Guitar building links

Update: April 27, 2008

Last check for broken links: May 23, 2006

Really helpful sites

Fortunately the web is full of guitar builders sharing their building methods. Here are some:

Guitar building related Web forums:
Musical Instrument Makers Forum
Gearbuilder.de Deutschsprachiges Gitarrenbauforum
13thfret.com Acoustic guitar discussion forum.
Newsgroup: rec.music.makers.builders
Forum Lutherie French lutherie forum
Official Luthiers Forum

Sites that cover several instrument types
Jon Tirone's Music and Electronics Page How to build a Strat, LesPaul, banjo, f-style mandolin and pickup
Lutherie Info - for Builders of Stringed Musical Instruments by R.M. Mottola

Acoustic guitar building:
Kathy Matsushita's Notes from an Amateur Luthier
www.onlineapprentice.com David Schramm's comprehensive online classical guitar making course
Building A Martin Kit Guitar
Jonathan Sevy's guitar resources A pictorial voyage through the construction of a guitar, useful software
David C. Hurd- Ukulele Builder in Hawaii
Building an Archtop Guitar
Building a Mandolin
Make a Ukulele
Building a Guitar By Charlie Hoffman
Guitar building at Mario Proulx Guitars
CRANE Guitars Luthier Makoto Tsuruta from Tokyo
JH Gitarren German website
Oudinfo.de Der Bau einer arabischen Oud
Lukas A. Giefing from Vienna
Scotty's Cigar Box Guitars Lots of easy and interesting projects
Wells Guitars Lots of interesting pictures and articles
Gitarrenmanufaktur from Germany
Ralph Bonte from Belgium

Guitar repair:
Frank Ford's site: www.frets.com

Electric guitar building:
Guitar Nut's Everything you need to know about wiring
Guide to Guitarbuilding A lot of information for beginners.
Für Gitarrenlose Dirk Buchfinks humorvolle E-Gitarrenselbstbauanleitung
www.oh-music.de Oliver Horsts sehr ausführliche E-Gitarrenselbstbauanleitung
Building an Electric Guitar Very good description.
Projectguitar.com Lots of tutorials, info and links on building electric guitars
RumbleBird's Bass Page Stefan Klugs ausführliche Selbstbaubeschreibung
Electric guitar - How I made it by Andrew Urbanski from Poland
Wiring Diagrams for Guitars and Basses at the Seymour Duncan website
Stephan Schwenks Gitarrenbau Blog in Deutsch
Guitarlinks.de Gitarrenbauseite von Wolfgang Richter-Kirsch, in Deutsch
How to Build your own bass guitar
Hromi's Gitarrebau Seite
GuitarFrenzy by Matt Vinson
Bau einer Meistergitarre Thorsten Lietz describes building an archtop guitar in German and English
Making Of A Strat ~ 50th Anniversary Style
Building My Own Guitar by Arjan Janssens
Geli's Hohmpäitsch Angelika Holtes Selbstbauerlebnisse.

Electric bass building:
Wayne Wright's Electric Bass Project He even shows how to build a case
Building My Homemade "Sit-Down" Bass Michael A. Stridsberg cleverly designed his bass to suit his playing style
Build your own bass guitar by Arjan Paans

Resources

The Electric Guitar Builders FAQ A comprehensive text on building electric guitars.
Wie wird man Gitarrenbauer Ein Artikel von Martin Seeliger
How acoustic Gibsons are made Craig Hocevar, a Gibson employee shows a lot of pictures of the building process.
pickup winding info
Harmony central FAQ Collection
PRS-Factory Tour Click "guitars", and then the PRS LOGO
Watch me building an electric guitar 43 photos on 14 pages show the building of a "Strat"-style guitar with one piece maple neck
AndysGuitarTechTips All Fender circuits, Einstelltips (under "Service")
Finishing Your Instrument With Tru Gun Oil By Chuck DeHart
Famous Guitarmaker Internet World Headquarters Great resource for guitarists/builders
Guitarbuilding tips My tips here at BuildYourGuitar.com
www.gitarrenelektronik.de Helmuth Lemmes site
AX84 - The Cooperative Tube Guitar Amp Project Make your own tube amp
The Les Paul Forum Dan Erlewine can be found there! Musikmesse Frankfurt Follow the link "MUSIKMESSE" on the 2nd page
NAMM Show
Famous Guitarmaker Internet World Headquarters Great resource for guitarists/builders
Great Guitar Sites on the Web Collected by Neil Shedden from Melbourne, Australia
Fret Calculator Calculate fretspacings online!
Search Patents After a free registration you can access U.S. Patents. Fill in "guitar" and start the search! Only the first page of a patent is accessible for free.
List of Guitarmaking Schools
Die Gitarren Saite Die schnelle Connection für Gitarrenfreaks, mit Infos, Interviews und Links
Luthiers Access Group's Web Site
FretlessBass.com Showcase for fretless basses only
Brad's Page of Steel A site devoted to the steel guitar
Bill's Best Things of Everything $2.49 side bender, blackening a brass bridge, bass building
The Physics of the Acoustic Guitar
Watson Bailey Instruments Co. Detailed guitar plans in different formats for free
The Guitar Builders Forum
Luthier Forum
Axeblaster.com How to build a guitar, Instructions, Modification, Forums, Buying Guide, & Stratocaster Gallery
Building the ergonomic guitar

Software

MusEdit.com A powerful yet inexpensive music notation editor
Tune!It Shareware musical instrument tuner for Windows-PCs with soundcard
AP Guitar Tuner Freeware guitar tuner for Windows-PCs with soundcard

Authors of guitar building books

William R. Cumpiano He wrote together with Jonathan Natelson the book "Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology". See also www.Guitarmaking.com
Jonathan Kinkead Author of "Build Your Own Acoustic Guitar" published in 2004.
Melvyn Hiscock Author of "Make Your Own Electric Guitar"
Tom Hirst Author of "Electric Guitar Construction"
Bill Foley Author of "Build Your Own Electric Guitar"
Roger Siminoff Author of "Constructing a Solidbody Guitar" and many more.
Robert Benedetto Author of "Making an Archtop Guitar"
Jim English Author of "Making A Laminated Hollowbody Electric Guitar"
Jason Lollar Author of "Basic Pickup Winding and Complete Guide to Making Your Own Pickup Winder" Book is no longer available!
Bob Plovanich Author of "Build Your Own Pickup Winder"
Andy Manson Author of "Talking Wood" a book about ten months inside the life of a guitar maker
Jim Donahue published the book: "Guitars, Design, Production and Repair"
Helmuth Lemme Autor von "Elektrogitarren-Sound", eines sehr kompetenten Buches über Gitarrenelektronik und Pickups.
Fritz Rössel Sein Buch "E-GitarrenBackground" ist zwar keine Bauanleitung enthält aber viele wertvolle Tips.
Henry Strobel Author of several books on violin making.
Roy Courtnall Author of "Making Master Guitars" a book on making Classical Guitars. Offers Classical Guitar plans too.
Frank Finocchio Author of a 9 hours video instruction on acoustic guitar making.
Graham McDonald Author of "The Bouzouki Book"
Erno Zwaan Author of "Animal Magnetism for Musicians"
Bill Wyza Author of "The Guitar Building FAQ"
John Gleneicki Author of "HOW TO Create A Factory Guitar Finish With Just A Couple Of Spray Cans!"
Robert O'Brien Author of several guitar making DVDs
John Mayes Author of several guitar making DVDs
Maria Isabel Lopez Gonzalvez Author of "The Art of Guitar" a picture book featuring the work of luthier John Ray
John S. Bogdanovich Author of "Classical Guitar Making"
Tim Swike Author of the book "Guitar Electronics - Understanding Wiring"

Martin Koch You're already here.

Organisations

Join one (or both) and stay up to date:

Guild of American Luthiers A lot of links too.
A.S.I.A The Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans

Hobby guitar builders

Reinhard Kockmann Find information about building electric guitars, tube amps and effect pedals (mostly in German) / Informationen zum Selbstbau von E-Gitarren, Röhrenverstärkern und Effektschaltungen.
Kathy Matsushita's Notes from an Amateur Luthier You don't need a big workshop to be a hobby guitar builder. Very inspiring and informative site of an English highschool teacher. Lots of photos of the building process and the necessary tools. Very helpful
Mattio Valentes Guitarbuilding Website Mattio from Nederlands shares his guitarbuilding experiences
Sick Guitars Beautiful guitars made in Switzerland
Bob's Guitar Page Hobby guitar builder from Great Britain with very nice web site
Harold Waterman Making a bass
Chris Cannons Guitar Building Site offers infos, links, books and supplier addresses
Ralf Hertel Guitars French amateur luthier. Pages in French, English and German
Gitarren aus Stein This guitar body is made of stone
Wolfgang P. Müller
Building My Guitar by Robert Baker
Build a Guitar photo album
www.Uni-Cut.de by Florian Lüttke
Matt Welsh, Hobbiest Luthier
Philipp Bolay, Project E-Gitarre
Stig Lindqvist from Sweden
Salih Vezneli 1 Salih Vezneli 2 from Turkey NEW

Professional guitarbuilders

A
Allen Guitars - guitars,mandolins,resophonic's Pictures of the building process. Supplies and fret slotting service
Andersen Stringed Instruments
A basses sing Basses made by a bassplayer
Andreas Guitars This Austrian company uses aluminium for their solid-body guitars and basses
Avalon Guitars
Alconda Guitars Guitars with beautiful aluminium body
Apollo Guitars Garage Built Guitars by John Kingma
AfRI-CAN Guitars Africa�s first production guitar design and manufacturing company.
Auerswald Instruments Unusual bass guitars
Apollo Guitars from Canada
AMG Guitars

B
Bass Lab Very unusual guitars from Germany
Robert Benedetto
Siggi Braun Fine Young Guitars from Germany
Bachmann Guitars Italian Luthier
Paddy Burgin Guitars New Zealand
Ken Bebensee Guitars and Basses
Burns Guitars

C
Cort-Guitars Acoustic and Electric Guitars
William R. Cumpiano The co-author of "Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology"
Carvin Guitars
Collings Guitars Michael Collins Guitars

D
Dingwall Designer GuitarsThey build bassguitars with a different scalelength for each string
Dramm Guitars - Home of the Botar® Thomas Dramm created an electric guitar that one can successfully play with a bow.
Düsenberg Guitars
Daisy Rock Guitars are made for girls
Armin Dreier Gitarrenbau
Frank Deimel Guitarworks
Deerbridge Guitars Martin Wieland from Germany
Dickert Guitars from Canada

E
EVD String Instruments
Eyestone Guitars Different - But better
Boaz Elkayam uses no power tools to build his fine guitars
Echeverria Guitars Handmade guitars, repairs and parts. Authorized Martin and Fender Warranty
Ellis Guitars from Australia Ellie Guitars Ellie Erickson doesn't think that the world needs another StratoLesPaulReedSmith clone
Patrick James Eggle Acoustic guitar builder from UK.

F
Frank Ford
Charles Fox One of his great inventions was the "Universal Side Bender"
Fender This company started the success of the electric guitar
Fichter E-Kontrabässe/ electric upright basses
Fodera Guitars Inc.
Frank Finocchio
Fairhope Handcrafted Guitars

G
James Goodall High quality guitars from Hawai
Gibson Also home of: Epiphone, Orange Amplifiers, Dawn, Steinberger, Red Bear, Tobias Guitars, Dobro
Godin - Guitars
Paul Guy Guitars Handmade guitars from Sweden. Very informative site
Roger Giffin
Peter Gropius Konzertgitarren und Stahlsaitengitarren
Grimes Guitars
Johan Gustavsson Guitars
Greven Guitars
Pete Gosden Acoustic and electric Lapsteel guitars made in England.
Goodfeets Guitars Primitive handmade instruments made from repurposed materials NEW>

H
Hoffmann Guitars
Anthony J. Huvard Handmade guitars and a lot of infos
JJ Hucke Guitars British guitar company
Human Base Guitars
Harich Guitars Austrian guitar builder
Heins Guitars
Hollingworth Guitars Australian Guitarmaker
Heart Art Guitarmaker from Spain
High Desert Mandolins and High Desert Guitars
Nik Huber Guitars Germany
Helliver Guitars Germany

I
Ibanez

J
Paul Jacobson Interesting articles on intonation
Jesselli Guitars His guitars are real beauties!
JP Custom Guitars from Portugal

K
Kaman Music Makers of Hamer Guitars, Ovation Guitars, Takamine Guitars, Trace Elliot Amplifiers and Dean Markley Amplifiers
Steve Klein Guitars
Kritz Custom Guitars Innovative guitars from Belgium
Kokinstrumenter.dk Danish guitar builder
Karosa Guitars Inexpensive Custom Guitars Kinkade Guitars
Knotafish - Interesting instruments Dual trash can bass and more
Kenya Guitars made in Africa

L
Lakewood Guitars Great acoustic guitars - made in Germany
Larrivee Guitars Wonderful shell-inlayed acoustic guitars
Lehle Gitarrentechnik Umweltfreundliche E-Gitarren aus Deutschland
Listerud Bass Handmade bassguitars from Norway
George Lowden Guitars Ireland
Joh Lang from New Zealand makes "Langcaster" guitars from 35000 year old Kauri wood
Lollar Guitars
Luk Guitars made in Germany
Launhardt Guitars
Leod Guitars from England

M
C. F. Martin and Company Official pages. Info,catalog,history...
Linda Manzer
Elio Martina Guitars Handgebouwde bassen en gitaren Reparatie and customizing / Handmade basses and guitars Guitar repair & customizing
Hank Mauel Hand Crafted Guitars
McElroy Guitars Beautyfull guitars, supervised by a cat named Picasso!
Modulus Guitars Electric guitars with graphite necks
Andy Manson Luthier from UK
Maricopa Guitar Co. Mike Dotson builds resonator guitars
Dave Maize Acoustic Guitars
Javier Moldes Guitar builder from Spain
McPherson Guitars
Roger Morillo Bass Guitars from Venezuela
Milburn Guitars with extensive french polishing tutorial

N
Neubauer Guitars I once had the chance to visit this Austrian Guitarbuilder. He started as a dental technician and transfered his perfection and skills to something much larger. His Guitars are perfect in every detail.
National Reso-Phonic Guitars
Neilson Lap Steel Guitars Australian lap steel maker

Nado Guitars Beautiful and unique guitars from Croatia

O
Olson Guitars
NoahJames Guitars and EvanJohn Pickups
Noble Guitars Carved top semi-acoustic guitars made in UK
Gerd Nikolaiski Beautiful and individual guitars from Switzerland
Robert O�Brien

P
PRS - Paul Reed Smith Guitars
Pegasus Guitars
JPBasses Basses made in France
R. E. Phillips Metal Guitars Resonator Guitars, Mandolins, Ukuleles...
Prochazka Guitars from Czechoslovakia
Pitway Gitarrens Funny guitars from Germany

R
RainSong Guitars They use graphite for their guitars
Tom Ribbecke
RickenbackerFamous guitars made in California. Very comprehensive site
Steve Ryder Stringed Instruments Electric Mandolins - Finishing/Refinishing - Pickups/Rewinding
Ritter Basses Unique Basses made in Germany
Andreas Rall Sehr gute Information über Tonholzerzeugung
Rhinehart Guitars Hand-carved and hand-painted electric solidbodies
Tim Reede Custom Guitars
John Ray Guitars from Spain

S
Santa Cruz Guitar Company
Sadowsky Guitars Ltd. Highest quality Fender-style custom guitars from NYC
Gitarrenbauer Stefan Sonntag Well made site
The Stick The American Emmet Chapman invented this special guitar and bass instrument. It is played by two hand tapping
Schecter Guitars
Ken Smith Good factory tour
Schramm Guitars
Stratmann-Gitarren
Staufer Guitars André Waldenmaiers guitar shop in Munich, Germany
Ervin Somogyi
Schack Basses Basses made in Germany using the CNF (Covered Neck Fixing) system.
Scott Wise Guitars Australia
Gerald Sheppard Guitars
Skillett Guitars Germany
Schloff Guitars Germany
Stoll Guitars Germany
Scharpach Guitars from The Netherlands
Swanson Guitars

T
Taylor Guitars Excellent website. Check out their tech sheets.
Michael Tobias Fine hand made guitars and basses. Some interesting articles from Bass Player Magazine
Totem Guitars Very uniqe guitars by Michael S. Spalt
Rick Turner Guitars
Tym Custom Guitars Made in Australia
Tonebender Guitar Works Customguitars by Doug Van Quekelberg
Trademark Guitars Tom Hirst wrote the book "Electric Guitar Construction"
Thorndal - electric guitars and basses Timeless Instruments
Tausch Guitars Germany
Joe Till Guitars Handmade in CaliforniaNEW

V
Vogel Guitars Large guitar factory in Ecuador

W
Abe Wechter His "Ask The Guitarmaker" is very useful
Ray Whitaker
Washburn Makers of Oscar Schmidt String Instruments, Washburn Guitars
Warwick Famous Bass Guitars made in Germany
Washburn
Winstons Customs Guitars This Canadian builder makes beautiful guitars Kathy Wingert Guitars
Wal Basses
Wells Guitars
Wilkinson Guitars
Richard Wilson Handmade Weissenborns
Windmill Guitars made in Germany

Z
Zolla guitars

Pickups, Electronics

EMG-Online
Seymour Duncan
DiMarzio
Bartolini
Kent Armstrong
K&K Sound-Systems Pickups and transducers for any instrument
McIntyre Acoustic Pickups Q Tuner pickups Neodymium powered bass and guitar pickups by Erno Zwaan
Hässel Pickups made in Germany
Noll Electronics made in Germany

Strings

D'Addario
Thomastik-Infeld Strings made in Austria and famous all over the world

Other Instruments

Ukulele Diner Welcome and Menu Everything you need to know about the ukulele
The Online Doublebass Guide Informations about the double bass, its history and amplification, tips on pickups, amps and strings. In German and English.
Violin making The works of Hans Johannsson, violin maker, including samples of sound and pictures of his instruments, a sequential description of the construction of a violin from A-Z. Also you will find entries on wood, varnish, glue, tools, design/proportion and instrument care. A beautyful designed site
David C. Hurd- Ukulele Builder in Hawaii He shares a lot of his building experience. Very informative and well made site.
Radke Streichinstrumente Double basses/Kontrabässe from Germany. Great pictures of the building process.
Thomas Baily Maker of Mandolin and Violin Family Instruments Djembe and African Drums Hisory - African drums information and history. Djembe, Bongo, Bougarabou, Kpanlogo, Bata and other african drums.
Ciro Caliendo Italian violin maker

Publications

Acoustic Guitar Magazine
Gitarre&Bass
Fine Woodworking
Akustik Gitarre