Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey all. This is my first post here. I am gearing up to start building guitars and mandolins. I started off just wanting to buy the very minimum amount of tools that I can get by with, but now I am hooked on hand tools. I've yet to build a single instrument and am itching to get started. I just want to have all the tools in place before I start so that I won't have to wait to go on to the next step. Can anyone recommend a good DVD on building (I'm leaning toward steel string) so that I can get a good feel for what tools I will be needing? Thanks in advance.

First of all, if I waited until I had all the tools in place, I still wouldn't be even close to starting. I'd say give it a go and when you find you need a tool, then think about getting it. I've got too many tools that seemed like a really cool idea, but ended up not ever getting used.

As for DVDs, I like Robbie O'Brien's videos. I used them along with his class. People who used them on their own may chime in with different opinions. But, he knows what he's talking about and I think he does a good job explaining it all. His DVD's are still photos with him narrating, different from his youtube stuff which is also very helpful.

Oh! and Welcome to the OLF. You'll find many people here are valuable resources and ready to share. Good luck on your first guitar.

Mike

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Mike Lindstrom

I plotted out most of my tools and materials up front, so I could combine as much shipping as possible. It took me a while though. I was mostly going by Cumpiano's book for plotting my process. Highly recommend it for the price. SteveSmith has a copy in the swap-a-palooza section. Read everything you can find online too, especially detailed accounts of builds from both first timers and experienced people.

Anyway, here's a list of my most used things:

Tajima Pul-265 saw - particularly great for the neck/headstock scarf joint cut.

Black & Decker dremel-type tool plus StewMac's router base plus the 1/32, 1/16, and 1/8 end mills (with depth ring) from precisebits.com. I would get a 1/64 or smaller as well if I had it to do over. This is one of my favorite things, mainly for routing inlay pockets and cutting inlay pieces from veneers. Works for routing truss rod slots too. I haven't gotten to trying it for binding yet, but I suspect I'll be needing a separate setup for that.

24 inch steel ruler
6 inch square
Block plane, with an extra blade that I cut teeth into for thicknessing plates
Smoothing plane. Mine was $15 from an antique shop, and I'm not sure what size it is but I wish it was a little longer.
Old vise from my dad, otherwise I'd get a Parrot vise
Cam clamps. I have 2 each of 4 inch, 6 inch, and 8 inch reach. Love them.
2 bar clamps
Various C clamps, still need to get a deep reach one for gluing the bridge
Jeweler's saw
Coping saw
Hand drill
Dial indicator, to make a thickness caliper
Hide glue
LMI polyvinyl glue
Elmer's glue-all
Wood rasp
Needle files. I use a half-round and a "knife" shape.
Scrapers. I mostly just use a rectangular one.
Chisels. I have a couple old cheap ones from my dad, they work fine.
X-acto knife. I love their chisel-type blades.
For sharpening, wet/dry sandpapers up to 1500 grit, a piece of plexiglas or something flat to lay them on, and a simple jig I made for holding plane blades.

And some things I either haven't ordered or haven't used yet:
Spokeshave
Bridge pin reamer from Grizzly
3 in 1 fret file, from Grizzly or LMI
Fret slot file from StewMac
Some kind of file for leveling frets
Charcoal starter ($10), 500W dimmer switch ($10), and scrap of exhaust pipe (free) for building a bending iron. I hear router speed controllers work better than dimmer switches though.

That's all I can think of for now. I had a few of those things before I started, but along with materials, it all came out to a little over $1000 to get up and running.
Happy building!

Hey Matt, welcome to the forum.
Just a thought, but do you have a workshop or at least a suitable place to work.
With humidity/temperature control?
Those were the first "tools" I organised, and I never regretted it. Then at least I had somewhere stable to store wood and to organise tools as I started to build.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Hi Matt and welcome to the OLF!

Here is a free-for-download set of dreadn*ught guitar kit instructions from our friends at Stew-Mac. Although I would not purchase every tool that they recommend it's not a bad list for consideration and this is also interesting reading when you are considering building your first guitar: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Kits/Acoustic_Guitar_Kits/Dreadnought_Guitar_Kit.html?tab=Instructions#details

I used a DVD set by Frank Finocchio who was a process engineer for Martin before striking out on his own and teaching and building his own guitars. You can find this rather pricey set at Stew-Mac too I believe.

Robbie O'Brien has an excellent DVD series for builders - highly recommended.

John Mayes also has DVD instruction available although I have never viewed one of John's many folks here seem to like these too.

If you can't get enough and find yourself living and breathing gutiar building Ervin Somogyi's new 2 book set will enlighten you greatly regarding concepts of guitar construction and voicing but it is not a "how to" manual.

Lastly it's easy in guitar building to believe that you need to have every tool, a great shop, more wood, etc before taking the plunge. Some folks have taken a couple of years to build jigs etc before ever building and in a few cases some folks collected tools, built shops, built jigs, and then lost interest before ever building a guitar.... So I too would recommend just getting started and as mentioned above getting your humidity sorted out is a GREAT first step and nice to see someone else conveying to you!!!

Welcome aboard!

Hi Matt,

Welcome to the disease- Uhh I mean hobby of instrument building.

I am still getting my "tool kit" together after 35 years...I'm up to about $75,000. and still going!

I guess if you divide that number into the number of instruments I have built that is around $1200 per instrument-not including wood!!!!


But seriously, You just need some basic tools-you can always buy some serviced parts from a vendor if you don't have certain machines.

Good luck,
Brad

Welcome aboard Matt.

Here are some links for training videos. I hear (as mentioned above) Robbie Obrien's are among the best. But John Mayes, Frank Finnochio, and others offer training videos. If it's not in your budget to buy, you can rent them here; http://smartflix.com/store/category/39/Lutherie Otherwise, Here are a couple of other links; http://www.obrienguitars.com/?page_id=63
http://www.mayesguitars.com/newdvd.html

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

Well, with a name like Stauffer, you should be halfway there.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Welcome Matt, I would just use the videos available on YouTube and the tutorials from this forum if I was starting out, there is everything needed available. Todd Stock, Chris Pawluk and Robbie O'Brian have some good ones on youtube and the price is right. I have the John Maze videos and Benedetto's building a archtop and they are quite good and very entertaining but almost everything they cover can be found on youtube.

Before you start remember that this is quite addictive and can be expensive, especially if the 1st guitar is successful. There is no medication to cure this disease though I for one don't want to be cured.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

Matt-
You've gotten lots of excellent advice.
Living in Alabama, you will need to pay attention to humidity control, though you likely will not have the winter dryness problems that lots of northern builders struggle with.

I haven't seen all the building DVDs out there, but the ones I've seen do presume that you have access to quite a few power tools (tablesaw, bandsaw, etc). If you want to pursue a 'hand-tool' approach, you should probably ask for advice on that front in a separate thread - though Dennis has given you an excellent starting list.
If you are comfortable working from books there are some good ones out there- the older books tend to be more 'hand-tool' oriented but may have some peculiar and outdated ideas about SS building (Spanish heel, no truss rods, etc), so best to double-check on that.

Like others, I'd advise just getting a workspace organized and then plunging in and buying tools as you need them. Looking at some YouTube videos of builders outside of US/Canada will show you what can be done without a lot of expensive tools.

Cheers
John

Two names come to mind which have been an invaluable source of information to me, Chris Pawluk and Robbie O'Brian. Short, sharp, detailed videos which have more information than some 20 minute long videos I have seen. There are others but they are the ones I think of when I'm about to do something and need "Youtube advice." I must have watched them all 3 times before ever starting my first build.

Welcome Mat,

Well regarding getting all the tools in place is a good idea touted by some...to that me say

What me suggest is, get some wood ( don't gotta be expensive or fancy) and just build that sucker,
you will know what tools you need when you need them and they are only a trip to the hardware store or a click way on line same day shipping 24 / 7 whatever you want ceptin Alice. Viza, AMX, Mastercard and Paypal all work. Links to suppliers at the top of this page. We is in the heart of the Industrial complex supplying your fantasy to you ~ what you want when you want it, even if you don't need it, we got it. BUY NOW BUY NOW BUY NOW. Operators sanding buy $.

Mat, bottom line suggestion form the Padma..."just do it."

Now if you are a connoisseur of the finer things in life then the Padma has a limited selection of the finest luthiers tools money can buy, all hand crafted by elves fed only on milk and cookies during the midnight shift. Very rare and of the most exceptional quality for the discerning craftsman...

PM me ... we talk.


peace and carrots

Padma

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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Matt,
You don't need a work bench and lots of tools to start building. When I started, the only tools I had were a 12" drill press, and a coping saw, and a set of japanese chisels. One of the first things I bought was a thickness gauge and radius dishes. I've built 9 instruments over the last 5 years and still do not own a work bench. I do everything on my basement floor and just find creative ways to hold the guitar as needed. I have since purchased a 14" bandsaw and a 6" x 48" belt sander, and a small table saw. There are many specialty tools that I ended up buying that are really worth the money, like the stew-mac Offset Diamand fret filehttp://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_supplies/Shaping_and_crowning/Diamond_Fret_Files/Offset_Diamond_Fret_File.html, tang nippers used when doing bound fretboards, nut files from LMI. I also bought a dremel and the router base and circle cutter attachment for it. That is how I did the rosette on my first. I say, just try to build it with whatever you have, and only buy what you need. Ask questions to the group about which tool worked the best and why it is worth spending extra money if necessary.

As for DVD's, Robbie's dvd's are the best by far because they cover everything including how to make a mold and side bending machine. Best of luck!

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

Welcome Matt!

Lot's of good folks here!

Dave
Stanwood, WA

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God, Family, Carreer

I'm in the same boat Matt-

I just built a basic bench and started picking up some hand tools on e-bay.

I've read two books and have visited every website, forum and video on luthiery I can find.

Last month I picked up some bargain wood from hibdon hardwood and the OLF SJ plans from stew-mac. It looks like hibdon has a similar luthier's special this month. Now that I have some wood in the house and a full size plan to work from the itch to build is approaching unbearable.

Good luck to you Matt.

I've been reading this forum for the past 6 months or so. Thanks to the regular contributors for wealth of knowledge your share everyday.

Ron

Welcome to the madness!

Padma makes a good point. You can spend a whole lot of money on tools without needing many of them. Getting started is the most important thing - you'll soon figure out what you need.

However, looking at DennisK's list - there's nothing on that list that I would really do without. I think it's prudent to start with a coping saw, for example, rather than spending $500 - $1,000 on a bandsaw.... you can do that on #2 if you want.

I'd add one thing to the list, come to think of it - a fretting hammer - no need to get an expensive specialty hammer - Home Depot has a nice two headed hammer - one side plastic the other rubber - the plastic works nicely for frets.

Let us know how it goes!

I too am the " don't wait, start building" camp. Go with what you have. When you come to a roadblock and the only solution is a tool then get the tool. When you get a tool get a good one. Time is money and money is time. If you are under capitalized then take the time and make the tool. Making tools helps build skills. If you can buy the tool instead of making it what you really get is more time along with a nice tool that will save you time over and again. You do not learn much from buying a tool. If you buy a tool somewhere down the line and find you do not use it, sell it here in the classified section. It is like tool remorse insurance!

Welcome, it is even more fun than it looks,

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