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Sources of materials, tools & supplies

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Sources of guitar making materials

Here are all the parts of the guitar. Click on the part’s name to find recommended materials for them, their starting dimensions, and suggestions on where and how to obtain them.

Back (see Sets)

Back Braces

Back Graft

Back Stripe

Bindings

Bridge

Bridge Patch

Bridge Pins

End Graft

End Pin​

Fingerboard

Frets

Headpiece Veneer

Headpiece Laminations 

Heelcap

Linings (solid)

Linings (kerfed)

Neck

Nut​

Pickguard​​

​Purflings

Rosette lines

Rosette marquetry rings

Saddle

Sets (Steel-string guitar)
Sets (Classical guitar)

Sides (see Sets)

Side Dots (SS only)

Shell Inlay (SS only)

Soundboard

Soundboard braces

Tailblock

Truss Rod (SS only)

Truss Rod Spline

Tuning Machines

Tuning Pegs

Dimensions and sources for your guitar's back braces

Steel-string guitar:​

5/16  X 9/16 X 14 inches (two required)

1/2   X 3/4 X 17 inches (two required)

Screenshot 2026-07-18 at 5.57.12 PM.png

Finished brace blank dimensions

Classical guitar:

5/16  X 1/2  X 12 inches (two required)

5/16  x 1/2  X 13 inches (one required)

5/16  x 1/2  X 15 inches(one required)

Screenshot 2026-07-18 at 6.25.13 PM.png

Finished brace blank dimensions

Sources

Fig 10-31 PIC 3.png

Back braces can be purchased commercially as pre-dimensioned sticks or as larger, solid billets of stock which can be further processed into dimensioned braces with hand or power tools at a considerable cost savings. Most any uniformly-textured, straight-grained softwood or medium-density hardwood devoid of any swords or flaws can be used. However, spruce and mahogany (Honduras and African) are the traditional back brace species for both classical and steel-string guitars. Spanish cedar (cedrella, spp.) is favored for classical guitars. Pacific red cedar (Thuja plicata), basswood (Buxus sempervirens), and alder  (Alnus spp.) is also used.  An excellent, economical, but little-known alternative material is poplar (Populus) which is widely available in most hardwood lumberyards.

Pre-dimensioned back bracing and brace blanks

  • Stewart-MacDonald (shaped braces and dimensioned brace blanks)

  • J.S. Bogdanovich (dimensioned mahogany back brace blanks)

​

Bracing stock 

  • Stewart-MacDonald

  • J.S. Bogdanovich

  • ​Alaska Specialty Woods (rough split-spruce brace wood slabs in boxes)

  • Pacific Rim Tonewoods (milled split-spruce brace wood billets)

  • Exotic Wood Zone (milled Spanish cedar, mahogany, basswood, alder 
    brace wood billets)

  • Maderas Barber (milled spruce, mahogany, 

​

Dimensions and sources for your guitar's back grafts

Steel-string guitar:​

5/8" wide strips 1/8" thickness ​
totalling 18" in length

Classical guitar:

1/2" wide strips 1/8" thickness ​
totalling 18" in length

Sources

Screenshot 2026-07-21 at 11.24.07 AM.png

Back graft material is traditionally processed from scrap 1/8" thick strips of mahogany or spruce, trimmed so that the grain direction runs perpendicular to the strip's longest dimension. However, virtually any convenient scrap timber material of appropriate cross-section can be used, including basswood, African mahogany, Spanish cedar, or poplar.

Pre-dimensioned back graft material

  • Stewart-MacDonald (shaped braces and dimensioned brace blanks)

  • J.S. Bogdanovich (dimensioned mahogany back brace blanks)

​

Back graft stock 

  • Stewart-MacDonald (cut from neck blank material)

  • J.S. Bogdanovich (cut from neck blank materials)

  • ​Alaska Specialty Woods (rough split-spruce brace wood slabs in boxes)

  • Pacific Rim Tonewoods (milled split-spruce brace softwood billets)

  • Exotic Wood Zone (milled Spanish cedar, mahogany, basswood, alder 
    brace wood billets)

  • Maderas Barber (milled spruce, mahogany, and other species

​

Dimensions and sources for your guitar's back stripe

Steel-string guitar:​

minimum length required:  21''

Classical guitar:

minimum length required:  21''

Guitar back stripes can be as simple as a single natural or dyed veneer line separating the two back plate halves, or they can be a multi-layer composite of veneer lines, shell inlay strips, or strips of mosaic-tile marquetry.

     If the marquetry strips to be inlaid are as thick or thicker (or if the veneer lines are taller) than the back plate halves, and if their integrity appears sound, you can simply glue them right in between the book matched back-plate halves when gluing those plates together.

     If the strips are thinner than the back-plate halves, You need to glue the book matched halves together first, and then route a slot down the seam no deeper than 2/3 of the back plate's thickness.

     Veneer lines can be slit individually from sheets of natural or dyed veneer, or more conveniently, pre-laminated strips of different widths and compositions such as black-white-black strips, or white-black-white strips can be commercially purchased from several luthier-supply merchants.

     Straight shell inlay strips can also be inlaid between back halves, usually bordered by laminated veneer-line strips. These have to be inlaid into a slot routed into the seam of a pre-joined back plate, precisely at the same depth as the thickness of the shell strips, so that none of the colorful material is removed during the subsequent leveling process

Shell inlay for back stripes

  • See entry for purfling materials.

Dyed or natural veneer-lines or sheets

  • Stewart-MacDonald (black and white fiber and maple laminations in various combinations and dimensions--and also tinted veneer sheets

  • Maderas Barber (black-white-black-white sycamore 1 meter squared laminate sheets and tinted wood veneer sheets

  • Allied Luthierie (black-white-black fiber or maple) laminate strips

  • ​Wood Cycle Products (small US-based natural veneer supplier)

  • ​Exotic Wood Zone

Marquetry back stripes

  • Allied Luthierie

  • Stewart-MacDonald (

  • Exotic Wood Zone

  • Maderas Barber 

  • RC Tonewoods

  • E.L. Henson Inlay and Design

  • Gurian Instruments

  • ​Inlay Product World

​

Screenshot 2026-07-24 at 1.06.34 PM.png

Dimensions and sources for your guitar's bindings

Steel-string guitar:​

(4) 3/16" × 3/32" x 32" min.

maple, rosewood, mahogany, celluloid or ABS strips

Classical guitar:

(4) 3/16" x 3/32" x 30" rosewood strips

Sources

Screenshot 2026-07-27 at 11.46.30 AM.png

(See (a) above):
Our major source of wood guitar binding strips are strips trimmed from the surplus width of side slats from guitar sets, or from the un-bent mate of the side set that was broken while bending or perhaps from the side set that was second-rate, flawed or otherwise unsuitable for a good guitar. This source is ideal for 3/32"-thick strips, and we always try to strip, process and bend at least one ir two extras, in case one breaks while bending. We strip ours on a tablesaw, using the thinnest, smallest diameter circular saw blade we could obtain (see fret saws).

 

(See (b) above)
If you're making a series of guitars, or just want to stock up on binding strips, it helps to have access to an abrasive planer, This allows you to sand 30" lengths of common hardwoods such as maple, poplar or basswood into 3/16'' sheets and then strip them on a tablesaw to 3/32" binding strips.

​

​(See (c) above)
You can save yourself a lot of time and trouble if before you strip the material described in (b) above, you glue one or more sheets of contrasting veneers below it, yielding laminated binding strips which allow you to bind the guitar with bindings that have the side purfling lines already included.

Pre-dimensioned wood binding strips

  • Stewart-Macdonald (plain and laminated maple, koa, ebony, rosewood , walnut or bloodwood binding strips)

  • Allied Luthierie (plain and laminated binding strips)

  • Pacific Rim Tonewoods (maple, koa, ebony or rosewood binding strips)

  • Maderas Barber (plain and laminated rosewood, purple heart, sycamore)

​

Pre-dimensioned binding strips (thermoplastic)

  • Stewart-MacDonald (plain and laminated white and ivoroid

  • ​Allied Luthierie (white and ivoroid)

  • Pacific Rim Tonewoods (milled split-spruce brace wood billets)

  • Exotic Wood Zone (white ABS plastic​

​

Dimensions and sources for your guitar's bridge

Steel-string guitar:​

1½" x 6"

Classical guitar:

11/8" × 71/2" 

Sources

Fig 14-14 PIC8.jpg

If you don't have the $$ to easily obtain dark, exotic hardwoods in planks that you can then resew and extract 3/8'' thick bridge-size billets--then you must opt to obtain dimensioned bridge blanks, usually at premium prices, from luthier suppliers.

     Alternatively, you can opt to source the blanks from more economical, less exotic materials walnut, cherry, padouk, or purpleheart, and still obtain good results.​

Pre-dimensioned back graft material

  • Stewart-MacDonald (shaped braces and dimensioned brace blanks)

  • J.S. Bogdanovich (dimensioned mahogany back brace blanks)

​

Back graft stock 

  • Stewart-MacDonald (cut from neck blank material)

  • J.S. Bogdanovich (cut from neck blank materials)

  • ​Alaska Specialty Woods (rough split-spruce brace wood slabs in boxes)

  • Pacific Rim Tonewoods (milled split-spruce brace softwood billets)

  • Exotic Wood Zone (milled Spanish cedar, mahogany, basswood, alder 
    brace wood billets)

  • Maderas Barber (milled spruce, mahogany, and other species

​

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