Overview of the book

The guitar featured in the book is a WGSS03/C. With this book making an acoustic guitar is much easier than most people suppose and with basic woodworking skills, a modest work space and only a few specialist tools, you too can make an instrument fit for the concert platform.

All stages fully illustrated with colour photographs, clear drawings and detailed plans for each part of the instrument. The book helps with choosing materials, tuning the soundboard, placing the frets and adjusting the action.

Ordering information

The book including the plans for a steel string cutaway is
£14.50 including P&P for UK addresses.

Sorry due to bank charges I don't accept credit cards, though PayPal is accepted.

Contact me for further information or Europe and USA postage prices.

I will have copies of my book available at the shows this year priced £13.50 if collecting in person.
Find out which shows I will be attending >

Recent Reviews

"The Best Guitar Making Book So Far" Richard Jenkins.

And it is worth five stars - for those who want to learn the Spanish Slipper Heel method for joining the neck to the body..... and this is the method taught by the Totnes School, and used by a number of guitar makers including Andy Manson. The slipper heel method is also simpler for the aspiring luthier. My only word of warning to a new guitar maker is that, as good this book is, you may still need some help or demonstration from a professional - perhaps Alex Willis will also make the video?

"INVALUABLE GUIDANCE" B. J. Tetteh-lartey "Benny Tetteh-Lartey"

For someone who had previously constructed only an electric bass guitar this book proved to be invaluable for guidance on the important structural elements of my COMBUITAR (www.youtube.com) Alex Willis wrote it in such a way that I was not completely tied to his individual design but could make use of the many techniques described therein to leave room for creativity. I particularly liked the fact he always stated an alternative tool or method to most of the steps. I highly recommend "Step by Step Guitar Making" for anyone who would like to build with confidence!

"Removing the Fog and Myths Surrounding Guitar Making" AD Aubert

Step by Step Guitar Making by Alex Willis is excellent value for money ,a book and plans for less than the price of some plans.With an ultra clear colour photograph for each numbered text, on the same page, describing constructional details Alex has come very close to making a guitar fool proof.Chapters on tools, equipment and the workshop serve as an introduction to building methods, schedule of operations ,wood selection and the making of the template and solera. Almost every page has a additional "Tip" or information panel supplementing the numbered steps.The two sided plan is printed on a quality guitar sized sheet so that top and side views are presented on one side whole and not truncated as is often the case. The reverse side shows a full size view of the sound board and drawings and dimensions for all the relevant parts to be made.Although my first guitar was a classical instrument this book proved invaluable in filling in the spaces left by the woeful quality and low number of the black and white pictures in the book that I had been sold. A lot of thought has gone into this and if you want to make a steel strung guitar using a solera this is a one stop book.

Step by Step Guitar Making. Reviewed in September 2007 Classical Guitar Magazine.

It should be said at the outset that this book covers the construction of the acoustic steel-string guitar (not the Spanish Classical guitar). Thus its relevance will mainly be to those wishing to know something about the design and building methods for steel-string guitars. The guitar built in this book is based on the famous C. F. Martin OM pattern, which is one of Martin’s most popular instruments. It is a single cut-away guitar and like most steel-string guitars, the neck joins the body at the 14th fret. The book is well-presented, with many good quality colour photographs and some technical drawings. Also included is a folded, full-size plan of the guitar to be made.

There are already several good books available on the construction of steel-string guitars, so one must wonder why there is a need for yet another hopefully a new writer will be contributing a new view on the subject, at least in some respects, so that the reader might feel justified in adding yet another book to the bookshelf. Much of the material in Step-by-Step Guitar Making is closely based on other leading books on the subject, but the writer does include some of his own ideas and methods.

The book is divided into two basic sections: Part 1 covers all the planning and preparation needed before the making begins. Part 2 covers the various stages of construction. The author writes largely in the first person, and the book does read like a personal diary, written up to clarify all the stages that the maker went through while building the guitar, as well as including some novel ideas that occurred to him along the way. This gives the book an easy-going, chatty feel, which makes it a pleasure to read and easy to follow. Alex Willis shows the reader how and why he does what he does, and is clearly full of enthusiasm for the subject.

The step-by-step instructions are good, because each instruction is numbered, and corresponds to a photograph with the same number, making the task in hand visually clear.There is a good deal of information about choosing tools, tonewoods, adhesives and other materials, and the author gives his reasoning for the choices he makes. The actual method of construction is eclectic; Willis takes procedures from a variety of traditions; - for example, he employs the Spanish heel method of joining the neck to the ribs, rather than the traditional technique favoured by steel-string guitar factories, where the neck is joined with a kind of dovetail, or mortise and tennon joint once the sound box is complete. Willis’ choice of method makes sense, as the luthier who makes one guitar at a time is able to use the stronger Spanish method with ease. (It has been said that the main reason for attaching the neck separately is that most steel-string guitars have always been factory-produced, and mass production line assembly method makes it more cost-effective and time-saving to build the sound box first, spray it with lacquer, and then attach the neck, already complete with fretboard and frets. But there is no rational reason for guitar makers working on their own to use this method.)

Willis also borrows the design of the end-block from that master maker of classical guitars, Ignacio Fleta, who used a complex end-block with both horizontal and vertical grain. Again, there is no reason to avoid this useful innovation on the grounds that it is used in classical, rather than steel-string guitars.
The author’s approach of taking the most suitable construction methods that seem appropriate is refreshing, and is a positive aspect of the book. The book focuses almost entirely on the basic construction method of the guitar, with little information about acoustics and theory, but the author points out that much of that information is readily available on the internet. It is probably a good idea to keep the content focused in this way, as the book can then function as a basic workbench guide for the maker, who will hopefully share some of the author’s enthusiasm. Guitar making has in recent years become an extremely popular amateur past-time and Step-by-Step Guitar Making will encourage even more guitarist to have a go at making their own instruments.

Roy Courtnall

Ellis Walentine at www.woodcentral.com

As a long-time guitar player and woodworker, I've always wanted to make my own acoustic guitar from scratch. Guitar making offers a challenging opportunity to apply a wide range of woodworking skills - some of them unique to this particular craft -- with the added dimension of sound, a property of wood that doesn't figure into most other woodworking pursuits. So, when Alex Willis's new book, Step-By-Step Guitar Making, came out, I was first in line to review it, particularly since it is about making a single-cutaway, acoustic steel-string concert guitar - similar to Martin Guitars' OM series -- a type of instrument that I have always wanted to own. Willis's book has convinced me that I can make my own. I had read earlier books on guitar making and repair, including well-known volumes by Irving Sloane and Don Teeter; Willis' book is different. Though he has been designing and building guitars full-time only since 2003, he demonstrates a thorough understanding of the tools and techniques involved, and, in this book, he illustrates every step of the process clearly and effectively. This is not a book for the novice woodworker, as it assumes you have a reasonable skill set and at least a modicum of tools and equipment; but, it is directly aimed at the first-time guitar builder. I felt that an ambitious beginner with basic hand-tool woodworking skills could successfully complete one of these instruments. Part One of the book gives an overview of guitar anatomy and the planning process, including a catalog of the woods, tools, adhesives and accessories you will need. Part Two is divided into twelve chapters that describe the phases of construction, from making the "solera" (a plywood platform on which the guitar is laid out and built) and templates, to making the individual components - the neck, the back, the soundboard, the ribs and linings - to assembling and finishing the instrument. Included is a large two-sided drawing that includes full-size details of the body and every component. If you would rather build a conventional, non-cutaway model, there are instructions here for how to do that too. The greatest strength of the book is its readability. Every step is clearly described and numbered, and keyed to a large, full-color photo of that step, making it easy to know exactly where you are in the process at all times, and leaving precious little to the imagination. That's reassuring to a first-time guitar builder. Overall, I think Willis has done an excellent job of documenting this challenging project, and I recommend his book highly to any woodworker who has toyed with the idea of building an acoustic guitar. You can see more of his work at his website.