I suppose it was inevitable: Eventually I would have to make a "real guitar." Well, it happened. Using the classic Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology by William Cumpliano and Jonathan Natelson (as well as leaning heavily on my friend Tom Fay and others for support) I built a guitar. A real guitar with bent sides and X-braced top and dovetailed neck and the whole shebang. I learned a lot, and am now smitten with the process.
All of the material in this instrument came form cast-off pianos, so it is chestnut and spruce, but except for a couple of screw holes on the back of the neck it does not read as being made form anything other than wood. Which flies in the face of what the Instrument Works is meant to be about, but there it is.
So following are a lot of photos of this, the first of what is likely to be at least a few more of these. It is a tenor guitar, of course, because I don't know how to play 6 strings anymore. The body is tiny tiny, closer to a Bari uke than a guitar. This was driven by the available material, though for upcoming instruments that will change. True to form, I am going to build a second model exactly based on this one to work out the kinks, and then move to other bodies and necks. Here are a couple of build photos, followed by a video of playing it at two days old.
And here is how it sounds. Pretty ok!
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