How To Make A Good Guitar For Beginners And Kids? Image Included

How To Make A Good Guitar For Beginners And Kids? The guitar is a plucked instrument. According to the types of strings, it assumes three names. The acoustic guitar uses steel strings, classical guitars use nylon strings, and electric guitar uses magnetic pickups along with the strings. You can make guitar at home for beginners by adopting the following 18 steps, one after the other, for the acoustic guitar

18 Steps To Make Guitar at Home for Beginners

Step 1: Guidebook and Materials

There are many books in the market that give complete guidelines on DIY homemade guitar for kids. Pick up a reference book titled “Building your Acoustic Guitar: Complete Instructions Full-size Plans” by Jonathan Kinkead. It guides a small guitar. You can get useful photos of materials, methods of assembly, and small plans.

For the top soundboard, you can choose the Western Red Sinker Cedar, and for the backs and sides, you can choose the Claro Walnut. Cedarwood creates a warm sound, and Sinker comes from an old cedar recovered from a river or a lake. Alternatively, you may choose rosewood for both the sides and back and Sitka Spruce for the top.

Step 2: Preparing the thickness

The thickness of the top should be 2.5mm, and that of the bottom needs to bne3m. Use rubber cement adhesive to loin these two pieces and ensure minimum visibility of the glue. You should place the two square and long pieces of wood such as a frame on 2X4’ of MDL of ¾”. 

Then hold fix it with clamps at the place. The glue sets after one day. You may use an 80 grit sandpaper for making the proper thickness of the back and soundboard. Attach the sandpaper on a piece of plywood of 8” x 10” and fasten a handle onto it. 

Place the top and back woods between two wood-clamped blocks to the flat surface. For thinning the wood, push and pull the block, which is sanding. Don’t forget to put a wood piece on one end and an aluminum stick on the other. Trace the half-done guitar on to a cardboard piece. You can transfer it to a 1/8” polycarbonate plastic to utilize it later, like a template.

Step 3: Rosette, Bracing, Back Inlay Strip, and Sound Hole 

Cut a circular hole at the top of the soundboard by using a Black and Decker RTX B. A plan paper for hole comes with the guide book. Lay it over the cedar soundboard, identify the center of the marked hole by persuading a tack into the wood. Drill a pilot hole with a slightly larger diameter for the rosewood, top cedar, and for abalone rosette.

Carve a circle of the inside diameter in scrap, and mark the circle cutter brace arm. Then, amend the diameter outside and all the material coming between the inside diameter and the outside one. Check the fit the inlay brace arm. Repeat the same for the diameter of the soundhole made on the scrap wood. Cover the seam with an embellished strip. 

Put some bracing on the inside and outside of the acoustic guitar to make it thicker. It becomes stiff and generates better sound. While cutting out the bracing from a long, keep the grain longitudinal. Then trace out the pattern of the bracing on the back of the piece meant for the bottom body. Remove the disturbing elements in the glue that may deaden the sound with a mini-drum sander bit.

Step 4: Bending the sides and making the mold

Mold is a fixture to hold the sides, top, and back while joining them with glue. Use two plywood sheets of 24” X 24” sizes and bolt them together with tab extension. You can make the bending sides from plywood pieces of the same sizes by covering the bending surfaces with flashing made of aluminum. Also, add a wood piece with wing-nuts and eye-bolts.

Make a closed box of plywood and make a hole in it. Allow the steam from the hot coffee pot to pass through the hole. After one day of steam heating, place the curved side in the mold and clamp it in. Repeat the same for the second bent side. Once bent, the sides assume the shape of the sides of a guitar.

Lean the side to the required length and join the neck and bottom blocks by glue. Glue together, the trimmed neck block, a maple neck, the block meant for the bottom, and clamp them inside the mold. For tapering, start from the bottom end, move upward to the neck. 

Use hardboard of 1/8” to make a template by gluing tapered spacers on it. And fit the same to the external body. Put some pegs inside the mold. It holds the sides that extend to the top. You should level one end with the template and level the neck end above the templates.

Step 5: Kerfing Tail Piece, Strips and Fitting the Neck

Kerfing is tapered and strips of wood that are glued around inside seams of a guitar the body sides. It increases the strength and stability of the joining areas of the top and back of the guitar. You can take four numbers of 15” strips of Mahogany or Basswood, and soak them in water for a few hours to bring flexibility

Applying Titebond glue, place the strips on one surface of the guitar body. It should protrude for 1mm. Clamp them with clothes and pins after about every ½ inch. After a day, repeat the same for the other side. On the third day, trim the slightly protruded ones. The sides and edges become flat and flush. Put some vertical bracing also.

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Take a neck already carved. Cutaway extra wood from the side panel-A hole is made on wood to make a mortise. Fit onto it, the neck in dry condition. You sand it out a little. Then, mark two positions on the tenon of the neck to make holes. Attach the neck block to the body in the line of the holes.

 Step 6: Tail Piece and Truss Rod

A Truss rod is a steel rod, which is long. Embed it into the neck fixed in the neck with frets placed on it at varying distances. You can choose an adjustable rod like the basic Gibson style. It comes with adjustment nuts. Take a carved peghead. Cut the rod to the required length. It has a cylindrical nut at one end. 

Make a thread with 10-32 taps and dies at the other end. Take the cylindrical nut and put it inside your guitar. It should be on the rarer side of the neck block. The sides meet at the body’s tail end and create a seam. Cover the seam with an inlaid wood strip.

Step 7: Assembling the Body

Lay the body sides on the backside of the soundboard and align its center. Mark the place where the bracing is in contact with the kerfing. Mark the extended bracing and cut it away to fit precisely into the guitar. In case the krefing contacts the bracing, cut away the krefing. To keep the centerline aligned, apply the right quantity of Titebond on to the top of the krefing.

For clamping the backside of the guitar body, mark the outer lines of the body on ¼” plywood. Then allow ½” inner side and cut it. Next, you drill a clearance hole for drywall screws, 2-1/2” long. The holes need to be 2” apart.

Step 8: Binding the Body

Soundboard is dent-proof. So, cut-out a channel along its edge, and then back it up to bind the strips so that there will be no denting. The guitar looks decorative. You can choose maple strips and soak it in water for a night. Apply the right amount of glue on to the channel and hold tightly in along with the tape. In the meantime, excess glues drape off.

Put additional tape to areas look like it needs to be. Having done this on the body, switch on to the frontage.

Step 9: Neck Preparation 

Take three contrasting wood of Maple, mulberry, and KOA and cut away the neck but to the required length. Layout the location of the tuning pegs over the pegheads. Measure the distance of positions of holes from the side of the peg. Then drill small preliminary guiding holes.

To look the neck befitting and flush, remove a little wood with sandpaper of 240 grit. r Then apply two coats of stain, once after the first sanding and the second after the second coat and brushing. After the 2nd coat had dried out, rub it with steel wool. Redo the same while creating the neck. 

Step 10: Peg Head Inlay Draw some 

You can maker Logo or some specifically-named guitars. Draw out and color some and gluing them on to some cheap quality of wood. When dry, sand them to the proto- shape. Put more glue on a rectangular wooden block. Now he inlay has the shape of a star. Trace its outline on the peghead. 

Rub the body as much as you can. Different pieces will be of the same thickness. Hold your sanding box in a vise. By adding Graphite powder to Titebond glue, re-sanding, and re-staining, you will get the finish of steel -wool

Step 11: Fret-board

Cut the fret-board to match the profile of the neck. Lay it on the neck allowing a little area to fit the nut. Then, clamp the neck to it., eyeballing the fret slots. Place the bottom of the fret adjacent to the soundhole in a slightly arch position. Cut out the extra fret going out.

Cut out the extra maple from the side binding. It should be thicker than the fret-board. Mark its thickness on the backside of the fret-board. The glues the maple binding and clamp it to the fret-board. Glue the sides first, then the small curved pieces at the end, near the soundboard. When the glue is set, you should level the binding by using sandpaper. After pressing all of the frets, trim the edges and file them flush

Step 12: Attaching First the fret-board.

First, put the truss rod on the intended slot. Rout a curved junction on one side and fill it with a sealant of silicone. Put a mall bead to avoid vibration. Glue a planned and polished oak strip to redness with the neck surface. Smear some glue on the surface of the neck and some over the soundboard. You are to lay the fret-board there.

After clamping it own, wipe out the extra glue with a paper towel soaked in water.

Step 13: Truss the Rod with Adjuster Cover

Locate the truss’s tension adjustment that is situated on the peghead. You can cut it out from scrap wood by thrashing a shallow channel situated inside the base wood. Its shape will be simple, but remember, it should be a little over-sized. Ensure that the cover lay flat.

Step 14: Pick Guard

Take a scrap of walnut with good grain. Make a paper template and place this paper on top of the guitar to visualize its looks. Bring the thickness of the scrap walnut to 1/6” by sanding. Then trace the paper template’s shape on the wood and cut it out. Sand out the rough edges.

Step 15: Attaching the Bridge

Keep the distance of the bridge from the nut. Make the perfect centering so that string could spread evenly across the fret-board, you can pick up a rosewood fret. Lay it on the soundboard with the saddle in place. Place a braided fishing line from nut to the saddle for checking the action height.

Step: 16: Finishing

Take sandpaper of 1000 grit to soak it overnight in water with a little Murphys oil soap added to it. Sand the top, back, and sides to get and satin finish. After wiping out the water, apply to rub the Turtle wax rubbing compound, by using a cotton rag, then by a wool buffing.

Step 17: Back to Attaching the Bridge

This is the second time you are checking the distance from the nut and allow the compensation by setting the angle. Its distance should be 2mm longer than the scale length of 25 .4cm on the high e-string and 6mm for the low E string

Step 18: Final Steps

Put two coats of Old English Lemon oil on the fret-board and one coat on the bridge. Then rub off the excess oil with a paper towel. Finally, attach the pick-guard with double-sided 3M adhesive; install the truss rod end cover. 

There is every reason for you to be happy because you have done it yourself (DIY) and for your kid to be because it is just not a toy to play with but a musical instrument to play with.