Guitar Templates:
I have just finished publishing all of our Guitar Templates for the Ultimate Guitar Building plans. If you plan to make more than just one guitar, you should plan to make yourself a nice professional set of templates for each guitar size and style you plan to make.
They are located in the Ultimate Guitar OnLine Shopping Site, and are intended to supplement each guitar plan that we currently have for sale. Just click the link at each guitar plan labeled Guitar Template Set – Add to Cart and you can purchase one to add to your guitar plan.
Templates allow you to maintain accuracy in your plan by having an accurate Plexiglas or lexan template to repeat your guitar shape, bracing patterns, peghead design, tuning machine locations and much more.
I have a full set of guitar building templates for each style of guitar that I make. If I make revisions to the way I make the guitar, the template gets revised or remade as well. I then decide whether to keep or toss the old template, depending on the information the template contains.
We make the job of making your essential guitar building templates an easy one. The template sheet consists of one large sheet with the following templates all laid out for you and ready to go:
Each Guitar Building Template Set will include the following templates:
Top Bracing Layout Template:This Template will be one of the most used templates that you own. You can use it to layout your top and back plate outlines, locate your top brace ends and locate your reinforcement strips with accuracy. I have a one of these templates for each of the guitar shapes that I make.
Fret Layout Template: All frets laid out and dimensioned ready for you to load into a fret template jig or hand cut on your own. Most luthiers have several scale they work from and it is a good thing to have a good stable fret scale that you can use to make repetitive fret cuts.
Ultimate Guitar Building Tip: A word of caution about using the paper to template to mark your fret layout though. Keep in mind that paper can change in size based on humidity and temperature and can vary by as much as a few percent. This will throw your scale off enough that you will have intonation problems. Make your template from the noted dimensions rather than transferring the drawing information directly to the template.
Headpiece Template: Use this for headpiece contour and accurate tuning machine layouts. Carefully mark the Global Centerline on the template for reference. mark the nut location and all tuning machine centerlines on the template too. I like to drill a small hole at the centerline crossing points to correctly mark the hole that is to be drilled.
Neck Layout Template: When I first started making guitars I didn’t use one of these templates. I now find they are very useful to keep all the contours handy for the heel contour, marking out the neck blocks for rough cutting and marking neck lengths. Also for the Classical Guitar, it has information on the foot and head block contours.
Ultimate Guitar Building Tip: If your scale lengths are the same for your guitars, you don’t need a complete neck template for each guitar. You may just want a template for the heel contour as the depth of the guitar changes. Also this is a good template to mark the location of the neck attachment dowels or the cross dowel locations for a bolt-on neck application.
Side Contour Template: This template is worth the price of the Template Set alone! This side contour can be cut out and laid directly on your guitar sides and you can automatically cut the correct back arch and taper on your sides without trial and error. I have marked a light blue line on this template that shows effect on the side if you make a straight cut from tail block to head block. With some of the guitar shapes, there is a dramatic difference between the actual contour and this line.
Also keep in mind that this template is not an absolute. What I mean is that the dimensions for side depth are calculated at 1″ intervals around the perimeter of the guitar, taking into account the back arch. If your back arch changes slightly, so will your site contour. It is wise to always leave yourself a little bit of “headroom” so you can make some minor adjustments along the way.
Guitar Template Plans:
Guitar Template Plan Set for 0-28VS
Guitar Template Plan Set for 00-28VS
Guitar Template Plan Set for 000-28VS
Guitar Template Plan Set for 000 Concert
Guitar Template Plan Set for Dreadnought
Guitar Template Plan Set for Dreadnought 12
Guitar Template Plan Set for GA 12
Guitar Template Plan Set for GA
Guitar Template Plan Set for GS 12
Guitar Template Plan Set for GS
Guitar Template Plan Set for HD28VS
Guitar Template Plan Set for J45
Guitar Template Plan Set for Jumbo 12
Guitar Template Plan Set for Jumbo
Guitar Template Plan Set for Ramirez Classical
Guitar Template Plan Set for Kasha Classical
Guitar Template Plan Set for Torres Classical
Guitar Template Plan Set for Bouchet Classical
Tags: guitar making forms, guitar templates, how to make a guitar, how to make guitar templates
