered a lot of same techniques in his Guitarbuilding course when he was in Vermont) books & Roy Courtnall's "Making Master Guitars". There's one more book that isn't actually related to the craft but I might suggest that it might be more important than the other books. The book is titled "Understanding Wood".( A Piano Rebuilding ex acquaintance of mine borrowed it, so I'm unable to recall the author's name
Some great reading suggestions here. Thanks, steve. Since you brought it up i'd like to add Ervin Somogyi's 2 books to the list: "the responsive guitar" and "making the responsive guitar."
Why don't you want to use a router on ebony or rosewood?
Can't you just acclimate the wood and then test for moisture content? Reclaiming woods from furniture usually have plenty of time to dry.
Sir, i am from India, Bengal, what wood I should use for making guitar body? Mohagany?
Yeah, mahogany back and sides is a good way to go for a first build. It's not the easiest thing to bend but it's not the hardest either
what type of wood would you suggest for a functioning cosplay guitar?
I'm... I'm at a loss for words here...
Sorry mate your mistake #1 to me is anathema, I use entirely reclaimed woods and have had no issues at all, old furniture window frames door stiles. It's generally super dry and stable. And cheap.
Well, good for you. This is advice for a first time builder as it clearly says in the title. There is nothing wrong with using reclaimed wood. I've used it. But if its your first build, and you dont have the experience to know what to watch out for, then obviously using, say, luthier grade mahogany is going to ease the learning curve.
My post seems to have been taken wrongly, it does sound a bit stern. It never was meant to be. What I meant was using cheap woods gives good practice without cost. In uk spruce and mahogany is very expensive
How can I bend side plywood for guitar making
Purchase really thin (1/64) plywood and laminate 3-4 layers together.
👌👌👌
I would like to very kindly say (very interesting anyway ;-)
mistake #1 of a youtuber : focus on the backside
mistake #2 : filming against the light
mistake #3 : speaking too far from the microphone (echo)
Hi, maybe this a the dumbest question ever but... is it possible to build a guitar out of balsa wood? How about resins?
Well it depends on what parts of the instrument you are talking about, and it depends on whether you really want to know if it is "possible" or advisable, which is two very different things. One instance I am aware of with the use of balsa wood is in double tops. Google "double tops" if you are interested.
I bought a chisel for my first guitar build, and MY GOD, it looked like they chipped bricks with it. I've spent two hours sharpening it with a regular hand stone, and it turned out, it wasn't even heat treated, edge was ruined just afer adjusting a truss rod channel after router..
That's a bummer. That's a hard way to learn..
@@EricSchaeferGuitars Two cherrys makes a great chisle
Four mistakes out of 14. Not bad though I do say so myself. The proof will be in the pudding. Confidence status: high.
Can you make me one
Lowden use reclame WOOD. In his guitars.
yes and Lowden is not a first time guitar builder. The point is not a negative or positive judgement on reclaimed wood itself. Amazing things are done with reclaimed wood. The point is that for someone who has never built an acoustic guitar before, it is a very involved project, and using reclaimed wood, as tempting as it might be for some, adds a lot of unnecessary extra considerations and complexities and ultimately increases the chance that someone is either going to get analysis paralysis and abandon ship or simply screw something up because they bit off more than they could chew.
Using pine would be like putting 40 hours into drawing on a bar napkin.
Lol good analogy!
Did he really just say "10-20 thousands of an inch"... So just ~4 millimeter... Great video aside from this
10-20 THOUSANDTHS (key word here) of an inch is 0.010 - 0.020 which equals 0.2 -0.5 mm. your confusing thousandths for hundredths or in other words confusing .01 for .1
@@EricSchaeferGuitars oh yeah lol true.
Take the free wood and leave it in a good spot for a few years for when you git gud
Your advice on how to avoid failure is "Don´t do it.", haha! Then how are you suposed to come to master a craft?
no hate here.BUT. two things. 1 you gotta be a fairly skilled woodworker before you go from bookshelves to accoustic guitars. 2. you can build a museum quality piece but if it sounds bad it is. you gotta understand neck angle and intonation. ugly and sweet sound trumps beauty. ask me how i know.
ummm....I just watched a video of someone who broke rule #1 and his guitar sounded awesome....in yer face! There are no rules, IMO.
He said as your first guitar remember.
Is your name Nimrod?
In your face? What, are you like 10? Pound dirt, fucktard.
Just so you know... Dan is an idiot!!
Ignore this man, make something ridiculous, interesting and stupid and make a a trash guitar our of your neighbors skip bin, just know whatever you make wont be nice but you can make it work. I promise its not illegal. (just do it safely). The only thing you want to get right is the scale length and fret measurements.
Go make the shittiest most insulting guitar!
Your negative comments about pine tops are not correct....I have beautiful classical guitar that I built with a "clear pine top" and the grain is close and the guitar sounds fantastic!Obviously you have not tried it.
You can make a guitar from an old piece of masonite if you want, but there are certain woods that are dead , and the prefered ones are what they call (lively ) especially for the sound board. It makes a huge difference.What do you want your guitar to sound like after you spend hundreds of hours building it. Your call. I guarentee if you would have used sitka it would sound better.