David T. Music And Stuff

Hello Friends and Family,

I receive marketing emails from Stewmac (Stewart MacDonald) from whom I buy much of my luthiery-specific tools and supplies. Occasionally they send a deal that’s too good to pass up. This Dreadnaught Guitar kit that Stewmac calls a “Body-Built Kit” was offered for $99.99! It has good quality woods, the body is already built and the neck is roughly shaped. It would take months of work for me to build the body by hand. All I had to do is assemble and finish shaping the neck to my preferences, add the headstock and heel caps, install the frets, and sand/finish the whole thing before gluing the neck to the body, installing the bridge, tuners, and strap buttons. Then, I strung it up and did a complete setup which included straightening the neck, filing and shaping the frets, filing the nut and bridge, and generally making the guitar play as good as possible.

The process of building the body would take me several months and many hours of work to accomplish. All that is left to do is carve the neck, shape the headstock, and put it all together. It took me about three weeks to build. Once you start the build, there’s actually still a lot of work to do. I’m still designing a Pearl Headstock Inlay for the guitar. I’m just learning how to cut Inlays so I’ll update the pics, soon. I was also finishing Sue, my wife’s ukulele build during the same time. See my last post . . . The Sue-kulele.

What I ended up with is a beautiful Sapelle Body, Spruce Soundboard, Mahogany neck, Rosewood Fingerboard, etc. Just a very good sounding and playing Dreadnought Acoustic guitar. It is lightweight and loud. The tone is comparable to guitars that cost a lot more. A fantastic musical instrument!

The kit arrived quickly and was packed very well. All the parts were there and I found the instructions easy to understand. The term “body-built” means that the body arrives fully built. Here’s what is already done when the kit arrives:

• Joining, thickness-sanding, and profiling the soundboard and back
• Installing the rosette and cutting the soundhole
• Bracing the top and back plates
• Accurately bending the sides
• Building the rim, installing the linings, and getting the body geometry right
• Gluing the top and back plates to the sides
• Installing the body binding and end graft
• Cutting the dovetail mortise
• Rough carving the neck shape
• Precisely cutting the dovetail tenon
• Neck is rough fit to the body, ready for final fitting
• Fingerboard is inlaid and pre-slotted for frets
• Frets are pre-cut and radiused

I’m not sure why Stewmac was selling these guitar kits for so little money. They were sold out within a day, I think. Perhaps they changed their manufacturing process. Or, maybe someone manufactured too many at one time? Stewmac still sells these kits for $499.99, and $349.99 on sale (all the time, I think). I believe the guitar is worth much more considering what the end product is.

Here are some pictures of the build process and finished product:

Enjoy . . .