Straight-Sided Guitar: Maple Box, Pine Top, Hatpin Frets and a 24-Inch Scale (Boy Mechanic, 1913)

"The sides, ends and bottom are made of hard wood, preferably hard maple, and the top should be made of a thoroughly seasoned piece of soft pine." (J. H. Stoddard, Carbondale, Pa.)

Cut from thoroughly seasoned wood: top 3/16 by 14 by 17 in (soft pine); bottom 3/16 by 14 by 17 in, two sides 3/16 by 3-5/8 by 16-3/4 in, and ends 3/16 by 3-5/8 by 13-1/8 in and 9-5/8 in (hard maple); neck 1 by 2-5/16 by 18-1/2 in; fingerboard 3/16 by 2-5/8 by 16 in.

Taper the neck from G to F and from J to F, with the back rounded, using a drawknife: 2-3/8 in at the heel, 1-7/8 in at the nut F, and a head 2-3/4 in wide and 6-1/2 in long. Taper the fingerboard to match. Glue a piece of hard wood 1/4 in square and 1-7/8 in long across the neck at F as the nut. Glue the fingerboard to the neck and clamp it until the glue sets.

Mark the frets from the nut using the computed positions in step 1 (fret 1 at 1.347 in, fret 12 at 12 in). His drawing gives only five spaces, 1-2/5, 1-3/16, 1-1/8, 1-1/16 and 1 in; added up they put the 5th fret about 0.3 in short of the true place, so they are shown for history only. Cut pieces from hatpins and fasten them across the fingerboard with small wire staples. Mark accurately: the frets decide the pitch.

Glue the sides and ends together, so the body is 10 in wide at the neck end, 13-1/2 in at the tail and 16-1/2 in long. Glue the front on, put heavy weights on top and give the glue time to dry. Fasten pieces of soft wood in the corners as braces, glue a small block C inside the neck end to take the bolt, and glue strips of soft wood K across the front and back to strengthen them. Cut the sound hole in the top as drawn.

Make the brace D 1 in thick, to any shape you like. Glue the neck to the box and secure it with a carriage bolt at A through the end and block C. Glue the back on and smooth the outside with sandpaper.

Make the bridge 6 in long, 1 in wide and 3/8 in high, with an old hatpin or wire of the same size secured on top with pin staples as the saddle E. Drill six 3/16 in holes in it for the pins. Glue it on the top so the distance from the nut F to the saddle E is just 24 in.

Fit the turning pegs B in the head and string the guitar, holding the strings in the bridge with the pins. He bought the pegs and strings from a music store.

From **The Boy Mechanic**, edited by H. H. Windsor, Popular Mechanics, Chicago, 1913, p. 320, "A Guitar That Is Easy to Make", sent in by J. H. Stoddard of Carbondale, Pa.; sizes read on the 1913 scan (archive.org boymechanicthing01unse). He dimensions only the first five fret spaces, and they disagree with equal temperament; the fret positions used are computed by us. The sound hole, saddle and string tensions are not dimensioned. The tools and metric figures are ours.