Martin Build Your Own Guitar Kit D41

It's a fun project i hope i can do it

great quality overall. I took me about two months to finish mine. I had no previous experience. no tools. I bought books and did some research. You will need a lot of tools to build this kit. If you want to do it right, be prepared to spend around $1000 for tools. You need a lot of clamps, small and large. Try getting a mold... the sides are mostly likely shorter or longer than they should be. Neck fitting is the most difficult part. You really need to nail it to make the action playable. Fretting is no easy job. After you install the frets, you will need to "level" the frets to make sure there are no buzzing throughout the fretboard. Be careful when working with nut and saddle! Be extra extra careful when installing the bridge. If you are 1/32 inch off with the position of the bridge, your guitar will be out of tune. I made a mistake with bridge installation, and the intonation is off after 5th fret. Sound is amazing by the way.

I bought my kit directly from Martin at the GuitarMaker Shop in the old factory. I purchased the additional jig that holds the body and positions the sides in place. I would say that is essential. All the videos on youtube show the guitar in a jig during the early part of the building process. The task is tough, but certainly doable. Consult all of the resources that are available, especially the youtube videos. Practice every move that is involved a few times before you attempt it. Spend whatever is necessary to insure success.

I'm currently building the 000 kit. It doesn't tell you on the website, but this is the 000-28. If you're good with your hands & tools, and you can be patient & follow directions, it's doable. The parts are mostly pre-cut, just have to be assembled and finished. You might have to buy some extra tools, depending on what you already have. I'm not a carpenter, I'm a mechanic by trade, so I have a lot of tools. The only thing I've bought extra so far is a body mold. I might need more as I go along, we'll see. The best thing about doing it this way is the ability to customize it some, such as maybe the color of the bindings & inlays, and the finish of the wood.

I should say, sounds easier than it looks. It's tough. No joke. I have done fine woodworking in the past and own many of the required tools and still needed special scrapers, files, glues, knives and laminating trim bits. The workmanship will definitely show if you fast-path or cut any step. I skipped the body fill and scrape process mainly because after 2 months and about 80 hours of work, I wanted to play my guitar, soon. So the 8 coats of lacquer I applied could not fill the top and back wood grain. Now I occasionally rake my fingernails across the sound board to remind me of what an extra hour or two cost me in quality. Fitting the neck is critical. Get it right. I checked out The Luthiers Handbook from my library and really got into the fine points of how a guitar works and my first reference when moving to the next step. I was just floored when I put strings on for the first. Couldn't believe how crisp and resonate the sound was. After two years now, I have not had to adjust the truss rod at all and only required minimal fret work to eliminate buzz. And wonderfully tight action. Get the neck right. BTW...the manufacturer would not turn me on to a logo decal so I created my own brand, North Star guitar. Enjoy.

I bought this kit,to build your own Martin acoustic guitar, after about 3 weeks of just taking my time and making sure that everything was put together perfect I now have a beautiful acoustic guitar that sounds and plays better than even my Gibson acoustic, at a fraction of the cost. Thank you Martin Guitar CO. Allan Simonson/ Seattle WA.