Which way would you go?

I want a new guitar, I've been to music shops trying out different models. And recently have started looking at guitar kits. Now here's my dilemma: do I buy a guitar or build my own?
Pros of building:
higher quality for less or equal money
Pride of building it myself
Get exactly what I want
Cons:
Never done it before could mess up
It takes months or longer to build

Pros of buying
Play immediately
Know it's made right

Cons
Less guitar for the money
Can't get exactly what I want (without spending 2 arms a leg and my boy)

A few things to know, I've never done any woodwork other than building a few chicken coops. But I'm a fast learner and will be purchasing 2 books and a 6 hr DVD on building guitars. And I'm leaning towards building the guitar only thing holding me back is the fear or messing up and wasting $5-700 plus in wood, and hours put into it. Not to mention the specific tools required to do the work, if I'm not capable of building ill be stuck with tools that I can't use.

Buy it. I never gamble money like that lol.

Boy that's tough. I would be scared to gamble that much money. But, you could get exactly what you want. If you aren't a practiced woodworker though, I guess that would depend on how confident you are in being able to learn and do it. Just my two cents, but somethings can only be learned with lots of practice and experience. Let us know what you decide. :)

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Doolittle your right the only way to learn is to do it. And that's what I keep telling myself then I look at what it might cost me to make a mistake. And Mike it is one heck of a gamble. But if I succeed I will have $3000 guitar for close to $1000 including all wood and tools.

See if you can get some cheap wood and do a practice run... work out the bugs then get the quality wood and do it for real.

Think outside the box.

You could pay to have the woodwork done professionally and do the rest yourself if you wanted.

You could pay to have someone work alongside you professionally to make sure the job is done right.

Personally, I love the idea of building my own instrument.

I'm assuming we're talking about an acoustic rather than electric?

As a DIY lover, and 'retired' guitar player and gearwhore, I'll tell you: Buy it.

Why? Many reasons. It's VERY easy for even an experienced luthier to screw up a guitar while in the making, and (no offense, I was in your spot a few years ago) since you don't have any woodworking experience your chances of screwing up will be very high, even if you have access to the RIGHT equipment, which many people don't have. Secondly, having had more than 30 electric guitars in my life (including a few I modified and 1 I 'built' ) I can tell you THERE'S NO WAY you'll be getting a $3k guitar for under $1k (unless you find a stupid bargain), in PARTS alone you'll be seeing around $750 if you go with the parts that a $3k guitar would have, and add to that construction materials (wood, paint, primer, finish, buffers, accessories and simple tools (if you don't have access to big tools, you'll be looking at ALTEAST $1K more to buy them)) PLUS your time, which will be A LOT. Now, don't get me wrong, you'll have a blast and you'll learn a lot if you make your own guitar, but start with a simpler easier guitar, don't aim for a $3k guitar as your first build. Thirdly, building a guitar requires an enormous amount of patience, like A LOT, really, it's very easy to get frustrated by a wrong degree of filleting and think "screw this crap, I'm quitting" (and many people abandon their projects, lol me included a few times), and puff there goes a lot of money and time; However if you got perseverance, you'll prolly finish it :)

However, if you're dead set on building it, lower you expectations a bit and start with something simpler (not questioning your abilities, just simply letting you know that guitar building is a mix of ability ALONG with experience). Read up all you can (There's a great number of threads on guitar building in the Electric Guitar forum in Harmony Central), develop very precisely your action plan, make up a schedule, and have lots of patience. (Just a preparatory note: Making the neck SPECIALLY the fretboard will be one of your bigger challenges). You can get blanks of good wood (Mahogany, Maple, Alder, Basswood, Ash) for GREAT prices on certain lumberyards and specific hardware stores.

Now, these are some other options you might want to look at:
- Buying a Guitar from Warmoth, (basically custom-shop guitars for dirt cheap (good quality), all you have to do is assemble them, and you can pretty much have whatever you want. This will end in a great guitar and most likely cheaper than making it yourself.
- Buying a kit - low quality materials in the vast majority of times, but great for getting started on assembling and painting guitars.
- Check on Forum classifieds/ebay/Craigslist and even Guitar Center used, from time to time some stupidly good bargains come up (I've seen original mint condition Gibson Les Paul Customs going for $1.2k a few times). I was very skeptical about buying used guitars at first, but after a while I got used to it, and a lot of times it will be very worth the money (like 60% of my guitars were used).
- Check out Agile (from rondomusic.com), lots of corcksniffers will tell you that agiles are a PoS, but they DO make great guitars for the price (I had 3, not a single complaint from any). BUT steer away from the under-$400 guitars from Agile, those aren't very good.


Might I ask what kind of guitars you like (brands/models)?
and what kind of guitar you're looking to make? (My guess is going to be Les Paul or PRS oriented :P)


Of course I'm talking about Electrics. Acoustics are another whole different pain in the rear. Both are difficult to make, but different kinds of 'difficult'.

Good luck on whichever decision you make! :gj:

Munizfire thanks for the tips. I am talking about acoustics not electrics as far as kits go. I don't see how they could be less quality than the actual guitar as long as its quality wood.
Here is where I'm comparing prices that I can get a $3000 guitar for $1000
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guita...coustic-guitar
http://www.bluescreekguitars.com/sho...fmn2f02k4npll4
I have some tools at my disposal. But I will need tools like reamer for the bridge peg holes and chisels. I have several c clamps and other clamps a dremel tool. And several different sanders.

All in all buying a guitar would be easier and less stressful. But I would also like to learn how to build guitars too.

Oooooops

Yea, on acoustics you don't as many expensive parts as in electrics. My bad. Good luck :D

Lol, your an optimist...:) I was actually meaning that the experts that do that, probably have tons of time and experience, trial and error into it. If you don't have disposable money to learn on, I would just buy one. If money isn't an object, then by all means, give it a go. I'm sure there are tricks and such that only experience will teach you. Kind of like with cooking. Where once you have a good feel for, and acquaintance with cooking, you can cook foods, or recipes with out measuring, because "you just know" how much or what you need. But, if you really want to try, don't listen to us, lol. ;)

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Aaron I've thought about taking that path but the only problem I have there is what happens when I finish the guitar and it sounds bad. I won't know whether to blame the wood or the luthier.

Bwyant the only luthier I've been able to find locally requires an individual to take a year long course (7 different levels) each class costing $200 plus your own supplies. Just for him to even consider helping make an instrument, then it's $180 a session. And having him do the initial grunt work and me complete it would be the same as buying a kit.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ChrisS

I want a new guitar, I've been to music shops trying out different models. And recently have started looking at guitar kits. Now here's my dilemma: do I buy a guitar or build my own?
Pros of building:
higher quality for less or equal money
Pride of building it myself
Get exactly what I want
Cons:
Never done it before could mess up
It takes months or longer to build

Pros of buying
Play immediately
Know it's made right

Cons
Less guitar for the money
Can't get exactly what I want (without spending 2 arms a leg and my boy)

A few things to know, I've never done any woodwork other than building a few chicken coops. But I'm a fast learner and will be purchasing 2 books and a 6 hr DVD on building guitars. And I'm leaning towards building the guitar only thing holding me back is the fear or messing up and wasting $5-700 plus in wood, and hours put into it. Not to mention the specific tools required to do the work, if I'm not capable of building ill be stuck with tools that I can't use.

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Build it.

You could use hand tools (which would take longer but lessen the cost as well as the likelihood of messing it up), start with "cheaper" wood (maple versus rosewood for the body, spruce instead of koa, etc. and then use something "cheaper" like maple instead of koa or wenge or rosewood on the neck. Same for the frets). Where I live, ebony is about 90 bucks a board foot...and that's some serious money to throw down to possibly screw up. Not knocking your skills or abilities, but I thought about doing the same thing (building versus buying). Start small and save yourself some headaches; get the beginners curve out of the way with "cheaper" woods, figure out what, if anything you need to correct on the next one and then go from there. I looked on E-Bay and found some really nice book-matched tops out of exotics (koa, bubinga, curly malple, etc.) for not too much money. You could do it on a budget, I'd just recommend starting out slow before you dive right in. Inevitably something will get messed up and if you're a grand into the materials alone, that's a horrible feeling. Maybe you could build a uke first, to get started? Not making fun, I'm serious. It's the same basic design concept with most of the same parts, just on a smaller scale. Try your hand at that, get a feel for it and then go from there. Good luck and please share some pics if you decide to tackle it! :gj:

This web-site gets into the "tones" of wood and to some degree their ease (or lack thereof!) of workability:
http://www.jemsite.com/jem/wood.htm

If you've never messed with exotics (woods), be careful. A lot of them cause skin irritation, breathing problems as well as acting as sensitizers if you're exposed to the dust/particulate while you're working with them. Take care and again, best of luck!

I think I've found a way to somewhat have both. I'm going to build a cigar box guitar and see if that doesn't help curve the itch to build a "real" guitar. Then buy a Taylor 214ce. Hopefully between the two I will be satisfied at least for a little while.

Cigar box guitar? Do you need someone to help you smoke them lol?

I wish I could afford a box of good cigars.
Here is a video of one
http://youtu.be/j42YWn5Vb3A