Guitar Making with Eric Nichols

In this class, the goal is to construct a Dreadnought style acoustic steel string guitar. The students will receive instruction so they can follow all the steps needed to make the instrument including joining and bracing the top and back plates, installing the rosette, bending the sides, constructing and binding the body, fabricate and carve the neck, make the bridge, install the tuners, installing the frets and setting up up the nut and saddle for proper play ability.

The materials provided will result in a guitar ( in the white as in no finish) with the following features. The Body:

Sitka Spruce book matched top with Herringbone Rosette
Black/white/black purflings and white plastic bindings
Indian Rosewood book matched back and sides with white plastic tail strip
Mahogany head and tail block
Sitka Spruce soundboard braces, back joint reinforcement strip and sound hole reinforcement braces Indian Rosewood bridge plate and bridge with cow bone saddle and white plastic bridge pins

The Neck:
Mahogany neck with single acting truss rod Indian Rosewood fingerboard and head plate

Medium gauge strings
Medium sized nickel-silver fret wires
Mother of Pearl dot and side markers
Sealed 14:1 ratio geared tuners with hex bushings Cow bone nut
White plastic heel cap

The instruction will involve the use of hand tools like chisels, rasps, scrapers and saws as well as power tools like the band saw, drill press, sanders, routers, joiner, table saw and spindle sander. There will also be specialized jigs and fixtures unique to guitar making that will used in class like side bending machines, radius forms, external guitar mold and neck to body joining jig to name a few.