This year I’m building a guitar for the Berkshire Woodworkers Guild’s annual auction. The Guild is a 501(c)(3) foundation made up of professional and amateur woodworkers — cabinetmakers, boat builders, sculptors, turners, instrument makers, and more. It’s a supportive group built around shared craft, learning, and helping one another grow. The Guild also sponsors a scholarship program for people pursuing professional woodworking and design, and the auction helps support that work.

For this project I picked up a StewMac dreadnought kit and decided to build it out. It’s a different kind of challenge for me — approaching a kit from a custom‑builder perspective, keeping the spirit of the kit intact while still doing the careful voicing and detail work I put into my own instruments.

I’ve been documenting the entire process, from opening the box to the first shavings on the bench. This post starts the build series, and I’ll be adding chapters as the guitar comes together.