Build Your Own Acoustic Guitar: Complete Instructions and Full-Size Plans Paperback – February 1, 2004

Great resource for aspiring guitar builder. Although the author doesn't go as deep as I would like into some parts (Pretty much minor stuff that can be easily looked up on the internet), the book is well written and it reads great. Enclosed are plans for a guitar (I think it was drednaught model). The book is full of photos of many guitars and one of them is documented while built (Maybe it was more than one guitar, but nevertheless he didn't skip any part. The book includes many tips for (e.g. how to substitute certain tools that you may have not access to). On the other side that is the only problem as well. While the author assumes that you may not have for example thickness sander and presents a way to plane the wood by hand with few tips how not to chip or otherwise damage the wood while doing so, on some other page he assumes that you have access to something called Go-bar press, which I assume is not that hard to make, but as he himself claims you will probably not build one until you have built few guitars as it is not worth it, but he won't present any substitute anyway. Well, it's not that hard to think of something yourself.Maybe one other issue, he sticks to only one guitar design in the whole book. He discusses few other woods and claims that for example Hawaian Koa cannot be thickness sanded due to it's oily, figured nature, that it is hard to do by hand and things like that, but he doesn't discuss how to deal with these kinds of wood anyway. That was something I would love to know, I was thinking of building a Koa instrument as my first acoustic project. Well I guess I will not risk that now as the wood is too expensive to destroy on first attempt and he says it's not that easy to work with.Anyway, overall great value (for a beginner anyway, I can imagine there are some books discussing the subject deeper for intermediate luthiers), catching book and I think great gift for any acoustic player as I cannot imagine any who wouldn't want to learn about how that piece of wood he plays was made.By the way, I didn't really mind the "advertising" of Kinkade guitars. His guitars are nice and I can imagine sound great. After all it was Jonathan Kinkade who wrote this book, so why wouldn't he promote his stuff? Also, his own guitars are probably the best source for photography due to copyright issues and similar things.

I have been making furniture, as a serious hobbyist, for 30+ years and this probably ranks as the most challenging project yet. This book provides everything critical needed to make a guitar, including tools, jigs, order of execution, component sizes and mental discipline. I am about half-way through, having completed the body and moving forward with the neck. Honestly, I can't imagine trying this, with any hope of success, without this book.

This is a good book. As a relatively new builder (on 3rd guitar), I have been in search of information on all aspects of guitar building. I have yet to find a single resource that explains everything but this book clarifies a lot of issues. For example, after a couple of reads I now understand how to set the correct neck angle and have a good method for adjusting the dovetail joint to get a good fit. This alone is worth the price I paid for the book. Nice job!

One of the reviewers downgraded this book because Kincaid is in every picture with his "Kincaid Guitars" T-shirt, and his useful recommendations are under a large heading that reads, "Kincaid Tip". This may bother some readers, but it had absolutely no effect on me. I bought the book for the content, and it is worth its weight in gold. Here are the highlights:1. Big, detailed color photos and diagrams2. Every phase is given equal length treatment3. Perhaps most importantly, Kincaid gives not one, but several methods to complete any operation.This is very important to me, as I want options, and Kincaid gives them to you. The Cumpiano book is comprehensive, but it is written in an authoritative style, as in, 'this is the way, the only way, to do this correctly'. And if you want small, grainy, black & white photos and illustrations, then get the Cumpiano book. The Kincaid book works perfectly for me, and includes a full-size fold-out blueprint in every book.I built one guitar in a class, and learned a lot from that experience. This book is my main reference for the second guitar I am now building, in addtion to a wealth of resources online.