I am about to buy a flamenco guitar kit from a store in Spain. I've never built a guitar before. Is the list of material below an ok list of materials? The plans are for a Santos Hernandez guitar. I want to put a French polish/shellac on it. I am afraid of ruining it all! Because I am on a budget, I think I can get a better guitar buying it this way, than paying for an already made guitar. All the materials including the S.Hernandez plan will cost me about USD$300.00. It does not include the french polish, nor glue.
Is this a good idea? The kit includes:
Backs and sides (unbended): Cypress
Soundboard: Spruce
Neck: Finished Cedar Neck
Headplate: Indian rosewood
Bridge blank: Indian rosewood
Binding: Indian rosewood
Fingerboard: Ebony
Tuning machine
Interior wood: Spruce
Reinforcement wood: African Mahogany
Frets
Please if you can help, I beg you, do so!
Ektor
Set of bone nut and saddle
Rosette

Ektor, I would advise no! The quality of materials in most of these kits is poor and bending the sides will require an investment either in forms or skill in bending using a hot iron. I would advise one of the kits from a place like Luthier Supply that has the sides bent and the fingerboard fretted, etc. You will still need to invest in some tools like scrapers. Also you need good woodworking skills and understanding the construction of a flamenco guitar. Setting the neck correctly is a real issue and most important in making it playable. A couple of years ago when I was considering getting one of the better kits and making a traditional flamenco, I figured my cost at least $700 since I had sold off my guitar making tools. I know several that bought kits that ended up as firewood. I also saw a beautiful looks and sound flamenco someone built from a LMI kit and they sold it for $1500.

LMI has lots of important info that might help you make a good decision. I would go for the premium kit as it isn't that much more. http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/Secondprodu ... ument+Kits

If you want to make a guitar go for it! Invest in making a guitar dont forget you will need alot of tools for the job. Bending iron alon is about £150. french polish is great but takes along time to learn to do it well.

If you want a good guitar for cheap this is not the best way to do it!

I have always had a strong tendency toward learning to do things myself and wouldn't want to discourage anyone from learning to make their own guitar. Even so, I am sure Stephen is right about that not being the cheapest way to obtain a good guitar. Not only can tools and supplies cost more than a premade guitar, but the first guitars most people make probably aren't great guitars.

I think the best guitar bargains can be found among beat-up old guitars. Appearance is important, but not nearly as important as sound-quality and playability. If Itzhak Perlman had the choice of playing a major concert with a badly scratched and dinged, but perfectly playable, Stradivarius or a brand new violin it probably wouldn't take him long to decide which to use.

Antonio Stradivari is a well known luthier and everyone knows Stradivarius violins are valuable. However, the makers of many great old guitars are not well known to most people and their guitars sometimes sell at bargain prices because of appearance. Being old and beat-up does not insure a good buy, but that is the market segment where bargains can be found.

Peter Tsiorba made an insightful observation related to this during a discussion in his shop one day when he said the best old guitars are apt to have the most damage, because the best guitars are more apt to have been played the most.

-Bob