Blogs

Building the Lady is a step by step guide to the creation of my most popular and basic guitars, the "Parlour Lady".

Many feature guides on various different processes in isolation but here the whole build is featured from a collection of parts to the finished article ready for the road! The process continues over a weekend between glueing stops, everything is condensed into just over an hour viewing time including the optional fretting stage...

Part one - cutting and preparing the neck.

Part two - preparing the box.

Part three - bringing neck and box together, shaping the neck, fittings and stringing up.

Part four - concentrates on preparing and fretting the neck.

The finished guitar is build no.55,  a three string 25.5" right handed fretless with a small sized box, ideal for the beginner or traveller, the guitar is fitted with a 35mm piezo and has a big sound, the nut is made from a brass bolt and the bridge is an old metal key mounted on a small hardwood spacing block. The neck is made from precut mill lengths of 1.5 inch x 3/4 inch American hardwood.   The fretboards are made from pre-cut strips of maple, sapele, walnut or cherry.

The processes have been edited to save time but still shows how much work goes into building even a simple guitar design, and just about marketable!

NOTE;   For a harder sound a slightly heavier string combination can be used, especially for fretted guitars;

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Full demo here  ;