US Guitar Kits makes some of the finest flat-top acoustic guitar kits around. Buy and build a US Guitar Kit in your home shop, or attend one of our start-to-finish kit-building classes at Woodcraft® stores and dealers nationwide.
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View &/or download a complete set of US Guitar Kit instructions.
View &/or download a complete set of US Guitar Kit instructions.
View &/or download a complete set of US Guitar Kit instructions.
This video provides an overview of the US Guitar Kit contents, and the basic guitar building steps. Our other videos will detail specific steps and the use of specialized tools.
Marking is a critical step to getting off to a good start.
Be sure to review Step 1, Part 1 & also Step 1, Part 2.
Marking is a critical step to getting off to a good start.
The video will show the marking, trimming and scalloping of the braces to prepare for the final fitting of the top.
Shaping of the top braces makes the biggest difference to the tone and volume produced by the guitar.
Templates included in the instruction manual will provide a general guide to shaping.
This video will show the final marking and cutouts of the pocket in the lining for the ends of the top braces.
A final step before gluing and clamping the top.
A review of this video will show the critical steps to ensuring the neck plate is in complete contact with the top.
This step is important to the neck angle and overall fit for the neck in the later steps.
Once the top is glued on, it is covering the neck tang pocket.
Having the right tool for the job will make easy work for this step.
With the cut complete, the neck tang to fit into the pocket.
This is the most critical step in building the kit.
Getting the neck to lie in plane with the top will allow the playability to be adjusted perfectly in the later steps.
The explanation in the video will really clarify the adjustments and measurements.
This step is broken into 2 parts with the first part focused on marking the location of the bridge.
Another critical step to ensure the guitar will play in tune with itself.
Scale length is easily accomplished with a simple yet unique jig included in the kit.
The second part of this step is focused on clamping the bridge using a unique clamp.
Having the right clamp will make easy work of this step.
This first part of this step is focused on fitting the truss rod and correctly positioning the fretboard on the neck.
This second part of this step will focus on final prepwork for the neck and fingerboard as well as the glue up process to attach the two.
Establishing the radius and relating that to the bridge is key to good action and playability.
This first part of this step will focus on radiusing the fingerboard using a special radius sanding block.
Also shown are the steps to gluing the abalone inlay fret dots and the 12th fret marker without getting glue in the fret slots.
Final work is done to level the abalone inlays and final sanding of the fingerboard using the high frit foam sanding pads.
Without any finish at all, the fingerboard will really come alive.
Hammering frets takes a careful touch using the right hammer so as not to flatten or damage the frets.
Once the fret are installed, the video shows trimming and filing the ends as well as angling the frets on the edge of the fingerboard.
Cutting the channel on the top and back requires a special router bit and bearing set.
See how the router bit combinations work to cut the channels in preparation for the binding & purfling.
The final part to this step is gluing on the binding and purfling.
The back is fairly simple with only one piece being glued on at one time.
The top requires patience and preferably a second set of hands to get all the pieces glued at one time.
This step will provide some good tips on using a cabinet scraper to level the binding and purfling on the top, back and sides.
With an understanding of the scraper and a little bit of practice, this step will reveal the details of the thin strips of the binding and purfling.
There are many ways to customize the headstock and this video shows you where those options can be made and truly make your guitar unique to you.
The final setups determine the playability and the video reviews those steps to get you to understand where the adjustments can be made.
A final tuning and a quick tune!
If you are just watching the videos for fun, we hope it has sparked your interest enough to dive in and build one yourself.
If you are using the video as a supplement to the instruction manual, we hope that you can visually see some of the steps better.
Either way, get out there and make some music!
