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Classical Guitar Making: A Modern Approach to Traditional Design
What a thrill for any musician: playing a fine-sounding instrument that he or she has lovingly crafted from scratch. With this richly illustrated manual, well-known luthier and guitarist John Bogdanovich shows exactly how to build that first, beautiful guitar, using traditional, time-tested methods. All that’s required are basic woodworking techniques and a minimally equipped shop. Bogdanovich discusses the anatomy of the guitar, sound, choosing an instrument, selecting woods, templates and molds, and preparation. In more than 300 pages of text, he painstakingly lays out the details of construction, from assembling the neck and sides to installing the fingerboard and bridge.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published November 28, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 13, 2019
not very detailed and targeting mostly people making their first instrument, which is fair. kinda pretty and to the point though
February 23, 2022
A beautiful luthier's book, by an accomplished artist in wood
I've not properly started building any guitars yet, as I'm in the 'prep' phase - getting the equipment, basically. But, in addition to the many hours watching people making guitars on YouTube I've been indulging in, I asked my wife to get this for me for Xmas 2016 (thanks Teresa!).
It's an American book, so there's not just the luthier's lexography to learn, but a difference in dialect/vernacular. These aspects, along with the fact that documenting processes in typed words and still pictures is not as easy or efficient as doing the same thing via video, mean that quite a lot of the content needs to be read more than once to be comprehensible. Perhaps when I start actually building guitars it'll get easier to digest?
Anyway, as things currently stand, it's certainly a very useful aid to preparing for building. It's really helped bring home to me the complexity, and the methodical patience required. I think in my initial euphoric inspiration to build myself a guitar I rather glossed over these potential hurdles! Still, time will tell...
Certainly Mr Bogdonavich is a talented and intelligent man. The book is well laid out, beautifully illustrated, and, by and large, as clear as this sort of book could hope to be (without becoming encyclopaedically huge). A handsome portrait-format A4 hardback, it certainly looks good on a coffee table! And Bogdonavich's guitars - I've not heard them as yet - really are very beautiful. That's a fact I find both inspiring and a little intimidating!
One thing he's good on, in the text, is reminding the reader that this is a long, complex, demanding undertaking. But that it is also a richly rewarding one, in which one will learn and grow. A process that will continue as long as one continues to build instruments. He's also good on reminding the reader that it's a unique and personal journey, and that his ways aren't the only ways.
One concrete example of this would be the way he likes to attach the top and back of his guitars to the sides, with a continuous band, rather than the traditional little blocks many luthiers use. He says he does this for tonal reasons. I imagine it also, perhaps, makes the build a bit easier? Certainly I will be using his book for guidance, rather than following his design plans exactly, as I have a particular project in mind.
At this stage, I'm particularly interested in the first few chapters, where he talks about the gear and materials one needs; the jigs one has to make - some of which I'd already had a few stabs at, before getting this book, e.g. a circle cutting jig for a router - as well as the tools and machines one needs to invest in; and the types of wood suitable for luthiers.
This isn't a cheap book. But it is a beautiful and very useful one, and I'm very glad to have it. It'll be interesting to see how I use it once I start building my first guitar. Altho' given its coffee table luxury quality, I might not be taking it into the workshop!
I've not properly started building any guitars yet, as I'm in the 'prep' phase - getting the equipment, basically. But, in addition to the many hours watching people making guitars on YouTube I've been indulging in, I asked my wife to get this for me for Xmas 2016 (thanks Teresa!).
It's an American book, so there's not just the luthier's lexography to learn, but a difference in dialect/vernacular. These aspects, along with the fact that documenting processes in typed words and still pictures is not as easy or efficient as doing the same thing via video, mean that quite a lot of the content needs to be read more than once to be comprehensible. Perhaps when I start actually building guitars it'll get easier to digest?
Anyway, as things currently stand, it's certainly a very useful aid to preparing for building. It's really helped bring home to me the complexity, and the methodical patience required. I think in my initial euphoric inspiration to build myself a guitar I rather glossed over these potential hurdles! Still, time will tell...
Certainly Mr Bogdonavich is a talented and intelligent man. The book is well laid out, beautifully illustrated, and, by and large, as clear as this sort of book could hope to be (without becoming encyclopaedically huge). A handsome portrait-format A4 hardback, it certainly looks good on a coffee table! And Bogdonavich's guitars - I've not heard them as yet - really are very beautiful. That's a fact I find both inspiring and a little intimidating!
One thing he's good on, in the text, is reminding the reader that this is a long, complex, demanding undertaking. But that it is also a richly rewarding one, in which one will learn and grow. A process that will continue as long as one continues to build instruments. He's also good on reminding the reader that it's a unique and personal journey, and that his ways aren't the only ways.
One concrete example of this would be the way he likes to attach the top and back of his guitars to the sides, with a continuous band, rather than the traditional little blocks many luthiers use. He says he does this for tonal reasons. I imagine it also, perhaps, makes the build a bit easier? Certainly I will be using his book for guidance, rather than following his design plans exactly, as I have a particular project in mind.
At this stage, I'm particularly interested in the first few chapters, where he talks about the gear and materials one needs; the jigs one has to make - some of which I'd already had a few stabs at, before getting this book, e.g. a circle cutting jig for a router - as well as the tools and machines one needs to invest in; and the types of wood suitable for luthiers.
This isn't a cheap book. But it is a beautiful and very useful one, and I'm very glad to have it. It'll be interesting to see how I use it once I start building my first guitar. Altho' given its coffee table luxury quality, I might not be taking it into the workshop!
May 29, 2012
Brilliant resource - very complete, well-illustrated, if occasionally quirky.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews