Building a small Travel Guitar

[cactus bum]

This posting can also be found on the MIMF Forum.

I never properly introduced myself to this forum. I am 61 years old and have played with fine furniture building here in Tucson Arizona as a hobbyist for decades. I have a pretty complete wood shop. I am fortunate to have a very good friend who was in the exotic hardwood business and have acquired some very nicely figured exotic hardwoods, some of which may be suitable for sides and bottoms for guitars. More on this later.

My first question is about books. I want to build a steel string acoustic guitar for sure. My wife is making an order to Amazon this week and I can piggy-back on her free shipping so I thought I would buy a guitar building book or two. The options I am interested in are; Build your own Acoustic Guitar by Kinkead, A Guitar Makers Manual by Williams, Step by Step Guitar Making by Willis. The other book is only dealing with building a classical guitar but it is supposed to be a very good book; Classical Guitar Making: A modern approach to Traditional Design by Bogdanovich. Please advise on which ONE book I should buy first. By the way, Campiano’s book is available at my local library and I have read and re-read it.

My second question is about design. I am very much liking the idea of building a travel guitar using the design of the Brunner Guitar of Switzerland. www.Brunner-guitars.com This guitar has a neck that completely detaches and has a pinless bridge. The mechanism that joins the neck and body is brass and could be shop built by me from brass or aluminum with little problem. This guitar is a quality instrument, I guess, and follows some of the more accepted building techniques but also deviates from others. These deviations interest me. The bracing is quite a bit less than say a size 5. The bridge is pinless. Of course where the neck meets the body is Brunner’s own innovative design. Quite a lot of the detail of the Brunner Outdoor Guitar can be seen at the website if you look carefully at. “Flying Topâ€

[Allen]

First off, welcome the forum Michael.

It sounds like you've got enough wood to build several guitars, and most of the woods you listed, we'd all love to add to our stash. There's no problem at all to have a multi piece back. Reasonably common to see narrow wood joined to make a 3 piece back, and now and then I've seen 4 used. Have a look at Dominic's Narra guitar in the "Wants going on in your Shed", to see how he did his 3 piece back.

I don't know anything about Brunner's guitars, but I really like the idea and it really looks like something I will have to try one day.

I'm sure others will chime in here with book recommendations. I don't own any of them.

[joel]

I have Cumpiano's, Kinkeads, and Williams books. I most often refer to Cumpiano's. Kinkeads comes second, and Williams a distant third. I'm only about a quarter of the way through my first, so my experience is limited to say the least. I'd buy Cumpiano's so it's always on hand (although it is a little dated now. But he has some updates on his website.). If you really don't want to buy it, then I'd suggest Kinkeads. Better yet, buy both! The best thing about Kinkeads is the colour pictures. Not nearly as exhaustive as Cumpiano, but still covers all of the major bits.

[Kim]

Welcome to the ANZLF Michael,

I am a novice so will comment on only what I know. Of Burnner Guitars I know nothing other than to say that I like the concept of his brace free top system and will, once I have a few under my belt, probably experiment along those lines myself.

The book? As I see it, you already have the fundamental woodworking and tooling skills down pat given your decades of experience with fine furniture. You have also read Cumpiano/Natelson's book from the library which you can revisit if needed and I would assume you have access to heaps of on-line resources.

For me, your choice of book becomes quite simple. Build your own Acoustic Guitar by Kinkead is a good practical pictorial guide that approaches building from a more modern angle than does Cumpiano/Natelson's work. It is true to say Kinkead's book skips a little detail but nothing that can't be filled in by a little research on-line.

Classical Guitar Making: A modern approach to Traditional Design by Bogdanovich is a good book but as you mentioned it is very focused toward classical construction. Also, some of the methods employed by Bogdanovich, such as laminated sides etc, tend to take the focus away from the basic traditional processes and whilst I am all for this, I would suggest that a first timer should maybe keep things simple at first.

The wood? I would NOT recommend using flat sawn wood for a guitar. Especially if you intend to travel with it. The constant changes in relative humidity as you move from place to place would see it fail quite quickly in my opinion. You would be much better advised to find some well quartered wood, multi piece back is fine, but it must be well quartered to give it a chance to remain stable. You would also more than likely have issues in bending flatsawn sides, if they did not snap, they would probably cup on you.

What ever material you choose to employ, construction will take a good deal of your time if you are to get it right. That kind of investment must surely justify spending a few bucks on a well quarted set of tonewood such as East Indian Rosewood, you could pick up a very good set for under $50.00 from Allied Lutherie and even a Master Grade set will only be around $100.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Kim

[cactus bum]

Thank you all for your recomendations on books. I ordered the Kinkead book. Kim, or anyone, is there any of my flatsawn wood that would maybe survive my travels? Lacewood, cocobolo, ?Any known for their stability when flatsawn? Would the flatsawn wood be suitable for a second non-travel guitar, or am I SOL? Thanks, Michael Pollard

[Dennis Leahy]

Hi Michael, and welcome

The Cocobolo you have is pretty stable stuff, even flatsawn. I would not use any of the other wood you have for backs and sides, but if the flatsawn boards are wide, you may be able to make some very nice laminated necks. To find the values for quartersawn (radial) and flatsawn (tangential) shrinkage values, visit a chart like this one, or this


I'm still a beginner, and just bent some Cocobolo (with great difficulty, I think due to improperly placed and improperly shaped bending cauls), but it did give me a chance to bend some quartersawn Cocobolo followed immediately with some Cocobolo that ranged from quartered to flatsawn within the side pieces. (I had trouble with cracking at the upper bout - another story) but just considering the lower bouts, the quartersawn sides are perfect, and the sides that are partly flatsawn have a rippled surface. (To be fair, I cooked the living shit out of the flatsawn sides with excessively high temperature and maybe too much water, in an attempt to solve the cracking issues. But the fact remains that the quartersawn sides did stay flat.)

You may need to look long and hard for a good source for Mesquite, but I got one perfectly quartersawn set of Arizona Mesquite, so it is out there. You might need to consider a 3 or 4 piece back. The reason I mention Mesquite is not that it has a "sonorous" sound when tapped (it's kind of like Soft Maple in that regard), but it is a local wood for you, and perhaps the world's most stable wood. I think that fact would boost it to the top of a short list of woods to use for a travel guitar. Even flatsawn Mesquite has legendary stability.

Kim's advice (all of it!) is good, but especially his mention of East Indian Rosewood as a wood that is still a bargain, is quite stable, does have a sonorous tap tone, and is almost always pretty well quartersawn - even the "cheap" sets. I'm too much a beginner to confirm or deny this, but the popular lore would indicate that the Indian Rosewood may help to bolster more articulate (less "muddy") bass notes than the softer, less dense Mesquite. That may be significant to you for a smaller-bodied guitar, or it might be very subtle, or it might have no noticeable effect and may be just perpetuating a myth.

Good luck, have fun, and document the build in photos and text.

Dennis

[cactus bum]

Thanks Dennis for your considered reply. I will have to look carefully at my cocobolo and see if I can find a couple of sticks that are somewhat quartered. If not, I am back to looking online for suitable material. I do have some stunning cocobolo for backs. Had not thought of mesquite actually. Flat sawn it can be extraordinarily beautifully figured and colored. Quartered it is not as wonderful though. But, I shall have to consider that now. Stuff has become more dear these days though. There is a mesquite mill not far away. Cheers, Michael