Official Luthiers Forum!

Has anyone ordered/built the kit from stewart mcdonald? What are the pros and cons? I found that it is not much more expensive than buying pieces individually, and I do not want to tackle the neck carving/ dovetail joint yet. It just seems like too much to tackle at first. I've got WW experience and patience, so I should be able to put this kit together. I was just wondering about the quality of parts. Is this good equipment? Is the mohagany they advertise honduras mohagany? It seems like they would state that if it were! Is the Sitka Spruce old growth (25 to 35 grpi)? Thanks in advance for any responses. -Bobby

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"To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top."
— Robert M. Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values)

Hi Bobby - The Stew-Mac dread kit is what started all of this madness for me.....

My experience was that the parts were of very high quality but I can't say what kind of mahogany that they are including with their kits today. You should call Stew-Mac and ask - they are exceptionally decent people to deal with.

The Stew-Mac kit is capable of producing a very nice instrument that others who have published a review of the kit have compared to a $2,000 guitar.

My own experience with the kit was great and I had never built a guitar prior and had no woodworking experience.

In my opinion the Stew-Mac kit shines in two respects, both very important. First Stew-Mac has a unique assembly method that does not require the 1st time builder to purchase or make outside molds or radius dishes. That can help keep costs down and/or speed things up. Next the documentation which is an excellent instruction manual that you can download now for free from Stew-Mac and the instructional video really work well together to demystify how to built this kit.

I hope this helps AND welcome to the OLF!

Hesh,
Thanks for the quick response. Good point on the instructional material and video. That's probably reason enough to go with the kit! I've only done a marginal amount of reading so far on the subject, but I think as with anything, reading a little and then jumping in is going to make what you read later far more retentive. I think maybe I will call them, although I am probably being a little picky about the wood for a 1st timer! Your guitars look great and your posts are very detailed and informative! Thanks, Bobby

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"To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top."
— Robert M. Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values)

In addition to the wealth of information and friendly support you can find here on the OLF, Bill Cory's forum is an excellent resource for kit builders. Here's a link: http://www.kitguitarforum.com

Have fun!

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George :-)

I personally think a kit is a great way to start in particularly if you don't have a fair amount of fine woodworking experience. It will save you from having to buy some specialized equipment like bender or bending iron and other tools just to find out you really don’t want or have the time to follow the craft later down the road. Stewmac’s kits are great kits as are LMI’s. But before you buy let me recommend BluesCreek Guitar’s kits. There is the add bonus of having John’s gracious help bye email or by phone. And his kits are second to none. A link to John’s web site is at the top of the page. Take a look and give John a call. You will not be disappointed.

Thanks for the link to the kit building forum. I'll be checking that out shortly! I've been to the bluescreekguitar website and it's wonderful. I forgot about him having the kits as well. I'll go back and look now that I'm ready to buy one. He does have a lot of information on that site and that probably says a lot about him. I just dropped a few bucks (that's understating it quite a bit) on some tools from stew-mac. I understand what you mean about not knowing what you're really going to like in the future, but I love woodworking and I love music, especially bluegrass, americana, and good old-fashioned rock-n-roll; and I love playing it too...which I'm sure is the case with most of us! I had been telling everybody that I wouldn't attempt an instrument build until I hit my 10 year mark in woodworking, but........................it's not going to work out that way. I figure why wait as long as I'm not wasting precious wood...and money! Anyway, I haven't bought the kit yet, so I'll browse around a bit more and do some more research. Thanks guys.

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"To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top."
— Robert M. Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values)

A second recommendation of John Hall's kits at Blues Creek guitars. He can put together a Martin kit for you (made up of martin reject parts, same as a Martin kit, but John hand selects the parts so you know they will be usable). He will also custom make you a kit from his personal wood stash. This is the route I went and I don't regret it. I'm building a 14 fret 000 with east Indian Rosewood back and side, Carpathian soundboard, mahogany neck, and red spruce braces. You can spec the tuners you want to use, the type bridge and bridge material, binding, etc. First class all the way. And, how much is it worth to have someone you can call or e-mail to ask questions??? Or what if your kindergartner bends your fretwire? Or you mess up your X brace or whatever. John can resolve these issues and not only that, he has rushed to get things out the door so I could have it by the weekend.

And if that isn't enough, I love bluegrass and John customized the brace layout etc. to help get the tone I wanted. I might have built 3 or 4 guitars before figuring out the design ideas he put in my first one.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

I haven't bought a kit before, but I made a fairly large order with LMII and can only recommend them. They sent the goods to me in England within 4 days, perfectly packaged & no fuss. So in terms of spending your money with a good company, you will have to look hard to beat them.