Official Luthiers Forum!

Alright. I've been trolling these forums for a while and having wet dreams about building my first guitar and I've finally saved myself enough money to fund my project so I'd like some advice on a few things. First of all, I'm wondering if anyone could recommend some good reading material that would help guide me through the process.

Also, I'm wondering if anyone in this forum has had to deal with some rather cramped conditions while building their guitars and if so, how they overcame them. The reason I ask is because my situation is tough. I don't have a big basement, garage, or shed that I can work from so I'm going to have to get very creative with my use of space in my house. I live with my family in a 3-family house and luckily we own it, so I felt that most likely the best place to set up shop would probably be a combination of my laundry room (which actually happens to be pretty sizable), and my family's karaoke room. Both have decent ventilation and tiled floors, which means easy clean-up after I get something done, but I can't have too much stationary equipment lying around. I have a storage closet to keep my equipment so things have to constantly be stored there whenever possible. I'm currently running ideas through my head as to how best to get this done, but I was just wondering if anyone has had any similar experiences or if anyone can think of the best way for me to navigate this situation.

At any rate, I figure building a guitar completely from scratch probably won't be realistic until I can figure out some viable solution to creating some sort of serious workspace so I'll be working from a serviced kit this time. Hopefully if I can eventually produce something of quality, I'll be able to convince my family to get rid of the karaoke room that they never use and let me set up in there with some more permanent stuff. At any rate, it's not just the space, but I've also been trying to work out how I'll maintain a regular temperature and humidity in my work locations. There are not normally heated rooms and the laundry room is a bit on the dry side while the karaoke room tends to get a bit humid. Any ideas that don't involve any permanent installations at this point?

Once I get a general idea down on how to control my workspace, I'm going to go ahead and order the kit so wish me luck when that happens. I would appreciate any advice, though, to help me speed up the process of planning. Thanks. ^^

Welcome to the forum
As far as reading goes, Cumpianos book and Kinkaids book are quite good.
This place is great for getting started. Most questions you ask will be answered quickly with options.
Also Hesh is the king of building in tight spaces. For years he built in his bathroom!!!!!
I am sure he will chime in.

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Welcome to the forum!

Hesh is definitely your man! He built several guitars in his bathroom, and now builds them in a spare bedroom in his condo. The guy is the cleanest woodworker I have ever seen, and proves that anything can be done when you put your mind to it. The neat thing is that he makes some of the best looking, high quality guitars around also. I hear they sound as good as they look, but I havent got my hands on one yet. (hint hint)

ANyway, there are several guys on here that use tight spaces to build guitars. It can be done!!

again, welcome to the forum!

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Reguards,

Ken H

Awe shucks Ken - thanks!

Hi Michael and a big welcome to ya to the OLF!!!!

In addition to the very fine recommendations that you have received so far I believe that your serviced kit from LMI will come with Robbie O'Brien's excellent instructional DVD. This will take you through the build and the information it contains is up to date and field tested to be excellent info.

When choosing your building area one of the advantages of a smaller space is that it will be easier to control the humidity. My first recommendation for you is to get an accurate hygrometer such as the Caliber III available from Stew-Mac (a sponsor here with a link above) and listed under their link for new products. Your goal is to maintain a relative humidity of between 42 and 48%. This will avoid many potential problems during the building process.

I also agree with my friend Todd that going for a simpler but well executed guitar is an excellent goal. There is an temptation for all of us to encrust our guitars with bling which in and of itself there is nothing wrong with but for single minded guys like me it was distracting and changed the focus from tone and building with the best practices possible.

If you don't know this yet it is entirely possible to build an excellent first guitar that will sound better then anything that you could purchase in the $2,000 range from the major makers.

Something else that I would recommend is to let us know your geographic location and perhaps there will be another member in your area who would be happy to assist you should you need it.

More recently and because of the participation of a very valued member here, Rick Turner, I am convinced that one of the areas that new builders are very weak in is set-up. This was very true to me as well. Perhaps obtain some beater guitars from yard sales, etc. to practice things like fretting, leveling, adjusting the action, etc. before setting up your own first guitar.

Again welcome my friend and do not hesitate to let us know if we may be of service to you.

Hey, thanks for all of the support and advice. I'm here in New York City. More specifically, I live in Woodhaven (Queens County). If anyone around here would be willing to help with my endeavor, I'd be infinitely grateful, of course.

Yes, I've heard some people say that it's easier to manage your environmental conditions in a smaller space and that totally makes sense. Assuming that my relative humidity is out of the ideal zone, what could I do to maintain it at a certain zone at all times? Are there any good humidifiers that will activate automatically when it's too dry and deactivate when it's too humid? Also, is there an ideal temperature to keep your room at as well?

Also, this question is for Hesh. Are you using primarily hand tools when working in a cramped space? What power tools or larger equipment would be required if I wanted to start from scratch instead of a serviced kit? The biggest reason I'm starting out with a serviced kit was simply my lack of space and lack of access to a full shop. But after this project, I would definitely like to try my hand at working just from a piece of wood that hasn't been serviced at all if feasible.

I will definitely go troll the archives a bit for any information that could help me. Thanks for all of the support. ^^

Michael regarding humidifiers I have been using 2 humidifiers from Sears both with digital displays. Although the displays are not accurate in terms of the readings that they provide these units do operate automatically and are accurate to their own sensors. What I mean by this is that once you have a separate accurate hygrometer you can use it to calibrate what the humidifiers should be set at. For example in my shop, where the small humidifier lives, my hygrometers will read 45% which is what I want but in order to maintain that, automatically, I have to set the Sears unit to 60%. When it is above freezing outside (I am in Michigan) the humidifier is set to 55%. Always go by what the hygrometer reads in as much as the displays on the humidifiers are skewed by their proximity to the humidifier itself and the wetness in that area. My other humidifier is for my whole condo and lives in my living room where I have a wall of guitars in racks. Since I humidify my entire place the humidifier in the shop is really a back-up and rarely turns on.

In New York, as in Michigan, you will need to dehumidify as well in the summer. Dehumidifiers are a pain, noisy, you have to empty them unless you have a drain near by, and yet another expense. They also give off heat making your shop hotter in the summer.....

So my shop has a dehumidifier and an humidifier and with their help I can maintain around 45% RH year round. But I will tell you that I am sure sick of schlepping water to the humidifiers or from the dehumidifier......

There are many purists who will build most if not all of their guitars with mostly hand tools. This can be done and was the only way that it was done years ago. Even though I used my master bathroom that was not being used as a bathroom at the time I was able to get the following in there: Work bench, go-bar deck, 2 band saws, table top drill press, buffing arbor, compressor, thickness sander, tool chest, belt sander, and a shop-vac....... It was crowded but I liked it and it worked for me. Oh I forgot I also had a side bender in there too.....

There have been a lot of "show us your shop" threads here in the past so if you want to search the archives you may get some ideas.

As for what is required that is a wide open question because nearly every thing can be done with hand tools too. And you will get as many opinions to this question as there are members. Some things that will serve you well regardless of the school of building that you decide to subscribe to are a good #5 plane, a decent chisel (approx 1/2") and a way to sharpen them, and a band saw, a small one will work for now. My belt sander was of great help to me when I started out too and of course a good shop-vac too. With a drill press you can also thickness wood with a Wagner Power Planer. And you will need to either make or buy a side bending pipe or a bending machine. There certainly are many more but this is a good start.