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I finished my first guitar - a classical guitar based on the John Bogdanovich plans & DVD, modified to include a cutaway. I started construction in about March 2012 and finished June 01, 2013. I have no idea how many hours I spent - probably around 200 hours plus another 200 hours looking up stuff on the Internet.

The guitar is loud with very clear trebles and nice deep bass. Lots of sustain and sympathetic vibrations between the strings. My guitar instructor tried it out and made a recording of one of his compositions using the guitar last week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uf_t4uk1vs&feature=player_embedded

Italian red spruce top (sourced on a business trip to Hearne Hardwood in Pennsylvania).
East Indian rosewood & yellow cedar sides.
EIR back and bridge.
Curly mahogany binding.
Spanish cedar neck.
Ebony fingerboard.
Maple burl in rosette.
Gotoh premium tuners.
Shellac and Mohawk nitrocellulose lacquer finish.

I posted numerous construction photos here if you care to look: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150707942520772.422729.569885771&type=1&l=63e80d3519

The hardest part of the construction was bending the binding strips (with side purfling) for the cutaway. I broke or had kinks in about 8 binding strips before I got it right. I wouldn't recommend a cutaway on a builder's first guitar unless they only plan to build one guitar in their life. I will also avoid using curly mahogany for binding a cutaway - too fragile at the thickness you need to achieve the bend.

The most stressful part of the construction was routing the binding channels. I still have the shakes from that.

The rosette looks great. I thought that would be difficult, but it turned out to be relatively easy except it consumed about a million dollars worth of veneer. Using the Bogdanovich method you make enough herringbone to complete numerous guitars.

I have a pretty well set-up shop, but I still spent a small fortune on wood and specialty items. The biggest unplanned cost was when I bought a heating blanket and controller after I had so much trouble bending the binding on a hot iron. For the most part I avoided buying unnecessary specialty tools, but did get sucked into a few that, in hindsight, were not necessary. I ran out of veneer a couple of times and could not find a local source, so that got expensive.
I thought the Bogdanovich book and DVD were very good. There were a few mistakes and inconsistencies, but overall the instructions were top notch. I had a few questions and John was kind enough to answer them for me.

Now my poor old Taylor DN4 steel string, which I used to love, sits unused and lonely in the corner...

Wow, Steven....anyone could be proud of that guitar, even if they had built many! You and many other newbies on this site are definitely setting an amazing standard. Congratulations!!!!

Wow. Incredible work. I take it you have a background in woodworking. Beautiful guitar.

Hubba, hubba!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I'd say I'm a pretty good amateur woodworker so long as I can work slowly and methodically. I'd starve to death if I was a professional woodworker. I came into this guitar project with advanced hand tool skills.

Outstanding

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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.

Sell the Taylor and buy more wood you have an obvious talent for this kind of work.

Spectacular!

Beautiful job! Great looking guitar!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Wow. Very impressive and beautiful choice of woods, trim and finish.

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Thank You and Best To All

+1. Get rid of the Taylor and build more. That really is a beautiful guitar.

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

Steven,
A beautiful guitar. The finish looks flawless, and despite the trials you mentioned, that binding job is great!

Awesome! I'm inspired.

Very nice job! What a beautiful instrument; one to be proud of. Great choice of woods and the binding contrasts perfectly with the IRW. If that is your first rosette.. my hat is off to you; beautiful work!

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Peter

Thanks everyone, building a guitar has been the most satisfying project that I've done to date. I'm sure there will be another in the pipeline after I finish a set of Windor chairs.

Steven

Very nice and good wood choices.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Beautiful work! Very nice.

At first I thought you did a bolt on neck until I looked at your facebook photos. Does the book show to run the back over the neck heel or did you just decide to drop the heel a bit?

Thanks for sharing

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John Ressler

I think Bogdanovich leaves a small reveal on his guitars.

I decided to drop the heel cap a bit more that he does so that I could put coloured veneer under the heel cap aligned with the side purfling.

I prefer the appearance of a heel cap with a reveal rather than a heel cap flush with the back.

First guitar? Very nice!

Wow that's AWESOME!

Holy $#*!. That is some impressive stuff Steven. I am a perfectionist in my woodworking but you are probably topping out in that category. I'm working on my first with a background in WW as a hobby with an emphasis on hand tools, but I may just hang it all up after seeing your build. But seriously, that is one of the nicest I've seen and def the nicest first guitar.

Gorgeous!! What style bridge is that? I haven't seen one like that before

It's a "12 hole bridge." I like it a lot. If you want you can tie the strings just like a standard 6 hole bridge, with the loops, or you can use the extra 6 holes to give the strings a wrap around the bridge. Very easy to tie off.

Since I don't have a good photo of mine, here's some examples on google:

http://www.google.ca/search?aq=&hl=en&rlz=1T4SNNT_en___CA353&q=12+hole+bridge&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=IlStUf-1DIqFiAKGs4GwDw&biw=1600&bih=714&sei=J1StUf28N6GEiAKJgYGYCg

All the superlatives have already been written, so I'll just say "what they said". Makes me want to pick it up and just hold it.

What an outstanding instrument! Congratulations!

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http://www.booneguitars.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-Boone-guitar-builder/488208541257210