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Well, not exactly a Martin, but…
I decided that it was about time to try my hand at making an acoustic steel-string guitar, and being a bluegrasser from way back, I immediately thought, "Martin." I called the factory and found out they offered "kits," which are really packages of wood, binding, and fretwire, not to much more that you can get out of a luthier's supply catalog, so I ordered one. Except, my "kit" isn't one of their "kits." It contains certain upgrades, such as the abalone inlay purfling and rosettes. As one might expect, the body literally flew together, and then come the details… each length of abalone needs to be mitered by hand (file and sandpaper) to the next length. Making the tight corners is the real chore, where a single length needs to be mitered several times to make the radius. Right now I'm working up the nerve to do some peghead inlay work, but I'm not really sure what it is I want up there.
I did get Martin to pre-bend the sides for me, but in retrospect I wish I would have bit the bullet and come up with some sort of bending iron to do the job. It would have saved me money. Incidentally, the top is Sitka Spuce, the back, sides, and peghead veneer are Indian Rosewood, and the neck mahogany. All hand tools except for the binding and rosette routing, which was done with a Dremel. Any suggestions for the peghead inlay?
I decided that it was about time to try my hand at making an acoustic steel-string guitar, and being a bluegrasser from way back, I immediately thought, "Martin." I called the factory and found out they offered "kits," which are really packages of wood, binding, and fretwire, not to much more that you can get out of a luthier's supply catalog, so I ordered one. Except, my "kit" isn't one of their "kits." It contains certain upgrades, such as the abalone inlay purfling and rosettes. As one might expect, the body literally flew together, and then come the details… each length of abalone needs to be mitered by hand (file and sandpaper) to the next length. Making the tight corners is the real chore, where a single length needs to be mitered several times to make the radius. Right now I'm working up the nerve to do some peghead inlay work, but I'm not really sure what it is I want up there.
I did get Martin to pre-bend the sides for me, but in retrospect I wish I would have bit the bullet and come up with some sort of bending iron to do the job. It would have saved me money. Incidentally, the top is Sitka Spuce, the back, sides, and peghead veneer are Indian Rosewood, and the neck mahogany. All hand tools except for the binding and rosette routing, which was done with a Dremel. Any suggestions for the peghead inlay?
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