Stewart-MacDonaldEverything for building and repairing stringed instruments!
Your order cart Your order | Account | Saved list
Sign in
E-mail us or call 800-848-2273
Home Free catalog Quick order International Customer service

Home : Bodies, necks, wood : Dreadnought Guitar Kit

Quality parts made by Stewart-MacDonald

Dreadnought Guitar Kit


Read 19 Reviews   |   Write a Review

Now with rosewood fingerboard and bridge.
These are the highest quality Dreadnought kits available, with solid bookmatched grade-AAA back, sides and soundboard for great tone. We manufacture these kits right here in our own shop, so every part is of quality wood and machined for accurate fit.

No other instrument kits give you this level
of instructional detail:

Full-size plan and bracing template
Building an Acoustic Guitar Kit DVD
Sold separately for $39.95, yours FREE with this kit!
Learn more about it...
Acoustic Kit Assembly Instructions, 36 pages of photos and
diagrams to guide you through every stage of construction.
Read instructions...


See details below

Email a friend
Dreadnought Guitar Kit
 
Item# Description In stock Price Quantity
5295 Mahogany, dovetail neck Yes
$441.00

5296 Rosewood, dovetail neck Yes
$489.00

5293 Mahogany, bolt-on neck Yes
$441.00

5294 Rosewood, bolt-on neck Yes
$489.00


Selected currency  
 
 









 Processing...







Details
 Pictures
Related Items
Articles
Instructions
Build a fine quality guitar you can be proud of!

"People who saw the finished instrument were astonished that it came from a kit... Anyone wanting to begin a guitarmaking career this way won't be disappointed. All the components are high grade and meant to last a lifetime."
— John Calkin, American Lutherie
Read more from the review for American Lutherie

A hands-on course in guitar making.
We include full-size plans drawn by Don MacRostie, who designed our kits based on prized vintage Martins. The kits are adapted for the small shop so you won't need factory tools. We do the precision machine work, so you can hand build a great guitar.

We include illustrated assembly instructions and a FREE DVD, Building an Acoustic Guitar Kit! This DVD demonstrates the process in a way that would take a book to fully describe — and you can see what you'll be doing before you do it yourself. No other instrument kits give you this level of instructional detail!

These kits and instructional material are a solid introduction to guitarmaking.

These are great sounding guitars!
You get a bookmatched AAA back and side set, available in rosewood or mahogany. The AAA solid spruce top has been thickness-sanded and profiled. We've slotted the rosewood fingerboard, included pre-cut inlays and a genuine bone nut and saddle.

Choose a bolt-on neck or a traditional dovetail—both are machined for an accurate fit, saving you hours of complicated work. Width at the nut is approximately 1-3/4". Only the final trimming and sanding are required.

Included in the kit is a Hot Rod Truss Rod, to make the neck two-way adjustable.

Save time, save tools.
You don't need to tool up for critical machine work like side bending, shaping the neck and cutting the heel joint. You'll hand build and finish an heirloom quality instrument.

Solid AAA tonewoods: Spruce, rosewood and mahogany
Precision-machined neck joint
Precut heavy cardboard molds for trouble-free body assembly
Detailed instructions, DVD and builder's plans included FREE!
Hundreds of our kits have been built by first-time builders and
experienced luthiers

View the complete parts list for the Dreadnought Guitar Kit (PDF file 105KB).

You add the tuners.
From years of supplying kits to builders we know that you'll want to choose the finishing touches, so tuners and strings are not included. To personalize your guitar, see our selection for the tuning machines of your choice.

Triple-O Guitar Kit is an exciting variation on our Dreadnought Kit.
Building an Acoustic Guitar Kit DVD is not "region-specific," and is intended for worldwide use.

Customize your kit to be a left-handed instrument.
Though our guitar kits are intended for right-handed players, the soundboard bracing patterns can be reversed to build a left-handed instrument. You can make a left-handed bridge from scratch using one of our bridge blanks.

/\ Top of product page
 Ratings and reviews
Dreadnought Guitar Kit
Dreadnought Guitar Kit
 
5 out of 5 stars
Based on 19 ratings Write a Review
Sort reviews by
Displaying 1 – 10 1  2 >
4 2-01-2012
My best guitar

My first build and it went pretty well. Some minor differences between the manual and video so you study both and make up your mind. Access to truss rod is tough due to lateral sound hole brace and location of neck bolts. Enlarged hole in neck block before assembly and use alan key socket on socket wrench for adjustment. The tinted filler is tough to use to both fill and not leave surface residue.

If sfc cleaned well the pores tend to scoop out. If pores well filled the sfc residue is so hard to get off you wind up sanding through the stain and starting over. Definitely level the frets after assembly. Nice sound, good booming bass and strong mids in balance with high tones. Sounds way better than my previous instrument.

Phil C  Selkirk, MB Read my reviews (3)
Customer supplied image for review
5 1-11-2012
Dreadnought Guitar Kit

I haven't started building the kit yet. I'm going to take my time over this. If it's your first guitar build like me you'll need quite a few tools so keep this in mind if you're counting the pennies. Everything looks to be of exceptional quality and the DVD and book look to have enough information the get throught this exercise OK.

Kevin Breeze  Tura Beach NSW Australia Read my reviews (2)
4 12-18-2011
rosewood bolt-on kit

Good: Wood quality's better than the high-end guitars from the big boys. The 2 books and the DVD are good. Books could use some editing (will work for guitar parts, tools, or discounts - I majored in English at Eastern.) The instructions were good, though some things I thought were necessary weren't there. My "work-arounds" would fill those gaps nicely. It has been fun so far, and am looking forward to playing it for the first time.
Bad: StewMac has NO LEFTY SUPPORT at all. When I get a lefty customer, it's all on me to make it work. Not cool at the prices on this stuff.
Recommendations: Add lefty parts as an option, for no additional charge of course. Also, the price should include basic tools and tuners.
Work-arounds: "Invented" weighting to clamp the flat braces. Had to convert the bridge to lefty. Made the peghead overlay into a pickguard. It looks cool, but was not easy to do. Will use the "how to blacken a peghead face" in the finishing book. One big instruction we need: What to do if something is off-center and due to "clamp creep" we don't notice it 'til the Titebond has dried.
Those cam clamps are nice. I got a couple. I made 48 Spool clamps for around $9, so finally, please consider making this stuff affordable for the "little guy" that doesn't have huge cash reserves.
Thanks

the axeman  Texas Read my reviews (6)
5 12-04-2011
2nd Dreadnought Kit

This is my second kit from Stemac. The first one was for my daughter and she is still amazed that I made it and it is her pride and joy. As with the first kit, the second kit's materials was first rate and the technical support from staff was exceptional. I am very proud of both guitars and look forward to building another. I wish all the people at Stewmac a very merry Christmas. God bless you and your families.

David Strychalski  Austin, Tx Read my reviews (2)
Customer supplied image for review
5 11-11-2011
I Should Have Done This Years Ago

After years of reading books, articles, and web sites on guitar construction, I finally took the plunge and bought a kit. What a great way to learn by doing! I was very happy with the quality of the parts in the kit and with the directions.

If I could go back in time and talk to myself before building the kit, I would recommend that I get the bolt on neck instead of the dovetail neck. I got the dovetail joint to work, but it was very difficult for a first-time builder.

Another part of the kit that I thought was difficult was cutting the notch for the X-brace joint. I ended up making new X braces from scratch and leaving the area where the joint is rectangular instead of rounded over. I had to scrap the X brace that came with the kit because my joint was very loose.

Other than that, everything else was very enjoyable. I can't wait to start building my next guitar from scratch.

Adams Guitars  Wisconsin Read my reviews (3)
Customer supplied image for review
5 7-13-2011
Rosewood Dreadnought guitar kit

So this will be review number 1 for the kit guitar. This is the WOW I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW NICE THE WOOD IS review. I got a great looking kit well packed and am sure I am about to have ALOT OF FUN. GREAT KIT STEWMAC!!! I will post pics and a review of the finished product later.

Greg Tackett  Los Angeles, Ca, U.S. OF A.
5 6-08-2011
Dreadnaught Kit

Great guitar kit with a lot of hard work already taken care of, the bolt on neck I chose was much easier to use than the traditional dovetail and pinned mortice and tennon joints I've used in the past, the only downside for me was the plastic binding that came with the kit although as I understand it Ivoroid cannot be shipped to England, so I made some from flamed Maple that I had lying around and got a little creative inlaying some celtic knotwork also cut from maple.... all in all a great way to build a great guitar!

Paul Howarth  England Read my reviews (2)
5 5-20-2011
dreadnought

I am impressed with the quality of the wood and craftsmanship

joe's work shop  milton,fl
5 4-14-2011
KIT Deadnought Mahagony

La guitare est finie. Elles est superbe. Le son est magique. C'est une guitare qui en commerce vaut dans les 2000 €.
Great guitar, the sound is really amazing. It sounds like a 2000 € Guitar
I need to buy another one.
Thank You.
Benma

BENMA  Lyon France Read my reviews (2)
5 3-17-2011
Couldn't Be Happier

Woods were great. Video, instructions, and plans were great. It all came together as advertised, and the sound is amazing.

Chuck Thomas  Pleasant Grove, UT
Customer supplied image for review
Displaying 1 – 10 1  2 > /\ Top of Reviews


Shown on page 97 of our latest catalog.

Toll-free order line:   800-848-2273   9am-6pm Eastern Time, M-F



Your order | Your account | Trade Secrets E-mail Newsletter
Home | Free catalog | Catalog Quick Order | International | Customer service
Our guarantee | Shipping | Security & Privacy | Contact us
Site map | About Us | Employment
© Copyright 2012 Stewart-MacDonald
Your shopping is secure with VeriSign! Trusted Commerce