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I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations on acoustic guitar kits. Years ago I bought an LMI kit, it seemed good quality, but I was very overwhelmed by it at the time, and ended up selling it before I even finished it. Several years have gone by, I have a lot more experience now, I've finished and assembled a bunch of electric guitar kits, done a fair bit of maintenance on acoustics, and feel I have a more thorough understanding of the process of building a guitar and I feel ready to take the plunge again. But I don't want to just jump into buying a stew mac kit if there's something else that may be better that flies a little under the radar. I stumbled across Ken Cierpilowski website, but sadly it seems he's passed away. Any advice would be really helpful.

Stew Mac
Martin
John Hall/Blues Creek guitars
LMI

Stew Mac and Martin both sell quality kits - but the selection and services are very limited. You get the kit you get. There are only very few patterns and options...

John Hall and LMI offer far more options for servicing or lack thereof, as well as wood choices and guitar pattern choices.

One big advantage with John Hall is that he is a pro luthier who builds guitars. As such - he can give expert advice on how to get through operations when you get stuck.. And you could even visit him for some hands on help if you need it..

John Hall with blues creek.
I’ve build one. Customer service is outstanding imo.
If I were to do another kit I’d do blues creek again.


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I third the recommendations above. I've built kits from Steve Kovacik, John Hall, and LMII. Kovacik and Hall are both extremely good luthiers who have Martin parts (necks, bridges) available as well as making their own. Most of the time you will get a dovetail neck from them - I would consider bolt on instead.

LMII has their cool little kit wizard that lets you start with a basic kit and substitute wood or binding or the amount of work you want them to do for you. You might decide to have them bend sides to an established shape and maybe to install the rosette if you don't feel ready for those tasks (called a "serviced kit"). Or you can just have them supply a box of wood ("unserviced")

These were three of my early guitars - on the right is the Kovacik 000 - basically a 000-28 clone with some beautiful bearclaw top. The left is an OM 12 string from John Hall - Martin neck, smaller body. John was a big help when I wanted to do abalone inlay on my second guitar. The little one on top is an LMII parlor - their carved neck, otherwise a box of wood.



One of the neat things about building a custom kit like any of these is you can choose the level of work you want to do and you want supplied. As I moved forward with my building I have added tools and taken on more and more of the work to the point now that I scratch build everything.

I'll add that building a kit is not trivial - you still get some of the hardest challenges of guitar making - getting the geometry right, setting the neck, doing the binding and finish.

http://www.guitar-repair.com/kits.htm

http://www.bluescreekguitars.com/shop/

+1 on Freeman

John Hall at Blues Creek will make you whatever kit you want. I started with a small bodied maple/spruce guitar and built it with no fretboard inlays, just binding and no purfling. Understood the principles, then went back for a couple more with inlays, herringbone, fretboard binding, etc. Now on #8 I have been scratch building since #5.

With most of the others, its 000 or dred. With John (and LMI) its whatever you can dream up.

Ed

I know that LMI calls their kits "kits," but I think that's a bit misleading. Even "maxed out" they don't include all the components you need to build a guitar, and the "required" items don't even include plans, much less any instructions. I think of LMI "kits" as a way to buy LMI products at slightly discounted prices. I built my first guitar from one of Ken's "success kits." It was a kit and it was a success. So sad that he's gone.

Ken (and John Hall) are real stand outs in the kit world, but I take issue that the LMI kits don't include all the components. I believe that the only thing missing is the tuners and that is a good thing - you can choose the level of tuner to put on your first guitar. I've built two LMI kits, the parlor above and a classical, both included plans, the classical included instructions on a dvd, and I was able to customize them exactly as I wanted at that point of my building career.





The parlor included Antes's "small concert" plans, the classical included the GAL '37 Hauser plans. Both made absolutely wonderful guitars

Freeman, I'm totally on board with LMI (picked up some fretwire at LMI today). I'm building my fifth guitar now. The majority of the parts for guitars 2 thru 5 were ordered from LMI as "kits," and almost all the components I've gotten from them have been first rate. But if my first "kit" had been an LMI kit, instead of a Ken Cierpilowski Success Kit, I might have ended my guitar building some time ago. I continue to think of LMI kits as a good way to purchase most of the components needed for a build at a slightly reduced price, but I would resist suggesting an LMI "kit" to someone who hadn't ever built a guitar.

I built a Blues Creek Guitar Kit from John Hall, and the materials were outstanding. At that point in my process I was not bending sides or joining the plates. It helped to be able to build the guitar without having to have all of the specialty tools required.

My first kit was a classical LMI kit from their wizard. I like that they made it easy to get the parts you needed with the ability to customise the kit component by component including servicing most of the components. While they call it a kit it is also a way to buy all of the materials needed for a complete scratch build without any serviced components. They will save the kit definition in your account so that you have a record as well. The kit came with a 1 hour Robbie O'Brien DVD that really got me through the build. I separately purchased the Hauser 37 plans. My daughter still has this guitar. I had to build 4 more classical guitars before I got one to sound as good as my first.

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I'm in agreement about LMI, Stewmac and John Hall. Something to think about as well. Is to get Robbie Obrians online guitar course along with the kit.

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https://www.facebook.com/PuraVidaUkuleles/

I'm currently building a StewMac kit. You get all parts needed (except you supply the tuners), a spiral assembly book, a one hour video and excellent service. The wood materials were beautiful, back is joined, and rosette cut. You have the ability to customize, just replace what you don't want. The plastic binding was replaced with tortoise celluloid, plastic end piece and heel cap on neck were replaced with wood, pick guard was replaced with a regulation D-28 tortoise one from Martin.

With any kit you get, expect to not have enough clamps, files, chisels, hand planes, sand paper, spare wood for fixtures, glues, masking tapes speciality tools or experience. Good news- you can acquire these as you go.

I liked the StewMac kit so well, I order two more when the were on sale ( right around Thanksgiving). I suspect that guitar kits are like cars, the first "brand" you get is the one you stick with.

Enjoy the process, especially the experence you will gain! I've put in over a year on mine, and almost done.

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Measure Twice,

Karl B.

I know that I am late to thos thread but I was under the impression that blues creek guitars were martin kits that he went through, swapped put bad parts and re-sold at a slightly higher price point for having taken the "selection" problem out of your hands. (I have no problems with this, its just an observation). If I am right about this I seem to remember it saying somewhere that he may get a D-28 kit for example that has a bad top, and will re-cut it as a 000 or whatever fits so the wood is salvageable and things like that. (Which also seems like a great plan).

Either way, I have not purchased a blues creek guitar kit but have read and seen tons of positive things about them and am considering a purchase myself.

Also! I know a lot of people seem to have issues with stewmac for some reason! Bit I have had nothing but positive experiences with them. One time! I bought a les paul kit that had cracks in the top. They sent me a whole new guitar kit and let me keep the old one. In fact, I didnt even call them to complain about it, I made a mention on a review about a different issue and they reached out to me about it. In other words they went out of their way to FIND ME to make sure I was happy. Also they always answer my questions adequately when I contact them about things. So I am a big stewmac fan to say the least.

Btw sorry for typos! It's difficult to fix things on the phone. I can reed I sware

A quick note about StewMac kits. I just received my very first kit for my very first guitar last week. The prevent were pretty cupped on the ends so I took some pictures and sent an email back to StewMac asking if those cupped ends would glue together ok. Within 24 hours I had received an email back from StewMac with a note indicating they were very sorry about the sides and would be sending a new set out the following day. I think this is really great customer service and hopefully the new set of sides will arrive shortly. The kit arrived with all parts included, a great printed instruction guide, as well as a DVD and for sized plans.

I've bought banjo parts from Stew Mac for several decades. They were one of the only games in town back in the 70's and 80's for banjo makers--and banjo parts were all they were doing back then. Service and quality was always top notch. I built my first banjo from a Stew Mac "Model 99" kit that sold for $99 back in the mid 70's.

When they expanded into guitar parts, etc., I was a bit apprehensive at first that they would be moving out of the banjo part market. And they did to a small degree, but their customer service didn't go downhill a bit. They're not the least expensive source around, but their quality and customer service is consistently good. As girlsdadx3 said, they responded to a possible issue proactively and have committed to make it right. Not a lot of companies like that around I'm afraid. Most that I've dealt with will respond if asked, but few actually reach out to ensure customer satisfaction (and maintaining their reputation).

They sell some nice specialized tools. And I think that although they sometimes get a bad rap on pricing, they have taken what started as a small niche market, expanded it and maintained quality, value and commitment to their customers in the process. A small business success story in the best way I think.

Dave