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Home : Free Information : Kit building : Dreadnought Guitar Kit

Dreadnought Guitar Kit

Assembly instructions


IN THIS ARTICLE
• Recommended parts and tools
• Braces and side assembly
• Routing and binding
• Making a fretboard
• Finishing
• Final assembly and setup


i-5295 Updated 06/09







You are about to build a truly great guitar! We designed this acoustic kit with the small shop builder and a modest tool budget in mind, with the exception of a few specialty guitar making tools.

Please read these instructions before building your guitar. They were written to include all variations of our Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar Kit. Options include dovetail or bolt-on neck, and back and side woods of either mahogany or rosewood.

Throughout the assembly of the kit you'll need a flat workboard of 3/4" plywood approximately 24" long and 20" wide, big enough for your guitar's body assembly.




DOWNLOAD PDF
Download Dreadnought Guitar Kit Instructions
1.8MB

View instructions with Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 or higher.
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RECOMMENDED TOOLS AND SUPPLIES
This list is also provided in the PDF download, above.

The following tools and supplies are recommended to assemble your kit. Though all of these tools aren't necessary to build your kit, they make many assembly steps easier and more professional. Tools available here at Stewart-MacDonald are linked for more information.

Tools




Electric hand drill

Coping saw

Center punch or awl

Glue brushes

6" steel rule

1/2" chisel

1/4" and 3/8" brad point bits

File set

Mini-rasp set

Nut-slotting files (#4541, 4542, 4543, and 4544 are suggested for this kit)

Fret Leveler

Dressing stick

Fret cutter

Fret hammer

24" straightedge

Radius gauge set

.020" gauged saw

Scraper blade

Bridge pin reamer with 3-degree angle

Standard-size reamer (to enlarge pegholes for bushings)

Cam clamps — Small (at least 4) and Large (2)

Spool clamps (24)

Clothes Pins (50)

Medium bar-style clamp (2)

X-Acto knife

Tools for Binding Installation



You have a couple of different options to choose from depending on the tools you already own. If you plan on using a laminate trimmer or router for binding channels, we suggest our Binding Router Bit Set. It is our preferred method. If you plan on routing your binding channels with a Dremel tool, our Precision Router Set ships with everything you will need.

Supplies




3/4" plywood workboard 24" x 20"

Titebond glue

Weld-On Cement

Super Glue — #10 Thin and #20 Medium

Double-stick tape

Draftsman's tape (low tack)

Masking/binding tape (high tack)

Rubber binding bands (option to using binding tape)

Sandpaper (80, 100, 150 and 220-grit)

Wax paper

White pencil

Felt-tip marker

Clean cotton glove

Finishing Materials (for aerosol nitrocellulose lacquer finish)



Our easy-to-apply ColorTone Essential Finishing Kit is a great choice for the first-time instrument maker. It's everything you need to complete a basic finish, plus it includes very informative Guitar Finishing Step-By-Step book for free!

Guitar Finishing Step-By-Step book

Sandpaper/Finishing Paper Sampler

ColorTone Concentrated Liquid Stain — Tobacco Brown and Red Mahogany

ColorTone Waterbase Grain Filler — Medium Brown

ColorTone Aerosol Guitar Lacquer — Clear Gloss (4 to 6 cans)

Black superglue or Black Epoxy

Blush Eraser

Stewart-MacDonald Polishing Compound — Medium, Fine and Swirl Remover (optional)

Foam Polishing Pads for your 1/4" electric hand drill (2 or 3)

Naphtha solvent

Paint stripper

Masking supplies: brown paper, masking tape, cardboard and rubber balloon (or newspaper) for soundhole















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