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Hello everyone,

Finally the time, I am meeting with a supplier of mainly spruce in the coming week. I have been spending the last year in my free time getting tools books and any knowledge I can basically. I want to thank everyone that has communicated with me privately about building. So while I read everything I could about this subject, I'm still no expert and would like to know... Any last advice before I go buy a bunch of wood? I will be buying everything I need, and probably a lot of extra. I will be buying a cheap grade as the first guitars won't be much other than for practice. For those who want to know I will be going to Kölble tonewood in upper Austria. If anyone would like , I could review the place if you give me the questions here.

Thanks in advance

Michiyuki Kubo

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"I'm still no expert and would like to know... Any last advice before I go buy a bunch of wood? "

Don't.....
I think it's good to buy perhaps a dozen medium to low priced soundboards to work through your first instruments, but I would hold off on buying a lot of back and side sets until you build a few instruments and use a few different woods. You may find some woods that are visually interesting are quite literally a pain to work with (pau ferro, cocobolo) Other woods may be inexpensive but less interesting or hard to bend. Also you may find better prices "along the way" rather than buying a lot in the beginning. You may find some species work for you while others don't.
It's also possible that after you build a few the romance of building guitars will leave you (probably not... you will be hooked like the rest of us!) Not buying a lot now means less to get rid of if that happens.
One advantage you have is actually looking over the wood you are buying and not relying on a grading system that varies from supplier to supplier. You may find some tops in the lower grades that are good quality for less money. And remember as an amateur the first priority is to have fun!

I agree. Buy one or two soundboards, and one or two of the most basic tonewoods for the back/sides. Build a guitar you'd enjoy owning, but not necessarily your dream guitar - if that makes sense. By basic, I mean a mahogany, walnut, or rosewood. Inexpensive compared to the dreamboat woods, but very nice and easy to work. Don't worry about building an inventory.

I am about half way through my first build, and wishing I had picked simple strait grained wood for the back and sides, not the curly grain I went with. It looks nice, but has caused extra headaches when bending the sides and dealing with runout during planing.

Clay- thanks, I will be on the lookout to try different types of wood species to try. I was very interested in this spruce, because it's very abundant here and I have read its desirable buy some. While it's possible to loose the "romance" I think i won't be able to shake this flu. I am excited every time it get one baby step further. Wether I buy a new tool or learn something new.

-James- I will take your guys advice in only buying a few sets. Thanks for the input and tip about mahogany that I hear often.

Stick- thanks for the tip. I will remind myself of that. I'm not really looking for the first 5-10 guitars to look pleasing. Basically they are only to build my skills and practice. If they look good then it will only be a plus.

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I would also stick with a straight grained wood for your first guitar. You might just surprise yourself with the quality of your first guitar. Be warned: you cannot build just one.

I dunno....

If purchasing really cool wood flips your switch so-to-speak I seriously doubt if the Lutherie police are going to come knocking on your door at 3:00 AM. If it keeps it exciting and interesting for you what's the harm?

So long as you are mindful that there is a learning curve, an understatement...., with Lutherie AND if you are aware of and mindful that some woods have higher success rates with newer builders I say go for it. I built my stash with some really nice stuff early on and it served me well, kept it exciting, and I never wrecked anything that I wanted to use.

By mindful of some of the qualities what I mean is that say for a first build where you are bending your sides walnut is a species that bends like rubber and is very forgiving. It also works well, looks great, and makes a great sounding guitar. Highly figured wood can be harder to bend with high flame mahogany being a tough wood to bend.

Nearly all of the common spruces will do well for a new builder but WRC is less forgiving with poor joinery especially on the bridge. Redwood is an excellent top wood but can lack across the grain stiffness. And did I mention that WRC may dent if you look at it in an unkind manner...

If you look at the gallery page on my site you will see that many of my early guitars used pretty exotic and expensive woods. I was also an early adopter of Tiger Myrtle with great results even though the stuff taps like wet cardboard it can produce a very responsive guitar.

These days I understand why f*ctories like the big three, maple, mahogany, and rosewood - they work very well! Interestingly enough the more I built the more I came to respect tradition and traditional materials.

I forgot to mention something that I once read here on the OLF that Howard Klepper said.

The question was much like this one about using nicer woods early on. Howard indicated that he saw nothing wrong with using nicer woods, after all it does grow on trees....

I have to agree with Hesh (mostly cause he's usually on point) but also because his statements support my own choices in the woods I'm using for my first build.

I chose to build a WRC & Sinker Mahogany guitar my first time out of the gate. I'm still in the early stages , but I can tell you that getting what you want in the finished product is probably worth the trouble, so long as you know that you may have some trouble and are willing to work through the issues that arise. Working with cedar has been troublesome from time to time, owing to the wood being softer and easier to dent. I have to be careful with it. I hope my joinery will hold. I did purchase two sets of cedar so that if I messed one up too badly I would have another set on hand.

I spent just over double the amount on the sinker than if I had just bought a more run of the mill (pun intended) set of hog, but after reading the origin story of the wood and listening to recordings of guitars made with it, I was hooked on the idea of building with it.

I decided to use the woods that I wanted to have on this guitar just in case I made it through the process and decided that never wanted to do it again. I also agree with Clay that this probably won't be the case, but when I was buying the wood I hadn't been hooked on woodworking the way I am now.

I wish you the best of luck.

Cheers!
Justin


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My advice to someone new would be decent spruce (ignore cosmetics) and straight grained quarter sawn Walnut (or splash out on EIR, both good benders), maple bindings (don't need side purfling), Mahogany neck.
Life (read guitar making) is tricky enough without making it too complicated to begin with, and these can make a nice guitar.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

So go for straight grained. Not a problem, not going for looks right now. From my last conversation with him he only has maple for sides necks and backs. Told me he only carries what wood grows there, which I like, because it shows me that it's as local as can be. I hope the maple isn't bad to work with. Thanks Colin, Justin, and Hesh. I value your input.

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I used curly maple b/s on my first. Using SuperSoft and a spring steel bending strap made all the difference. I wouldn't even attempt bending figured wood without. Bent over an iron.

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Doug

Don't let fear or common sense stop you from trying to build something

My advice is that you buy just enough to build a few instruments, and hold off spending a lot of money on wood until you have more experience as a builder. One of the things that comes with this experience is knowing what woods you like to work with (or not), and why. Don't buy lots of wood based on the opinions of some random folks on the internet and whatever the literature you have available to you says, you may find that you like other things.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

" I'm not really looking for the first 5-10 guitars to look pleasing"

You should try to make the guitars look pleasing. This may mean building carefully to a traditional design. A simply appointed well proportioned carefully made guitar will look pleasing and probably sound good too. I tried a number of odd designs and ideas on my first guitars , not with great success. I still build some odd ball stuff, but the traditional stuff usually pleases me more in the end.

Doug - Thank you, Will be getting some slats before bending.

Arnt- Yeah so far with the suggestion of everyone, i will probably do just that and buy enough for about 3 guitars. I do respect everyone's opinions because of the their own experience. So it may be that later on i will find my own way of selecting because of preference. I just don't have that experience yet. Know of any reputable suppliers of tools in central europe?

Clay- I guess i should clarify, I will be building from plans. Will try and build the best i can of course, but i do not expect professional results on my first try. That is unreasonable, and these are for learning the skills for further guitars. I do really want them to sound well even if they do not look exotic/amazing/mastercrafted.

Again appreciate the responses guys

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I have shopped various hand tools and smaller stuff from both Dictum and Dieter Schmid in Germany, they are both very good. For larger machinery, it depends on what is available in your area, as shipping costs can be prohibitive. Generally I recommend larger, used machines over newer, smaller ones, if the price is comparable (and you have the room, and are willing and able to do some maintenance etc etc)

http://www.mehr-als-werkzeug.de/page/homepage.htm?lang=en

http://www.fine-tools.com/

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Arnt, Those are the exact websites i have been perusing. I will see about ordering some thing from them whenever i come across something i definitely need. Thanks.

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I do not disagree with any of the comments but I would not buy a cheap grade of wood for the top. On your first you are going to put in a lot time, and I suspect you can end up with a nice guitar. Leverage your time well with a decent grade for the top.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Michiyuki,
The others have all given good advice, so I'll just wish you very well. Everyone on the forum was a rank beginner at one time or another. We have all been exactly where you are right now. I think it's safe to say that everyone here loves the process of building instruments. I think you will find it just as rewarding as you expect it to be. Everyone who has already responded (and many others) will be glad to offer advice as you go along, and we will all be interested in seeing your first instrument. Best of luck to you!
Patrick

Thank you John and Patrick. I am looking forward to seeing the set up he has. His family has been doing it for a very long time. I'll let everyone know here my experience when I go pick it up next week.

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Michiyuki,
ggrrrrlllllmmmmm...... be careful, make guitar addictive
if you had built one, soon you want to build two, three and so on, so please enjoy hmmmm

Herry, Will most likely be the case as is for most

Today i went to Koelble To pick up the wood. I snapped a few photos of his store for everyone to see.





Sorry i didnt realize the pictures blurred on the phone.

He had a generous amount of wood. He told me almost all of his wood is from Austria, some from Germany. Mainly Spruce, Maple, and cherry.

I picked up enough wood for 2 guitars (and a little bit extra), The tops are lower grade but were not the cheapest grade. He had palettes of industrial tops going to china. He of course did not recommend those I found a lot of his stuff was rough though. Overall experience with him was pleasant, he was friendly and honest. He did give me a tip that if i were to buy and ship to america it is cheaper to ship to a business rather than a private sale because of sales tax.

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