'37 Hauser

My winter project is to build a classical guitar for a friend. I have all the wood and am about to start making the forms and molds, various jigs and such--all the foofaraw that seems to go along with any sort of hobby that I undertake. Why can't I pick a seemingly innocuous hobby like stamp collecting, bird watching, or empire building? I fly-fish. Lots of gadgets there. Have you seen the vest of the average fly-fisherman, lately? Knot tiers. Fly dope to make your fly sink or float. Fly boxes. Forceps. Extra fly-line spools. Fly patch. Multitools. Hook removers. That's just in the top two pockets. At last count, I think I found 23 pockets for all of my stuff and I still need more.

Building a modern guitar is just as bad. You have the plantilla, the workboard, go-bar clamps, side-bending jig, circle-cutting jig, purfling jig, fretboard-slotting jig, fretboard template (in both metric and imperial), about 400 clamps (which will still not be enough), countless planes and chisels, not to mention trying to decide on the type tuning machines to use...I love it!

So for the next few months I'll be posting some pictures and describing the process (mistakes included) of what it takes to build a guitar in my basement here in Wisconsin.

Just a teaser:

Soundboard: German Spruce

Backs and Sides: East Indian rosewood

Neck: Spanish cedar

650mm scale length

Plans: Hauser '37--one of Segovia's favs.

Can't wait to see how it turns out.