Product Description

Making an acoustic guitar is much easier than most people suppose, and this straightforward guide shows you how. With basic woodworking skills, a modest work space and only a few specialist tools, you too can make an instrument fit for the concert platform. All stages fully illustrated with colour photographs and clear drawings and detailed plans for every part of the instrument. The book helps with choosing materials, tuning the soundboard, placing the frets and adjusting the action all steps which are crucial to the making of a top-quality instrument. The guitar described is a steel-stringed OM cutaway orchestra model with 14 frets to the body joint. It is ideal for the fingerstyle player, giving good projection in bass, middle and treble ranges.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40695 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Review
"The greatest strength of the book is its readability. Every step is clearly described and numbered, and keyed to a full-color photo of that step." --Woodcentral.com

About the Author
An all-round craftsman with experience of everything from boatbuilding to house renovation, Alex Willis is now a full-time maker of fine custom guitars, both classical and steel-string.

Customer Reviews

INVALUABLE GUIDANCE
For someone who had previously constructed only an electric bass guitar this book proved to be invaluable for guidance on the important structural elements of my COMBUITAR (www.youtube.com)

Alex Willis wrote it in such a way that I was not completely tied to his individual design but could make use of the many techniques described therein to leave room for creativity. I particularly liked the fact he always stated an alternative tool or method to most of the steps.

I highly recommend "Step by Step Guitar Making" for anyone who would like to build with confidence!

Removing the Fog and Myths Surrounding Guitar Making
Step by Step Guitar Making by Alex Willis is excellent value for money,a book and plans for less than the price of some plans.With an ultra clear colour photograph for each numbered text, on the same page, describing constructional details Alex has come very close to making a guitar fool proof.Chapters on tools, equipment and the workshop serve as an introduction to building methods,schedule of operations,wood selection and the making of the template and solera. Almost every page has a additional"Tip" or information panel supplementing the numbered steps.The two sided plan is printed on a quality guitar sized sheet so that top and side views are presented on one side whole and not truncated as is often the case. The reverse side shows a full size view of the sound board and drawings and dimensions for all the relevant parts to be made.Although my first guitar was a classical instrument this book proved invaluable in filling in the spaces left by the woeful quality and low number of the black and white pictures in the book that I had been sold. A lot of thought has gone into this and if you want to make a steel strung guitar using a solera this is a one stop book.

One of the best
This is my eighth book on guitar construction, but only the second on steel-strung guitars - the other being Cumpiano and Natelson. It is an excellent book, full of detailed photographs carefully and clearly linked to the text and sympathetically written. It arrived today and I have already done a quick read! Like the best books, it immediately becomes part of your experience, so that you find yourself modifiying what you already know and making a mental note of changes that would simplify or make more effective a technique you learnt elsewhere. I intend to make my third classical guitar alongside my first steel-strung and will have Willis's book within reach constantly, and the rest not too far away.

This is the sort of book that anyone who enjoys the feel and properties of wood can relish even if they have no intention of building a guitar.

Edwin Scott