Building guitar building

richter4208

Is Michael Collins book on building a selmer style the only resource material for instruction on building a gypsy guitar? In addition is this book considered a good resource for such a build?

Not necessarily considering the pursuit myself, but as a way of visualizing and looking at build dimensions as well as bracing and blueprint of a selmer

Craig Bumgarner

Collins' book is the only how-to book on Selmer construction and has lots of good ideas. It is a bit paint by numbers without a lot of discussion about why, but a book that would deal with all of the "whys" in guitar building would take many volumes, so within the limited scope of his book, it is very good. Bob Benedetto's book on archtop guitars is similar.

If you want to delve into dimensions, bracing, etc., Francois Charle's book on the history of the Selmer guitar is a must have for anyone seriously interested in the style and his detailed full size plans of Selmer guitars are works of art and very accurate in most details. If you are simply interested in visuallizing the build, by a set of plans. The book has lots of details, but not really a how to book.

Selmer guitars are unique in some ways, but in most, they are just acoustic steal string guitars. In that regard, a book like Gore & Gillet's two volume set on guitar building and design will likely cover 90% of what is needed to build Selmer style.

richter4208

Thanks so much Craig. I will look into the resources you metioned. I'm really interested in Charles book

Will your guitars be at DFNW?

Craig Bumgarner

Maybe I should point out F. Charle's plans are sold separately, not included with his book. The book is more about the history and the models than the construction, but there is a chapter on construction as it relates to factory history.

You will also find a number of pictures and a few drawings on the web. Leo Eimers' web site has detailed pictures of Selmer restorations.