Building a Classical Guitar

From April to September of 2025, I built my own classical guitar from scratch. I’ve always enjoyed building instruments, having done 2 harps and a cigar box ukulele before, but this was by far the most complex and involved project I have taken on to date, and I am super proud of the final result

The design is a fusion of techniques from Roy Courtnall’s and John Bogdanovich’s books on guitarmaking, blending traditional techniques with my own design choices.

Listen to a sound sample now!

Making my own tools is a very satisfying exercise is product design, and lets me make bespoke jigs that are either prohibitively expensive or tailored to my working style or tooling.

My reference books were written before 3d printing was broadly accessible, so I was able to design and 3d print several useful jigs such a rosette routing jig, a binding routing jig, and thickness caliper, each a mini design challenge in its own right.

The high precision, intricate working style needed for building instruments lines up nicely with my own personal style, which is one reason I enjoy instrument building so much.

Although I didn’t even know how to play guitar at the beginning of the project, now I am learning and starting to become able to enjoy the final product too!

I hope to one day make a steel string acoustic guitar, using the learnings from the classical guitar.

From prototyping to testing, from 3D printing to machining metal, this project was a test of my full skill set. And I’m very pleased with how it came out. I built it so it is able to flat-packed and transported, and it is currently here with me at school where I regularly use it.

For the full step by step details, refer to my Instructables article: Build A Printmaking Press