Review: Making Guitar 1 by Daniel Fort and Owen Riss

Reviewed by Lloyd Zsiros

Originally published in American Lutherie #29, 1992 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004



Making Guitar 1
Daniel Fort and Owen Riss
Video tape, 60 min. 1990

Building your first acoustic guitar from scratch with no instructor can be a difficult and intimidating task even for an experienced woodworker. We are now lucky enough to have several fine books on the subject, but I was interested to see how well the information could be presented in a video format. Few of us have the luxury of an experienced luthier to guide us along. A video should be the next best thing to being there.

According to the narration, Making Guitar 1 documents the first attempts at guitar making by two individuals; one makes a traditional nylon-string classic and the other a steel-string acoustic. Although most construction steps are covered fairly well, this should not be considered a complete do-it-yourself guide to building either instrument. It would not be practical to present dimensions or plans on a video, so a good text is still going to be required for the first-time builder.