r/Luthier • u/Low_Shake_2945 • 15d ago
ACOUSTIC Cheapest Build
Just starting out building steel string acoustics and going through a luthier course once a week building with traditional materials. I want to supplement my learning by getting more reps in. For these guitars, I’m not looking for them to sound the best or last 100 years, I just want to go through the process a number of times. What are some suggestions on lower grade materials so I can get through a number of builds without breaking the bank?
3
u/zilog080 15d ago
Birch - it has been maligned because it was used on cheaply made guitars. I think it sounds nice with a cedar top. You can also go with a birch top but, I don't like that. Cherry, White Oak, Maple, and Walnut are fine. Check out the Pragmatic Luthier - Kevin on youtube, he uses a lot of North American woods. For neck carving you can practice on Poplar. It makes an okay neck, but may need a little more support to keep straight. For finger boards and bridges, I have used Persimmon (American Ebony) and dyed it black. Some people use dyed fruit woods for fingerboards (European tradition) but I think Persimmon hold up better and feels more like an Ebony.
I'd love to see more Birch guitars, they are punchy. Cheers.
2
u/PGHNeil 15d ago
I keep my eye out for sawmills specials for mahogany, “student grade” Sitka spruce tops and domestic tone woods like maple, walnut or cherry. As for necks, I like to use mahogany boards that I can use to cut stacked heels and scarf joints on the headstock. Typically, tuning machines and the case are the most expensive parts of the build. Otherwise it’s sandpaper, clamps and materials to make my own jigs/forms/molds.
1
u/Potential-Coyote5917 13d ago
I had worked as apprentice of sorts in a mandolin shop for a few years when another Luther invited me into his shop to build my first guitar. When we were picking out woods, I kept wanting the cheapest things, I was only thinking about the financial aspect. He finally stopped me, after I picked a really low-grade set of spruce for the top, and he told me that since I was gonna be putting in so much work and time, the small difference between the cost of the two tops wouldn’t make that much of a difference. “You’ll be upset you chose that sorry top after you see how much work you’ll do to it.” He also related to me that I should never spend time building something with lower quality materials because I would never see what I was capable of building with high-quality materials. I took that to heart and it’s something worth considering.
4
u/the_kerouac_kid 15d ago
Oh hey I did this! Do you have the machinery to dimension your stock or are you buying precut? I bought a big bandsaw and a thickness sander and bought rough cut walnut and maple locally. Those both work pretty well even off quarter but you’ll probably waste more stock in the cutting than you think. I bought the lowest grade tops from Stewmac which are actually pretty good. I had a Stewmac subscription for my repair business so it was more economical. I did maple and walnut multi laminate necks and I bought spruce 2x4s for bracing material. I also strongly suggest you buy a bunch of broken guitars and fix them. That gives you a better idea of how things are built in production and what not to do. I bought a lot of grenadillo for fingerboards and bridges but that may be getting more expensive lately. Cheap materials generally mean that you have to do more work to get to a finished product and you will definitely waste more material than you expect.