I’m thinking it would be fun to build a guitar come springtime. There are a number of kit producers (Carvin, Sago, Precision, et al) out there, and I’m sure some are much better than others. Martin gets pretty poor reviews, surprisingly. So I’m hoping that there are dopers who have gone down this road and who can recommend something that doesn’t require a master luthier to put it together. I have woodworking skills and tools, but no stationary equipment such as a band saw or a drill press. I don’t care too much about price, as long as the finished product is good quality. Thanks, all.
I have no experience building a guitar from a kit. I have bought lots of supplies from Stewart MacDonald and have read through their descriptions of their kits. They have what appears to be great support for the kits, including help from Dan Erlewine, a respected restorer.
Yep, Stew-Mac is the way to go. I’ve built several, including the 000 and the dreadnought on this page. Really nice kits, if you’re handy with woodworking tools.
If not, I’d start with an electric kit, probably a telecaster or strat style from Warmoth.
Here’s another electric option for you. I actually started one of their Explorer kits a few years ago, but life intervened & the project is still on hold.
The website recommends about $500 worth of tools, which I hadn’t planned to spend. Are they all necessary? If not, which ones are essential to a good finished product?
Moving over to CS.
Why? I’m asking for opinions for a project, not recipes or music recommendations.
It’s probably a good idea in any case since guitar people in general tend to hang out in CS, IMO.
If we’re discussing acoustics, then I have little to add; the other folks are steering you right. If electric, I built /put together a couple and did a series of threads on one of them here…
I was actually thinking of both. I have an acoustic, but it has a crack in the body near the neck, and I don’t know yet if it’s fatal. From what I’m gathering from internet sites, an electric might be better for a first kit, as they are simpler to assemble and require fewer esoteric tools. Can you link to your threads?
BigShooter has also done some electric guitar project threads, though he tends to approach it from making a guitar body from scratch in his wood shop, then adding a prebuilt neck; he also patinas the guitar hardware in interesting ways.
Chefguy, do check out Warmoth for guitar parts; they make necks and bodies to order, suitable for assembly into whatever you want. If nothing else, it’s fascinating putting together fantasy builds of bodies+necks+etc using their site, even if you never order anything.
Can I ask, what is your goal here? To learn more about guitars by making one? To get a good instrument for less by using a kit? Just plain what-the-hell tinkering fun?
ETA: I see GuitarFetish has kits. I don’t vouch for these, as I’ve never built one, but the prices are pretty darned good, and I’ve bought a guitar and individual guitar pickups from them and been pretty happy with the place. Well, except the acoustic I bought from them, but that purchase taught me their customer service and return policy is top notch. 
But their pickups are outstanding, and half the price of anyone else.
There are kits in various stages of completion available, and you can tailor your early builds to those focusing on specific skills.
The StewMac kits are require fret setting and dressing, so a number of specialty tools are required to do that. There are plenty of kits that start with a fretted neck.
In particular, Martin has a number of decent kits. I helped my BIL build one of these and it turned out quite nice. Didn’t require quite as hefty a tool investment (although he had a decent workshop to start anyway) and the wood quality was fantastic.
But building an electric is a good way to get familiar with many of the issues and particulars of guitar assembly/building, and a good bit simpler. Telecasters tend to be particularly fun to build, as they are fixed bridge, two pup (pickup) and set or bolt neck…not much to them. They are the hot-rods of the DIY world, for sure. Lots of room for tweakery and modification.
Regardless, good luck and check out WordMan’s threads, good stuff.
Here is a thread from someone who built a Les Paul kit from GuitarFetish. It’s a little epic, and most of it is about doing the finish, but quite a bit about gluing the neck properly, lining things up, etc. Midway through the thread, when drying the umpteeth coat of lacquer, the guitar dropped from it’s support and busted off at the headstock. In a Les Paul, this is usually a fatal injury. But the guy fixed it and kept going, and finally had a happy ending with the project, and a very pretty guitar.
Here’s one thread that links to the others. There’s a few. I am no woodworker, just reasonably handy with a few tools. An electric solidbody was a good place for me to focus.
If you build an acoustic from a kit, your biggest problem will likely be clamps. Gluing a guitar requires many of them. When I was considering this I encountered something called a “go bar deck” which fascinated me. I used this idea for some other clamping needs by using a bookshelf and some appropriately sized dowels.
The goal is to try something new and to obtain a result that is functional and attractive. It’s the same reason I take woodworking classes for cabinetry type joinery. I’ve always enjoyed working with wood, but never really had the time to be serious about it.
One site I looked at had a clamp kit that included every clamp needed for building one of their acoustic models. That go bar deck is an interesting concept: simple construction with nearly limitless applications.
Maybe you could start with a simple kit like this mandolin
Just to get you started and to get a feel for the building process of the instruments?
Mandolins and fiddles have a more complex bracing system in general, and might prove more challenging for an initial project. If you’re looking for simple, I’d recommend a tenor uke kit, very similar to a guitar but smaller.
Chefguy, I dug up some of BigShooter’s build threads:
Uno, Dos, Trace. Trace must have hit a problem, as he never completed the thread, but still interesting to see the woodworking.
Good stuff.