Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey everyone...  I am going to attempt to build my first guitar and would like to get some recommendations for which kit out there on the market would be my best bet.  Dreadnaught or OM seems to be the most popular.  I am pretty handy with tools and have nearly all of the normal shop tools.  I do lack some of the specialty guitar building tools i see in the catalogs but will get what i need.

I know some of the luthier catalogs sponser this site, but i'm hoping to get some unbiased advice.  I see a couple kits come with DVD's which i assume would be helpful.

Anyway....any advice or recommendations I can get would be great.  Thanks.

Brian

Brian welcome to the OLF.On my first build , my wife bought me an un-serviced kit from LMI.If you ask me the Robbie O`Brien video is priceless.Also the quality of materials from LMI is exceptional.
                        James

_________________
James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

Brian,
Welcome to the OLF! I'm sure you'll find many opinions on this subject. I've never built a true "kit" guitar, but it really depends on what you want in a kit. Do you want to try to build everything, like from scratch? If so, then the unserviced LMI kit is the way to go. It comes with Robert O'Brien's DVD which will get you through the process easily. If you want a preserviced kit with bent sides and precarved neck, and most of the hard stuff done for you, then Stew-mac or even John at Bluescreekguitars.com is the place to go. You should also check out the kitguitarforum.com. Bill Cory just wrote on book on how to build a guitar from a kit, and it includes reviews of all the major kits. Best of luck and ask lots of questions!
Tracy

_________________
Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

Hi Brian and welcome to the OLF!

I started with a Stew-mac kit which was excellent in all respects.

John Hall of Blues Creek, link above, offers excellent kits too and will customize the kit to your choices of wood.  He is also an excellent source for support while building.  In addition, many of the specialty things that many of us use come from John too.  These include molds, bending machines, jigs for routing the binding channels, and much more.

LMI kits are great too and come with Robbie O'Brien's excellent building DVD.  I would recommend this DVD regardless of which kit you choose.

Martin's Guitar Maker's Connection also offers kits.  My one beef regarding these kits for first time builders is that the instructional material sucks.........  It is more of a pamphlet then anything else and very general in nature.

Great to see you here and you will find lots of help available to you from the membership as well.

I'd like to vote for Blues Creek, but the toss in of the Robbie O'Brien DVD by LMI is the tipping point for me. Either one of these sources gives you lots of room to customize the kit.

As Hesh said, stay away from the Martin kits. Nothing very useful in their instruction pamphlet.

Jim

_________________
Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

I'd put in another vote for John at Blues Creek.  He can put together pretty much anything you want and he is very generous with his time if you have questions during construction.

_________________
Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

Hi Brian,

I just finished my first.  It was a Stew Mac dread kit.  Here's my two cents...  Unless you're accomplished at bending or have access to someone who is, I think I'd go with a serviced kit (pre-bent sides, and everything close to final thickness).  The other reason you might go with a serviced kit is that it will allow you to build up on jigs and tools at a more reasonable pace.  Specialty tools and supplies can run into the hundreds before you even think about sanding setups, bending jigs, heating blankets and some of the other things that I now have on my list, but didn't have to acquire to get my feet wet this first time.  The two things I think I should have had for this guitar were a radius dish matching the radius of the back and a body mold.  It turned out fine for a first guitar (looks and sounds like a guitar so far), but the contour on the back isn't perfect and I think not using a sanding dish is the biggest reason.

_________________
Stuart Brunker

Hello Brian,

My first kit was from John Hall at Blues Creek Guitars  and I could not have been more pleased!  He is very generous with his time and advice no matter how simple your questions may be. 

Also, when you become hopelessly addicted to building guitars, and you will , he has all the essential tools and raw materials to get you going.

Welcome to the OLF and Good Luck!

Ray

I also recommend either Stewmac or John Hall.  You might want to check with Ken at KMG Guitars for his success kits.  The kits include all the parts to build a guitar, and also some of the jigging needed to build such as  the body mold, a router binding attachment, and some other things.  His instructions are on his site so you can  preview them and they look to be even more complete than  the stewmac instructions.  Ken hangs out at Bill Cory's site  www.kitguitarforum.com so he can answer any questions you have.