Travel Guitar Build - Part 1

Documenting building a pair of Trekker travel Guitars from scratch.

Links for the tools, book reference, and guitar plans:
Bench Dog Tools No. 4 and 60-1/2 Hand Planes
https://amzn.to/3vyRRXs

Making an Archtop Guitar by Robert Benedetto
https://amzn.to/3rRca02

Gyokucho Razorsaw 9-1/2" Double Edge (Ryoba) for Hardwoods - best saw decision that improved precision:
https://amzn.to/30I699P

Hibdon Hardwoods
https://www.hibdonhardwood.com/collec...

Trekker travel guitar plans - the original plan has a 25 1/2 inch scale. I modified it to a 27-inch scale for baritone guitar.
https://www.harpkit.com/trekker-guita...

Neck Angle Calculator
http://www.tundraman.com/Guitars/Neck...

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I'm building these two Trekker Travel guitars with various woods I have around the shop. Mahogany, ash, granadillo, cedar, and walnut. I got the granadillo set from Hibdon Hardwoods.

These are the third and fourth guitars I'm building from scratch. My first was a disaster and didn't survive being finished. My second Travel guitar is a left-handed model. There are a few shots of it in the video. It's quite loud with a banjo-like punchy tone. I found out that slowing down gave me better results. It tunes up ok and stays in tune. Now I need to learn to play left-handed.

I modified my design with a 2-degree neck angle, a 27” scale, a taller bridge, and an arch-top style tailpiece.

Part One of the Travel Guitar build includes the following parts of the process:
preparing the neck
headstock scarf joint
neck angle
tail block
headstock ears
prepping the top plate
cutting out top

So fun, I have ideas to improve the guitar design for builds 5 and 6. The things you learn along the way just make the next project better.

Keep on Rocking and we’ll talk later,
-Ray