# 1st acoustic guitar build



## difalkner (Nov 27, 2011)

Ok, I've mentioned this many times over the last couple of years and it's finally to a point where I can post photos. Over the last 30 years or so I have replaced tops, backs, done fret jobs, inlay, glued braces and lining, refinished, made bridges, saddles, and nuts, replaced tuners, and all kinds of repairs, etc. but this is the first guitar I've built from scratch. 

I cut all the wood for this including resawing the back/sides/top, cutting the binding and bracing from lumber or billets, etc. Along the way I've designed and built my own modular cantilever side bending fixture that will accommodate sizes from Jumbo down to 0, possibly smaller like a Ukulele. I'll post photos of the side bending fixture later and also built all the forms, fixtures, templates, and jigs for the build. I started the build a couple of years ago just working an hour in the evening, sometimes two, and some on weekends, but I put it aside and didn't touch it for about 8 months.

I'll tell you ahead of time that it sounds good, is bright, has great sustain, and plays very easily with good action. But it may be a while before I make a video of it being played.

Back and sides - Honduras Mahogany 
Top and bracing - Sitka Spruce 
Neck - African Mahogany with Maple and Honduras Mahogany center pieces 
Headstock, rosette, arm bevel, heel cap, and tail wedge - Walnut burl
Headstock inlay - Zebrawood
Fingerboard, bridge - East Indian Rosewood
Binding, purfling - Zebrawood and Maple
Sound port lining - Macassar Ebony
Solid lining - Honduras Mahogany
Side braces - Honduras Mahogany
Finish - Shellac (French polish), measured just over 1 mil at the bridge

The neck is bolted on and I devised a way for it to be completely removable. It can go from tuned to pitch to neck off in about 5 minutes. In the week that the guitar has been tuned to pitch it is holding its tuning as good as my other guitars. The intonation still needs some minor tweaking but I'll play it a while before working on it again. 

Assuming I like it enough to play in church I'll install a K&K Pure Mini pickup. If I decide to just play it at home and with friends I'll save the pickup for a future guitar.

In the meantime, here are a few photos of the build and some of the finished guitar. 
Back bracing with Padauk glue strip - 








Top bracing - 








Gluing the back in place - 








Finished guitar. I didn't want a super high gloss finish but rather decided to do an old world vintage patina. Nothing against the super high gloss finishes but I have 5 guitars with high gloss finish and wanted this one to be different. Now that I've done it this way I like it even better than I thought I would. 
















































So feel free to comment, ask questions, critique. I have about 1,500 photos of the build and good documentation but these few photos tell the story just fine, I think, so I'll spare you the copious extras.

Enjoy!
David


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## hawkeye10 (Feb 18, 2015)

David, I can't say but one thing and that is (WOW). I never knew you were that good. I know you do YT so play us a tune.

I do have one question. I have never seen a guitar with a hole in the side so what is up with that?


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## difalkner (Nov 27, 2011)

Thanks, Don! That's a sound port and enables the player to better hear the instrument. Most of the sound is normally projected out of the sound hole and away from the player. But the sound port allows the player to hear without leaning over and further deadening the sound with his/her body (smothering the guitar inhibits vibration which kills sound).

David


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## AmishElectricCo (Jan 3, 2018)

Amazing!

I have no idea what it is, so I'll just call it a dent...I see from your pic description that it's an "arm bezel." What is that for? Just a place to rest your arm?


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## TimPa (Jan 27, 2010)

great attention to detail, great design, interesting purfling! but not near enough build pics!


also, looking forward to your bending jig....


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## difalkner (Nov 27, 2011)

AmishElectricCo said:


> Amazing!
> 
> I have no idea what it is, so I'll just call it a dent...I see from your pic description that it's an "arm bezel." What is that for? Just a place to rest your arm?


It's there to ease the sharp edge when you play for a long time. After 30 minutes or so that edge gets to where it doesn't feel very comfortable. So in 1989 a Luthier named Grit Laskin added an arm bevel for a client and the idea took off. 

I didn't have a guitar with a sound port, Florentine cutaway, or arm bevel so I decided to add all three to this build.

David


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## Kerrys (May 2, 2016)

Beautiful work. How does it sound? I know nothing about guitars but that appears to be a parlor or maybe a jumbo. I would guess it has a rich sound.


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## difalkner (Nov 27, 2011)

Thanks, Kerry! It's a Grand Auditorium so it's about the same size as a Dreadnought or D-28 Martin except the waist tucks in a bit more and the body is about 3/4" shallower top to back. The shape is as you say, like a Jumbo, but a little smaller but it's larger than a Parlor. 

It has a very balanced sound string to string and is very bright. I'll do a video in a few days and post that. I'm trying to get a friend to play for the video but he's reluctant to get in front of a mic, though he is far better than me, so it might be me plunking away.

David


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## Ron_J (Sep 22, 2014)

That's beautiful! A true piece of art.


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## Brian72 (Jun 10, 2018)

Beautiful! Would love to see more pics of the build!!

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## Sicle Stix (Sep 8, 2018)

difalkner said:


> Ok, I've mentioned this many times over the last couple of years and it's finally to a point where I can post photos. Over the last 30 years or so I have replaced tops, backs, done fret jobs, inlay, glued braces and lining, refinished, made bridges, saddles, and nuts, replaced tuners, and all kinds of repairs, etc. but this is the first guitar I've built from scratch.
> 
> I cut all the wood for this including resawing the back/sides/top, cutting the binding and bracing from lumber or billets, etc. Along the way I've designed and built my own modular cantilever side bending fixture that will accommodate sizes from Jumbo down to 0, possibly smaller like a Ukulele. I'll post photos of the side bending fixture later and also built all the forms, fixtures, templates, and jigs for the build. I started the build a couple of years ago just working an hour in the evening, sometimes two, and some on weekends, but I put it aside and didn't touch it for about 8 months.
> 
> ...


Beautiful guitar. I play guitar myself and always love seeing custom built guitars.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*I just discovered this guitar player*

Brent Mason is just about the most "Awarded" guitar picker in Nashville. His fingers are flyin' in this number in honor of Jerry Reed. I don't mean to hijack this thread in any way, just to share this amazing talent. I'm a novice guitar picker myself and built my first guitar neck to put on a classical body when I was poor and just 16 years old. 


If this doesn't fit here David, feel free to move it and start a new thread!

Enjoy:


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## Pineknot_86 (Feb 19, 2016)

Elegant! Building a guitar from scratch? Surely, you aren't stringing us along? :vs_laugh:


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## difalkner (Nov 27, 2011)

Pineknot_86 said:


> Elegant! Building a guitar from scratch? Surely, you aren't stringing us along? :vs_laugh:


Thanks! No stringing along though I didn't grow the trees for the wood. I just assembled pieces that I cut off the lumber. Our Pastor played it and said he was impressed. I told him not to be; I was trying to build a rocking chair and got off track somewhere... :wink:

David


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## difalkner (Nov 27, 2011)

woodnthings said:


> Brent Mason is just about the most "Awarded" guitar picker in Nashville. His fingers are flyin' in this number in honor of Jerry Reed. I don't mean to hijack this thread in any way, just to share this amazing talent. I'm a novice guitar picker myself and built my first guitar neck to put on a classical body when I was poor and just 16 years old.
> 
> If this doesn't fit here David, feel free to move it and start a new thread!
> 
> ...


Excellent picking! Did you notice when Kerry Marx dropped his pick on his lead run that Brent Mason jumped right in without missing a beat and then handed it back off to Kerry? That's cool stuff! And I love anything with Tommy Emmanuel. Richard Smith is an incredible picker, too. Thanks for posting this.

David


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## GROOVY (Apr 27, 2008)

Amazing truly ,,, how long to build?


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## difalkner (Nov 27, 2011)

GROOVY said:


> Amazing truly ,,, how long to build?


Thanks! I took over two years but it sat for 8 months without ever touching it. And at least half the time was building the side bending fixture, radius sanding blocks and dishes, other forms, templates, jigs, and fixtures. If I were to guess at the number of hours on the guitar itself I'd have to say around 200, give or take 15-20. There were times when I would work 2-3 hours every night for 4-5 days on a fixture and then using the fixture took 10 minutes for the intended task. But on the next guitar the fixtures and such are built so it shouldn't take nearly as long. That's the plan, anyway! :nerd2:

David


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Yah, that was cool!*



difalkner said:


> Excellent picking! Did you notice when Kerry Marx dropped his pick on his lead run that Brent Mason jumped right in without missing a beat and then handed it back off to Kerry? That's cool stuff! And I love anything with Tommy Emmanuel. Richard Smith is an incredible picker, too. Thanks for posting this.
> 
> David


I couldn't tell exactly what happened, I thought he had stepped on the audio cord and it came unplugged. I can't believe l listened to Doc Watson and Chet Atkins for all these years and just discovered Brent Mason a month ago. My other two favorites of his are Alabama Jubilee and Eastbound and down, another Jerry Reed tune. I've probably heard all 3 of them about 50 times each so far .... Vince Gill is another favorite. All real music is played with stringed instruments .... just sayin' :wink:


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## WeebyWoodWorker (Jun 11, 2017)

One of these days I'll see about making a guitar just for the heck of it. I don't play guitar though so I would have much of a use for it. 



-T


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## awsum55 (Aug 28, 2018)

Beautiful guitar with some features I've never seen before. I went to school with a guy that builds guitars out in CA (Carbonaro Guitars) and I know from seeing his posts how much work goes into building one.

Also that was a fun video with all the band members having a chance to show their stuff. Thanks for posting that, and for me it added to the thread and didn't take away from the talent shown on this build.


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## CaptainJesse (Dec 30, 2018)

Man that's a nice looking guitar. You are talented. Maybe one day I can do that. Im in SE Louisiana I would love to be able to build a guitar for my brother. He was inspired to play by hearing Chet Atkins & Doyle *****. Now hes an amazing guitar picker and leads praise & worship at our dads church. Keep up the good work. I really like the scripture reference.


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## phaelax (Dec 24, 2018)

I've been wanting to build a solid body electric for as long as I can remember. In highschool, I once had plans to start a guitar company with a buddy of mine but then the internet kicked off and I went the way of IT for a living. My designs were more radical though, something that'd probably with in with BC Rich.

As for acoustics, I have several but no clue how to make one. Is there any specific reason you used padauk for that back brace?


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## difalkner (Nov 27, 2011)

CaptainJesse said:


> Man that's a nice looking guitar. You are talented. Maybe one day I can do that. Im in SE Louisiana I would love to be able to build a guitar for my brother. He was inspired to play by hearing Chet Atkins & Doyle *****. Now hes an amazing guitar picker and leads praise & worship at our dads church. Keep up the good work. I really like the scripture reference.


Thank you! It was a fun build and I really need to move on to the next build which I've started but nowhere close to finishing. I am a Chet and DD fan, as well. I've seen Doyle twice in small settings and he's a really nice guy, easy to talk to, and an incredible guitar player.



phaelax said:


> I've been wanting to build a solid body electric for as long as I can remember. In highschool, I once had plans to start a guitar company with a buddy of mine but then the internet kicked off and I went the way of IT for a living. My designs were more radical though, something that'd probably with in with BC Rich.
> 
> As for acoustics, I have several but no clue how to make one. Is there any specific reason you used padauk for that back brace?


One of these days I may build a solid body electric although I don't play electric. I just want to build one and a solid body bass...

I'd love to tell you there was a solid acoustic or structural reasoning behind using Padauk on the back strip, but the fact is that I like Padauk so I used it where it could be seen.  

David


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## s7horton (Jun 9, 2012)

It looks amazing. I’d love to build an acoustic guitar. Not knowing how to play one I feel like might put me behind the 8 ball, though.


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## difalkner (Nov 27, 2011)

Thanks, Seth! I'm with you on not being able to play the instrument - on my bucket list is a violin/fiddle. I started learning to play about 40 years ago but gave it up and stuck with guitar. But I still want to build a fiddle anyway. My daughter plays a little and our Pastor's daughter is good, plays with us on our Praise Team, so I can get some good input.

My 'instrument' bucket list is long - fiddle, mandolin, banjo, electric guitar, electric bass, acoustic bass, and dozens of acoustic guitars. Looks I need to *REALLY *get busy!  

David


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## furnacefighter15 (Jun 21, 2020)

Impressive

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## homestd (Aug 24, 2018)

Good job David! I made my living beating on the things until I retired in 1989, but I never saw one with a hole in the side! It would be interesting to drive it around the block and check out that hole. LOL


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## difalkner (Nov 27, 2011)

homestd said:


> Good job David! I made my living beating on the things until I retired in 1989, but I never saw one with a hole in the side! It would be interesting to drive it around the block and check out that hole. LOL


Thank you! My best friend is a very good guitar player but is more of a couch player - traditional small bodied 0 and 00 guitars fingerpicked quietly. When I put the sound port in this guitar he thought it was not only a waste but a travesty, as well. Then I gave it to him for a couple of days. When he gave it back he had done a 180° and thought that not only was the sound port a good idea but he also now liked the arm bevel and Florentine cutaway. 😁

He closed his eyes to play and had his wife cover and uncover the sound port without his knowledge and he said it makes a distinct difference in the sound to the player. I like his assessment.  

David


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