Guitar Making Supplies

Hard to find Goodies!

I have recently added some goodies to the supplies section of our GuitarMaking site – while it is not my intention to compete with other guitarmaker suppliers (most of them are my friends) I want to help my students get hold of the hard to find things they need to build the guitars on my courses.

I will only be supplying only the most essential and difficult to find items specific to my courses – If you are having trouble finding something please let me know – any suggestions are welcome!

Mahogany Body Blank

Body Blanks

These are a little more expensive than you will find elsewhere but they are the best quality, thicknessed and joined – ready to use. If you have ever tried to do this by hand then you will realise how much time this can save.

Mahogany is the easiest to work and guaranteed to sound good.

I have just obtained a limited supply of some of the best Swamp Ash I’ve ever seen – very light weight and beautiful appearance – a little harder to work than Mahogany and can be tricky to finish because the open grain structure, but if you are looking for a lighter colour look no further. Also takes a stain very well – great if you want a bright, vibrant colour.

Mahogany Neck Blank – Set Neck

Neck Blanks

Getting your neck blank flat and straight really is half the battle – ours are accurately thicknessed, sanded and ready to work on. One side is also planed so you can use it as a guide for the router when making the truss rod slot.

If you are making a bolt on style neck with a parallel headstock then you need a 1″ maple blank.

If you are making a set neck guitar then Mahogany is the recommended choice for your first build – it is easy to work, lighter and acoustically superior to Maple. Maple has the advantage of being stronger and less prone to headstock breakage.

Rosewood Fretboard

Premade Fretboards

On the course I demonstrate how to make a fretboard the hard way but I also reccommend that for your first guitar you use a premade fretboard. Choose from Rosewood or Ebony and any scale length or number of frets you like – if you have any custom requirements you can add a note at the checkout – or contact us if you have any questions.

2 way Truss Rod

Truss Rods

These Truss Rods are two way adjustable and fit into an 11m (7/16″) slot – as used on our course and in all my electric guitars. Every truss rod comes with a free truss rod fillet – just to make your life a little bit easier.

Truss Rod Slot Cutter

Truss Rod Slot Cutter

To save you from hours of searching and comparison I have tracked down the ideal cutter for installing our truss rods – Tungsten Carbide Tipped so it should last for a lot of guitar builds.

Online Guitar Making Courses

Build Your Own Guitar Update – New Video Lessons

Two new videos have been added to the course – I hope you find them useful:

• Clamping the body blank – alternative methods
• Levelling the Body Blank

Clamping the body blank – alternative methods

If you do not have any sash clamps here are a couple of alternative methods to clamp the body blank.

Levelling the Body Blank

Whichever method you use to join your body blank, you will inevitably end up with a small step along where the two pieces join. This must be removed to make the top and back surface as flat as possible ready for working.

Make it easy on yourself…

You could of course save all this hassle and buy a blank from us. All our Guitar Making Blanks are already joined, thicknessed and ready to work on.

Imagine if your first guitar build turned out like this…

Kroum has pushed the boundaries of our Build Your Own Guitar workshop courses to the limit with this one!

Instead of waffling on about how beautiful it is, I will shut up as I think the pictures speak for themselves.

I asked Kroum a few q’s to find out more

Tell us a bit about yourself?

I’m quite determined in what I do, and always try to push as much as I can and see what’s possible to achieve. This fully applies to my guitar playing, and most recently, to guitar making. I’m quite happy with the results so far, it’s an approach that works for me.

Who do you play for/Where can we find your music?

I play for myself mostly, but music is to share, so I’ve done a few open mics, which you can find on YouTube.

How long have you been playing for?

One year, since December 2014

Tell us a bit about your Bailey guitar/s?

It’s very much influenced by CF Martin designs, but with quite a few twists. It’s a00-size bearclaw Sitka spruce top, quilted maple back and sides, flamed maple neck, 1.75″ nut and 24.9″ scale. It features a slotted headstock and a second soundhole, which changes the volume and tone of the guitar, as perceived by the player. The most fun part of building it for me were the inlays, which are “new style” torch on the peghead, Buddhist mantra on the fretboard, and the standard rosette/top rim. It’s a fingerstyle instrument, and to me it sounds amazing.

Where did you hear about us?

On the internet initially, and then from a fellow player/amateur builder who had made a few guitars with Mark – Graham Taylor.

Why did you choose to make a guitar with us?

The guitar Graham built with Mark sounded really good and played well, so when I was told I could do pretty much what I wanted, then I decided to give it a try.

Did we give you a good service/experience?

It was a great experience.

Would you recommend us/why?

Yes, definitely. The only suggestion I’d have is to improve the dialogue with respect to wood sourcing, as to me a part of the experience is to be able to get some truly spectacular wood for one’s own guitar.

Want to learn how to make guitars like a pro?

Enrol now for lifetime access at Introductory level price – ending soon – more info

guitarmaking.co.uk – the online academy of guitar making

GuitarMaking.co.uk – The online Guitar Making Academy

Although the site has been active for less than a month already we have students as far apart as China, USA , New Zealand, Canada, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Australia, all over the UK and Europe – even Russia! And it is going down a storm with 5 star reviews!

All these students are now able to get full lifetime access to the courses and they get to ask me any question they like – I am enjoying answering all the questions that come in and they have been busy designing, and starting to build their own guitars at home following my video lessons.

Introductory Price – ending soon

At the moment it is a one off payment to join any of my courses – All students will get full Lifetime Access to all the videos with the ‘ask me anything you want’ full mentor service – included.

Here is the Deal

It is important to me that I can give full attention to every question I get asked – there is a danger of getting swamped with too many students and questions – and then everyone will suffer. I am a while away from this yet but I feel it is important to protect this feature.

To prevent overload I am not going to be able to keep the price at this Introductory level for very much longer – I am not sure exactly when this will occur but likely towards the end of the month.

Also at some point I may have to consider a monthly subsciption based signup for future students – depending on how many folks sign up on any of the courses. If we do change over to a subscription based system then rest assured if you are a already a student by then you will not lose out – It will not affect students who are already enrolled.

Check it out

The feedback coming in has been beyond all my expectations but you don’t have to take my word for it – here are some excerpts from recent 5 star reviews.

Oliver (verified owner) – January 13, 2016

I spent hours on the net searching for some help to kick off my hobby-luthier career, be it youtube, ebooks – you name it. I found a lot.. lots of inconclusive bits or hundreds of pages to read – too overwhelming to start out motivated.

Then I found Mark and his online courses, let me tell you, this is by far the best here online.

His videos are high quality – you see exactly what is presented, in multiple camera angles. The information given is incredibly spot-on and reduced to the essentials for beginners – without leaving any questions. And IF you have a question you can always ask Mark personally.

By the way, Mark is a very natural and sympathetical presenter. His knowledge surfaces in every word he speaks and every move he makes. It feels like you are in the room with him.

Seems too good to be true? But it is that good and it is real right here. I will definitely purchase the next course as soon as I finished my first design!

5/5, if you read this, you found what you were looking for! If you ask me Mark should ask more money for this!

Have fun designing! Cheers!

Peter_Irvine (verified owner) – December 23, 2015

Building a guitar from scratch is a scary thought, but by breaking the process down into easily manageable chunks Mark turns the seemingly impossible into the surprisingly achievable.
Straightforward and clear instructions combine with excellent camera work to ensure that even a DIY disaster zone like me can attempt a build with confidence.
Knowing Mark is only an email away for help and advice really is the icing on the cake.
If you’ve ever wanted to build your own guitar, this course is invaluable.

Evangelos (verified owner) – November 30, 2015

Outstanding work! A must do for anyone that is serious about becoming a luthier…

In a world where people call themselves a luthier after having assembled a couple of kit guitars, and master luthier after building a handful of them, I would invite everybody who take instrument building seriously to undertake this course. Mark is not just the most experienced guitar builder that I have come across, he is a truly wonderful teacher and communicator. He is down to earth, humble, approachable, sincere, practical and realistic, and will definitely not give you any ‘improvised on the spot’ nonsense when he is not absolutely confident about something. He has built and/or helped others built hundreds of guitars, and I personally haven’t ever read any comment that was not in appreciation of his dedication to instrument making.
Mark is generous, he does not hold onto special secrets, he shares what he knows, and he knows A LOT!
As a senior academic who specializes in learning with technology, but also as a guitarist and luthier, I feel very lucky for having had the opportunity to experience Mark’s courses. I have been wanting to do the face to face courses for years now and never managed to balance work and family logistics in order to do so. I literally jumped onto the opportunity to do the online courses, the moment they became available.
Give Mark’s courses a go, you will not be disappointed, I promise you.
Although I still haven’t met Mark in person, I consider him to be a good friend, and very grateful for having met him online.

Dr Evangelos Himonides
Reader in Technology, Education and Music
UCL

Darryl (verified owner) – January 3, 2016

What more do you want?

Mark makes the beautiful art of the Luthier accessible to anyone. Marks there all the time to help out. Just get in touch if you need him or you have questions he hasn’t covered. He’s 100% behind these courses. It’s a very unique product which I highly recommend to any aspiring luthier.

 

gfs (verified owner) – January 14, 2016

Excellent course !! If you want to step into the world of guitar luthier than this is the course to do.

Firstly Mark is a great teacher and lovely chap, he really breaks it all down so you can get a good sense of understanding of the principles of guitar making. Simple and effective. !!!

I completed the design course and waited with high hopes for the build course to come online.
I was not disappointed.

The Course itself is brilliant and very enjoyable, every aspect from the tools to use, to the wood is in here. Mark is always on hand to answer any questions regards to the course and very helpful and willing to explain so you understand.

I cannot recommend this course highly enough especially if you want to build your own guitar from scratch. Well worth the money. 10 out of 10 !!!!

GuitarMaking.co.uk – The online Guitar Making Academy