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Last updated 27th July 2005 by Bree

Gitar Construction

The first step to making a gitar is to select the right wood. The wood used must be easy to bend into the different forms that will be needed to shape the gitar.

The first cut requires two thinner pieces of wood, each long enough to make a side of the body of the gitar. These two pieces are dampened, and shaped over a hot metal form. This form consists of a solid metal piece that has two rises, a smaller and a larger, allowing the pieces to be molded into the shape of one side of the gitar. After the two pieces are shaped over the metal form they are placed on a jig with wooden rods sticking up to hold the newly formed wood in the shape that it has just been bent into, allowing it to keep its new shape as it cools.

After the newly shaped sides have cooled, they are placed into a wooden mold, where a small piece is glued at the bottom of the gitar to hold the two halves together. A thinner piece of wood is used to line the inside of the sides at the top and bottom, but leaving a gap at the top. Another piece is cut to hold the top together too, but before it is glued, it is cut to include a triangular gap in which to fit the gitar neck.

To make the back of the gitar, cut a thicker piece of wood, following the shape that was created with the joining of the sides. Both the back and the top, must fit snugly onto the sides that were formed without leaving gaps. Small slats of wood are cut and attached to the inside of the back to provide enough strength to support the neck.

The top of the gitar starts with a piece of wood cut in the shape as the back, with a hole cut from the middle of the bottom section of the piece. The backside of the front panel must braced, but the braces will run vertically, rather then the horizontal braces of the back.

A bridge is also fashioned; this is glued towards the bottom of the front of the gitar. This bridge is a flat piece of wood that has pegs carved into it to hold the strings.

The neck of the gitar must be cut and carved correctly, otherwise the sound that the gitar produces will not be true. First, a triangular shape is carved into the bottom; this is the piece that will fit into the cut that was made at the top of the body of the gitar. However, part of the fingerboard, the top of the neck, will extend beyond this triangular shape to the top of the sound hole. Then the opposite end is carved at a slight angle, pointing downward if the neck is held with the fingerboard facing upward, making sure that it is long enough to hold four evenly spaced pegs on each side.

The length between the base and the tuning area is then carved and smoothed. This length should be flattened on the top (the fingerboard side) and carved into a slight arch on the bottom (too much and it will be uncomfortable to hold). Four evenly-spaced holes are bored on each side of the tuning area, to hold the tuning pegs to which the strings will be attached. The eight tuning pegs are fashioned as round pegs with flat places on each one of them at one end and a hole bored through the other end. Another piece of thin wood is cut to overlay the fingerboard; it should be the same length as the neck, stretching from the sound hole to the start of the tuning area, with several upraised horizontal lines carved into it, to allow the different notes to be fingered. It is then glued into place.

All of these parts are then put together. First the back is glued to the sides, making sure that no glue is showing, then held together tightly so that there are no gaps between the pieces of wood. This process is accomplished while the sides are still firmly held in the mold. The top is then glued to the sides and a heavy board is placed on top to hold the piece down on the sides without damaging the front. After the glue has dried any type of inlay or decoration can be added, but the crafter must make sure not to damage anything or cut too deep, since any alteration can cause the gitar's sound to be altered.

The neck is then added, ensuring that the angle between the body of the gitar and the neck is not too severe, so that the gitar can be comfortably played. To attach the neck to the body, glue the triangular shape into the cut at the top of the body, with the piece of the fingerboard that extends past the triangle fitting cleanly against the body.

After the glue has dried attach the strings. These are made from thin pieces of braided animal intestines, and attached to the bridge at the bottom of the gitar, ranging the strings from thick to thin, bottom to top respectively. The strings are tied to the pegs at the top of the neck, slipping the gut through the holes that were bored into the pegs, with the outside strings on each side attached to the lowest peg and working inward to each consecutive higher peg. The player can then tune the instrument by turning the pegs to tighten the strings.

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