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Alright, I'm assembling tools needed to build and I have some questions. Been on a roll here lately with the noob questions. I've decided to try to build a J200 body style and make a guitar shaped object in this manner.

So keep in mind that I am working in a very small apartment (with a wife) so I'm trying to find the most effecient methods for things and ways to keep things clean (within reason).

Questions:
Tapering the sides/back, Radiusing the top. This is something I'll be honest I've not understood very well at all. What do I gain from doing this? And is there a way to do it without sanding? (I live in a very small apartment, sanding creates strife with the wife) Again any knowledge in this area is appreciated.

Rosettes. I have no clue how to cut a rosette, I've considered just a single line or just doing soundhole binding on my first. Any suggestions for an accurate jig/method to do this? I recall seeing a D'Aquisto once that had no rosette whatsoever so I'm not opposed to just leaving it plain.

Soundhole. What is your preferred method to accurately cut the soundhole on a standard acoustic? Again this is something I don't know anything about so any knowledge is helpful.

Apologies for 20 questions at a time, just eager to learn.

Here's a tool that may help. It's quiet, dustless and can be made out of scrap to cut rosettes or the soundhole. For minimal sanding on tapering sides I would recommend you have plans that you can reproduce and cut out the side profile from a paper template and cut to nearly the exact size without a lot of sanding. Remember, you can always sand or cut wood away from your workpiece but it's a lot tougher to add it back.

Dan,
If you do not have the Cumpiano book, it’s well worth getting.
It goes into a lot of detail.
The philosophy is geared towards using cutting tools and minimal sanding.
Dan

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I have that book in the mail on the way to me, just hasn't arrived yet. Thanks for mentioning it though, that gives me alot of confidence as to what advice it has.

Surveyor, nice little tool, thank you for sharing that

Amen. This is the book you want to follow if you are not going to use a lot of stationary power tools.

Regarding your questions:

1. Tapering and domed plates. These are two questions. You taper body depth from butt end to the neck end because that’s what has been the tradition for steel string guitars. You can make the back and top parallel if you want; it’s just not what most steel strings have. Doming the plates is a much more interesting question. The most coherent reason for doing it is that, as the plates react to relative humidity changes throughout the year, the guitar is less adversely affected by those changes if the plates started out domed. If they started out flat, there can be some adverse effects, the most serious of which is a cracked top from the guitar drying out in low relative humidity. There are side effects to doming. A domed top is inherently more resistant to deflection than a flat top, so it can be built lighter than a flat top to get the same resistance to deflection, which many folks use as their measure of how responsive the guitar will be. I’m painting with broad strokes, but these are the ideas behind doming of the plates. Cumpiano will guide you on the doming and the tapering.

2. Rosettes. You can buy them ready made and just install them, or you can buy the component parts and make one. For a J200, I think you just need purfling lines. That’s not hard. Cumpiano can be a great guide. Don’t try to build a classical rosette on your first guitar. That’s a LOT of detail work.

3. Soundhole. You just use the same tool that you used to cut the channel(s) for the rosette. Cumpiano will guide you.

A crude version of the tool that Mike is showing is a popsicle stick with a nail placed at one end and put through the center point of the soundhole location and then an Exacto blade pushed through at the distance you want the edges of the soundhole and rosette to be from the center point (nail location)
A block plane can help you profile your sides without making a lot of dust.

So, looking back at your original post about being in a small apartment, I have a few suggestions:

1. You really should wait until you receive the Cumpiano book before you do anything else. Devour that book, beginning to end, before you buy more tools or do any physical work on the guitar. Remember that there is an online update to his book that recommends an easier neck joint than what the book outlines. After reading everything, then start up with the buying.

2. Consider joining a woodworking club, if one is nearby. That will give you access to large tools when you need them.

3. The downside of working with hand tools is that you need skills. Is your hand planing up to the tasks at hand?

4. Can you sand outside to keep dust out of the apartment?

5. Consider investing in a Workmate, since you don’t have a dedicated workbench with vises.

Good luck!

Regarding radiusing the top, some people build very successfully using a cylindrical top and back rather than a spherical radius.
Works pretty good.

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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.

I would think seriously about a kit. A lot of the parts machining requiring speciality tools is done for you but still very challenging. They all come with a good instruction DVD or book (except maybe Martin-are they still using that old book?).

You still have to do the really important and difficult stuff that makes your project an actual playable musical instrument. Soundboard voicing, neck set, fretboard leveling and fretting, bridge position and intonation, making nuts and saddles, and final setup etc.

Blues Creek, StewMac, LMI, Martin all have great offerings. Add the Cumpiano book and off you go.

Much more apartment friendly.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I agree with Terence. I did not start with a kit, but I did not have the restriction of working in a small apartment.

I think you can start your building adventure (i.e., the first of several or many guitars) with a kit and do well. I also think you can start with unworked materials and a good guidebook (like the Cumpiano book) and do well at building the precise guitar outlined in the guidebook, but it is more challenging. It is even more challenging to start with unworked materials, try to follow a guidebook but adjust the guidebook to deal with the fact that you are building something different from what the guidebook outlines. To do all that, plus live with the restrictions of working in a small apartment, is going to be pretty darn challenging.

There are a lot of things that those of us with a well-outfitted shop tend to take for granted. "Just put together a jig for that." With what tools? If you don't have access to a bandsaw, a drill press, and a way to thickness wood, it can be hard to get certain things done.

Now, there is no question people can build a guitar in a kitchen. But there are going to be hurdles. I would read Cumpiano thoroughly to get a better sense of all of the woodworking that needs to happen in this endeavor. Then you can assess how to go about it.

Lots of great advice thank you gentlemen.

Some things I should mention since it's relevant.

My day job is doing guitar/stringed instrument repair so things like setting the neck/bridge making/setups are not going to be an issue.

Tooling: I already make furniture in the apartment so I have tooling like planes/chisels/vises and such. I can definitely sand outside if needed. There is a luthier's group that is near me that I'm definitely going to join. I have no power tools but I have a decent enough kit that I can probably make a simple solution to a challenge is need be.

Kits: At first I was strongly considering one, but then I realized that certain parts I can purchase pre-cut (LMII necks are a good example) that will save me alot of headache. Alot of the parts I am going to purchase with some work done to them like sanding to thickness etc... So basically when it comes down to it, some parts will be ordered with some work already done to them to save some time and effort. The body shape I want to make doesn't have much going for it in terms of kits that are available. So it'll probably come out as a "self assembled" kit of sorts if that makes sense.

Don, with regards to hurdles you are exactly right. I already deal with them on a daily basis with my furniture building. Just have to figure things out. Thankfully the wife is very understanding provided that there are no "wood chips" all over the carpet when I'm done working. Nothing a vacuum can't fix.