Here are photos of my finished hand-made Backpacker guitars.

Just finished making this Martin style Backpacker Guitar

Birdseye maple fretboard on my homemade packpacker guitar

Martin Backpacker Guitar front, showing the inside braces. Inside of a Martin Backpacker Guitar.

Inside of a Martin Backpacker guitar. This photo shows the spruce bracing on the inside of the mahogony back of the guitar.

My markups of the drawing are shown here, to bring the drawings I bought back to original Martin design. Red shows bracing that is not Martin's design, in blue and in green, you can see what I will build to build one closer to Martin's oem spec.

Large Mahogany post in the back, for the neck and body, Sitka Spruce for the braces, book-matched Sitka Spruce for the front, Mahogany for the back, Birdseye Maple for the fretboard, Indian Rosewood for the bridge, unbleached bone for the nut and saddle.

Unbleached bone for the nut and saddle

I went with medium jumbo precurved frets

Extra light guitar strings on this wee little guitar. I saw a recommendation for the Dean Markley Extra Light Signature Series Vintage Bronze Acoustic strings, so thats what I went with.

Guitar strap buttons

Wilkinson Tuner Posts

Tools: Straight edges, squares, sliding bevel, japanese pull saw, planes, xacto fine tooth saw, hammers, mallets, compass, awl, chisels, shinto rasp, spoke-shave, small and large files, files, drill bits and large forstner bits, clamps, measuring calipers, dremel, drill press, table saw, surface planer, band saw, random orbit sander, belt sander, miter saw, razor blades, bench vise....etc...

Gluing up the bottom plate and the middle layer that includes the recess for the bridge to fit snuggly into. I wil place the bridge blank in the recess, clamp of the top frame/router-guide frame, and then rout the slot. I drilled a couple holes through the bottom plate to allow me to pop out the bridge when I'm done.

Here are the completed upper and lower sections of the fixture.

The red piece is a piece of scrap wood where the bridge will fit.

And here is the fixture clamped up and ready to use.

As-purchased fret saw, plus the 1/8" x 3/4" brass bar I bought, along with brass machine screws, wing nuts, and washers.

Holes drilled in the saw blade , slots cut into the brass depth gauge/fence.

Completed fret saw with the addition of an adjustable depth fence.

Unbleached bone nut blank was oversized a bit, which was nice. I sanded it down to 1/4" thick on my bench top belt sander and then to 5/16" tall on my benchtop belt sander.

Sanding the blank to 1/4" wide, 5/16" tall. Then I cut it to length with a fine tooth x=acto hand saw.

I hand filed a slight arch into the nut, along with the front to back taper, and then marked out the string locations in pencil,

Using a radiused mini-file to file in the string grooves into the nut.

Finish filed, shaped, and sanded unbleached bone nut for my backpacker guitar. I will file the grooves to final width and depth later.

Photo of a Martin Backpacker nut, photo from Martin.

Cutting the saddle blank to length.

Using a file to shape the saddle.

Unbleached bone saddle

I straightened and trued up the edges of the two bookmatched sheets of Sitka Spruce and the glued them up over a piece of plastic. I used two pieces of scrap plywood nailed along either side to compress the two thin sheets. I put some objects on top along the joint to keep it flat.

Bookmatched glued up front, made from Sitka Spruce.

Using my thickness planer to plane the front to 1/8" thick.

First I drew out the shape of the back on the mahogany, next I will use my bandsaw to cut this piece out by I will cut at about 3/16" oversize and trim it down to be flush with the body after gluing it up.

Here are the finished rough blanks for the front and back

Blanks cut from Sitka Spruce for the front and back bracing

I used a plane to make this nice curved / half-oval profile for the reinforcing braces. Planed to shape, then sanded.

Solid chunk of Mahogany, 1 5/8" thick, just like the body. I carefully traced out the shape of the bottom of the guitar from the plans on to the wood.

Here is the bottom reinforcing block for my Martin-style backpacker guitar.

From this photo of an actual Martin Backpacker Guitar, notice the taper in the stock at the end of the piece. The reinforcing piece is not perpendicular to the back and is not flush to the side or glued to the side; it is tapered back. I will do it that way.

Braces shaped and glued to the back.

Gluing the butt end block in place.

Laying out bracing and reinforcing pieces that will be glued to the underside of the front.

Precut under-front pieces ready to be glued in place.

Glueing up the bracing and reinforcements for the underside of the front.

Using a square to draw cut locations for the fret saw.

Cutting the fretboard to length.

Cutting the fret slots with my fret saw.

All the fret slots are complete! That was fun.

Taper drawn out on fretboard now that the frets are cut

Here is the fretboard with fret slots cut and the neck taper roughed out. Next I will form a slight radius on the top face of the fretboard.

Radiused top of the fretboard

First , I planed it to .344" thick. Then I cut it to width and length.

Then I tapped the bridge blank sunggly into the saddle slotting jig I made.

I then clamped on the upper portion of the slotting fixture.

Using my Dremel as a router to cut the slot.

With the slot routed, I drew out the perimeter shape of the bridge and cut it out on a band saw.

3/16" holes drilled and now using a reamer to form a nice taper into the holes. I will use solid bone bridge pins.

I used this wee little saw to cut slots into the bridge that will allow me to to use solid bridge pins. I will clean up these slots.

I carefully marked the location and then glued the bridge to the front.

With the bridge mounted, I drilled the peg holes through the front piece and reamed the newly drilled holes lightly.

My piece of Mahogany was super straight along one edge, but had a minor curve in the other. I used a hand plane to create a straight edge of the imperfect one.

Using a stainless steel yardstick to check straightness of the previously curved edge. Now it is nice and straight and all is well with it.

With everything square and straight, I ripped my stock down to 1 5/8" x 2 7/8" on the table saw

I miss things from time to time, and here is an example; I checked the height of the sides of the body and it is 1 5/8" but up at the transition from the body to the neck the top side of the piece of wood needs to step up and 1/8" at the point where the top ends, so the total height of the single-piece neck/body/piece would need to be 1 3/4".

Marking out the neck.

Cutting the neck profile on the bandsaw. I made the cuts with sides of the lumber on the bed of the bandsaw first. Second step will be to cut the taper into the neck looking down from the top. but do this cut first.

Still cutting the side-view profile.

I am pleased with the results so far. IT's all my little bandsaw has in it to make these cuts in approx 3" thick stock. She's gett'in it done.

With the side profile cut out, I layed out the drawings on the top surface of the body/neck. The small details of the lines/shapes I am using are not the lines on the drawing I bought, note the curves above vs the straight lines on the drawing where the body transitions to the neck.

Drawing the headstock

I am very pleased with the roughed-out neck.body piece.

Now it will be an army of spoke-shaves, chisels, knives, files and sandpaper to carve this neck to shape.

Using a chisel and mallet to rough carve the neck shape.

I used a spoke shave and chisels to shape the neck and the transition from the neck to the body

Further shaping with a Shinto rasp.

Rough shaped backpacker guitar neck.

Sanding.......

Setting up the big forstner bit

Hole is cut and now I will use the table-saw to cut the 1/8" thick body sides.

I used a bandsaw to complete the tablesaw cuts,

Here are the wooden backpacker guitar pieces ready for assembly.

Laid out locations for tuner posts and used an awl to set the locations for the holes.

Drilling the tuner post holes to 3/8" didn't go well. I drilled a pilot hole which went fine but when I went to drop the 3/8” holes the wood split and I had significant blow-out of surface wood at the exit face of the bit! Uf-da. I epoxied the stock back together and used wood-flour-thickened epoxy to fill any voids. I wound up with a nice strong and smooth headstock with good tuner holes but I will need to enamel this section now due to the epoxy filler. Be careful when drilling these holes!!! I was going to fast and not careful enough.

Transferring curve points from the drawing to the form by using an awl through the paper into the wood below. Next I will "connect the dots" with a pencil on the 2x12 beneath.

Form sketched in pencil and now being cut out on the bandsaw.

This hole doesn't need to be in the form, it won't hurt either and I wanted to test my 2.5" forstner bit so I did so on this 2x12. I don't normally change rpm of my drill press but this test showed me I need to slow this baby down for this 2.5" bit.

Completed backpacker guiter body forms. BE picky and make sure you get a straight and true 2 x 12, which is not easy.

Soaking the portions of the body that need to be bent in piping hot water. I left it to soak for 1.5 hrs.

Clamping the soaked wood into the forms.

Gluing the curved butt piece on.

I unclamped the bent bottom piece and clamped it to the guitar body / butt brace.

Then I trimmed the visible bottom piece to length to match the brace.

Painting a little design that will be visible on the inside of the back through the sound hole.

I love Crocus! Here is my little design painted on the inside of the guitar. Paint is still wet but it will dry to a consistent color.

Gluing the body to the back. I used the form pieces as supports for my clamps, and I put weights on a board over the top to provide downward pressure as well.

During glue-up the guitar and sides kept wanting to move around so I screwed blocks to the drawing at the head and butt of the guitar to hold it to proper length during glue-up.

Clamps removed. Back is well adhered to the body. Sawing off excess material from the sides.

Trimming off excess from the back piece on the bandsaw.

Used a nice sharp handknife to carve the bottom right flush up to the sides and neck.

Gluing on the top!

I unclamped the top of my backpacker guitar and trimmed it up on the bandsaw just like I had done with the back, and trimmed it up close to the body with a knife.

I carefully measured the distance from the nut to the saddle and located the final position of the fretboard and glued it on. I decided to glue on the fret board and sand it flush to the neck before installed frets....not sure if I should have installed the frets first.

Here is my backpacker guitar with fretboard glued on. I sanded the fretboard flush to the neck.

I will inlay these abalone dots into the fretboard

Carefully sinking 5mm holes (with a very sharp 5mm flat bottom bit) into the fretboard for the fretboard dots.

I put a very small drop of superglue gel into the bottom of each hole and then tapped in the dots with a mallet. I then polished the dots up nice with 600 grit sandpaper

My daughter was in the shop the install the frets! She set them in place with a mallet and then trimmed them to length with a cutoff wheel in a dremel tool.

Frets installed and here's a closeup of the abalone dot

First I applied two coats of this grainfiller to the mahogany. Lettign dry and sanding between coats. Do no apply this to the spruce or the maple or the rosewood. Mahogany grain is very open and porous, and this filler fills those open grains with nice clear hard filler.

Taped-off and sprayed 7 coats of enamel hunter green on the head of the guitar. Sanding in between coats with 400 grit.

Double checking flatness across the frets. I think there is a 1/100th to 1/64th more height over the highest pitch fret vs the longest fret and this may be an amateur construction error. I intend to string it up as-is but if it presents a playing problem, I will file down the middle fret to level it out.

I will be using tung oil on the fretboard and bridge, so I taped them off. The guitar is sanded down to 400 grit.

I am using Color Tone sanding sealer and clear gloss nitro laquer as the finish for the neck and body. First coat of sanding sealer yielded whitish spots where I think I did not sand the grain filler sufficiently. I let the sealer dry and sanded these areas a bit more which fixed the problem.

4 coats of Stewmac spray on sanding sealer, sanding with 400 grit between coats.

Warm lacquer flows better when applied to the wood, so I heat it up in hot water in the sink. This can is about half full so if I add more water the can would tip over. The sink is full of water at full hot tap water temperature.

Leveling the frets. This fret sander has 4 grits of sandpaper, one on each flat side.

Using a fret file to reform the radius on frets I had sanded down.

Pure 100% Tung oil used on the fretboard. I applied it with a paint brush, let it soak in for 20 min and wiped clean with a cloth. 3 coats , 1 coat / 24 hrs. Also carefully oiled the sides of the fretboard.

Glued on the nut with superglue

Checking the action at the 12th fret and 1st fret. Many 7/64" at the 12th fret and 1/32 at the 1st fret. There are many articles and opinions on this and I am not an expert. This was my starting point and I will make adjustments later.

Moment of truth; stringing up the guitar!!

Happy daughter.

I set up my loom and will weave a guitar strap. I'll attach leather ends with the button holes.

This strap will have a hand-woven center, canvas, and leather.

Canvas section has been made, and sewed to the woven section, and will now be riveted to the leather.

leather reinforcement on the backside.

Punching a 1/4" hole for the guitar strap button

Slot cut in 1/4" hole, to allow for buttoning on the guitar strap button on the guitar.

Homemade Backpacker Guitar Bag. Canvas exterior, with cushioned liner and leather strap.

Fabric dimensions.

Drawing out the dimensions on the fabric.

With fabric pieces cut-out I set to stitching on reinforcing fabric where the straps will attach.

D-Rings sewed on in reinforced areas.

Then thinnest foam I could find was 1/2", which was too thick, so I chose this cotton quilt batting as the liner for my case. It is so soft! I cut it 3/8" smaller than the fabric to allow for connecting and hemming of the fabric.

cotton liner stitched onto the case canvas.

Case stitched together inside out. I will now inside out the case so that the hems are all inside and the liner is inside and the durable canvas is outside.

Making the flap that will open and close the case.

Here is the opening cover of the case, again sewed inside out so the hems will all be in the inside when done.

Here the lid is stitched on as well as the pocket. Reinforcing stitches are made around button holes. I made oak buttons from 3/4" oak dowel.

Making the shoulder strap for the carrying case from 1.5" wide leather.