Fancy taking one on? Go ahead, it's a worthy challenge, I'm not saying you shouldn't. But if you do, don't hang about. Here's why.

Older members of the forum may have a memory secluded deep in the more cobwebbed and less visited parts of their minds that a few years back I had a go at building my own acoustic guitar. Not once, but twice.

However, being a hamfisted halfwit, I didn't do them very well. The second one is the 'best' of the two, but with age it's actually got worse because, in short, the neck joint isn't right.

So when my dear old mum handed in her lunch pail earlier this year, I was left with a small sum to play with. Other needs took precedence for the majority of the money, so a NGD was out of the question (well, with my tastes it was, anyway). However I had long hankered after the idea of playing with one of the StewMac bolt-on neck acoustic kits,* on the basis that I can adjust the neck and if it's not right, simply unscrew it, do a tiny bit of adjustment and reattach it. If that's not enough, repeat previous steps until it is. Whereas with the dove tail joint, you have to get it perfectly correct first time and if not, you're stuffed (as was the case with my first two attempts).

In September, one kit duly arrived but what with one thing and another getting in the way, I put it in the garage and left it until the Christmas week when I knew I'd be housebound for a while and would thus have the time time to play with it.

I brought the kit into the house just before Christmas, left it a few days to acclimatise and began work towards the end of last week.

Wrong.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

Just, wrong.

Because when I attached the braces to the top, it came out twisted out of shape, with very noticeable diagonal twist from top left to bottom right (or top right to bottom left depending on your viewpoint). I hoped that gluing it to the sides and back would help to straighten it out, but the twist was so pronounced that it simply twisted the entire body out of shape.

I've managed to (very carefully, don't worry) detach the top from the back and sides so that hopefully I can find a replacement top and brace set to attach instead. Otherwise I have a very expensive pile of firewood.

So be warned, people. If you ever feel tempted to take one of those babies on, start the minute your kit arrives and make sure the conditions don't destroy your woods beforehand.

Until then, please excuse me while I go off to a corner for a quiet weep.



*http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Kits/Aco...uitar_Kit.html