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Hi everyone,
Total newb here looking for advice. I was wondering what a good style of acoustic is for a 6yr old? I thought my first build would be a guitar for my daughter to learn on so she stops trying to take mine...

Thanks.

O size 12 fret would be a great size for a young one.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

I would start by picking a scale length to suit your daughter. I developed these 22-7/8" scale instruments for old folks like myself, but the scale and box shape is probably just great for children too. Box width at the lower bout is 16", but with the tight waist, does not feel like a huge box at all. Sound is large, but maybe you should also consider a smaller box like a squashed parlor with a short scale.



I can't say enough about how easy it is to play a 23" scale.

3/4 size nylon string -- Yamaha, Codoba, Ibanez etc. --- have the action set-up by the local Pro shop. These little guitars sound OK and they play easy which is the most important element for those small hands.

Go ahead and make a guitar parlor or what ever if you like --- but get an instrument that fits the child while the iron is hot. I would not mix the "two" projects -- $.02

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Amen. Several ancillary thoughts along these lines:

1. 6 years old is a great age, but you should not unfairly trust your 6 year old to refrain from doing things that harm a guitar. This guitar that you put into your 6 year old's hands will take a beating. Why subject a hand crafted piece of art to that kind of a beating? A modest factory guitar is good enough to get trashed (or at a minimum bruised and banged up) by a 6 year old.

2. Please don't be offended, but since you have never built a guitar before, you probably misunderstand how valuable a hand made guitar is, and what makes it so valuable. Some people think, "oh, I'll save money and build it myself." Nope. That's not the way it works. The most expensive thing that goes into a guitar is not the materials; it is the labor. And building it yourself by hand skews that ratio even more toward labor. Factories have economies of scale and sophisticated machinery. You have your hands, some tools, and your knowledge (which you have yet to obtain). Most of the value of your finished guitar will be made up of the labor you put into it. Do you really want to hand the culmination of that effort over to someone that young?

3. If you are hell-bent to do this, how about building a ukulele kit? They are not that expensive, and some of the hard parts have been done for you. And they are small for small hands.

When my daughter was about eight (decades ago) she wanted to learn classical, so I set out to build her one. Being wise enough to know how I procrastinate and that I was new at building, I bought her one of the Japanese child sized guitars. So, she quit after a few months and nine years later I finished the guitar.

I have to agree with donca. Because I've been involved with with a lutherie school, I meet a lot of people who thing making their own guitar is an economical way of getting a new guitar.

You will likely spend hundreds of $ on new tools and $300-$500 in wood and supplies. Add to that between 100-200 hours over the course of several months.

It is the most exciting, challenging, fullfiling, etc., art/craft/woodworking project I can think a person can do. But I think you have it backwards. Build yourself a guitar so you can let her have whatever factory guitar you are playing now.


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Oh, and I agree with the ukulele suggestion. String it with a low G and you basically have the four treble strings of a guitar.

Eons ago when I used to teach beginner guitar I used to tell students to think of the guitar as two instruments in one: a bass instrument and a harmony/melody instrument.

When starting out they could ignore the bass and just learn 3 or 4 string chords and 2 string melody lines. I had them add in the bass strings once they had basic chord shapes/scales memorized on just a few treble stings. It seemed to lower the learning curve as opposed to teaching full six string chord voicings. After all, who plays six string chords in real life anyway?

I didn't even know about ukuleles back then. If I had I probably would have taught beginning guitar on a ukulele!


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Lot of good points brought up. Nothing said about your ability at woodworking or building in general. Also no idea on what tools you have or how soon you want the guitar (or uke, think it is a good idea). Whether you are looking to make an inexpensive instrument or something of higher quality. Whether you want to just make one instrument or if you plan to jump in with both feet and work up to the quality of work shown on this forum. Different answers to each of these questions can skew the direction you take.

Just get a kit guitar, and go from there. It's a great way to learn without going whole hog on tools and jigs. John Hall at Bluescreek Guitars is a great resource for this. Prebent side and pre cut fingerboard and shaped necks take a WHOLE lot of tools and jigs out of play. There is even a forum here for that. From there, you will learn so much. It's how I got started.

I think the term they use in the business is "serviced". You want a highly serviced kit. And don't let the word kit bother you. Kit just means someone else did the tricky stuff. There is PLENTY to do on even a highly serviced kit. This ain't an IKEA guitar.

You could quickly knock together something out of scrap HPL (formica) back and sides and lumberyard western red cedar for the top. It would be low cost and if you follow a Parlor guitar plan about the right size for a 6 year old. Leave out bindings, purflings, and inlays, and it could be an easy and quick build, requiring few tools. A friend of mine built a tenor uke for his daughter and painted a design on the top instead of a rosette and it looked pretty cool!
As others have said, don't invest so much effort into it that you are worried about it getting busted.

Wow, tons of amazing feedback. I will try to answer / clarify some things.

Woodworking experience I would say beginner. I have done your standard handyman projects around the house, I know how to use the tools but never applied them in a form of art...

I'm also not really looking at this as a way to save money on a guitar, more like an excuse to finally try something I've been thinking about for a few years now.

I have a lot of respect for what Doncaparker mentioned about the artistry and craft aspect of building a guitar. I totally agree with that and that is what has drawn me to learn more and hopefully dive in soon.

I actually really like the idea now of doing this first build for myself and passing on my guitar to her eventually.
I'm thinking the kit idea sounds great to get started and some reading from what I've researched. Any recommendations? I've heard a lot about Cumpianos book but are there other suggestions?

Also I'm in Canada, any good thoughts on where to get a good kit?

Thanks again everyone for the responses, makes me think I'm doing the right thing or I'm completly nuts for starting this, not sure....

Where in Canada? I'm in CowTown and am happy to lend a hand if needed.

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Doug

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

You will never go wrong by reading the Cumpiano book. It is a wonderful starting place for building a guitar from scratch. It is not crazy expensive, so you can buy it and read it and be much smarter about building, even if you go a different direction for your first guitar (like with a kit). In other words, it is a wise investment no matter what.

If you decide to build a guitar from the Cumpiano book, there are a few updates on his website that you should follow instead of what is in the book. The biggest is the neck joint. Don't try to make the neck joint described in the book; make the one on the website. Also, I see very little value in building your own truss rod. You can buy a really nice one for not much money.

For kits, here are three kit sellers to consider: Stewart MacDonald, Blues Creek, Kenneth Michael. All are spoken of highly.

Kmg is ken s kits. Highly recommended. His forum is acoustic guitar construction forum if you Google. Help and support by far the best of any product or service I have bought in my life.

Hi Doug, I'm in the center of Canada in Toronto... ( bad joke). Thanks for the offer. I thinks I have some googling to do. How did everyone's first build go?

My first build, a kit, went fairly (expectedly) bad. I eventually got it functional. I'm glad I didn't have to deal with bending, neck joint routing,neck shaping, etc. I would never have finished. This may not sound very encouraging, but I learned a lot. And fairly cheaply too.

My first build was a "from scratch" guitar, following the Cumpiano steel string instructions. I actually did build the neck joint in the book, which is why I am sure the newer method is better. LOL! I varied from the instructions a little; I bought a truss rod instead of building one, and I finished with shellac instead of nitro.

It took me longer than I expected; it cost me more money in materials and tools than I expected; and it was more work than I expected. But it came out OK (I still have that guitar, and it is a good guitar, despite it's flaws). I caught the bug, and while I am still learning, I am building much nicer guitars now, thanks to that experience.

I have eight books on acoustic guitar construction, including Cumpiano's, and without any doubt, the best is Jonathan Kinkead's "Build your own acoustic guitar". It shows every step with a clear colour photograph.
http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/1 ... tic+guitar

I'm expecting many challenges with this, which us ok. If it was easy everyone would do it! The book looks intriguing whiskywill, may order tonight.