Steve Martin had a plan. Not a plan for a standard guitar build, but something more personal. His grandson wanted a guitar carved with symbols of their faith, a one-of-a-kind instrument that no store shelf could ever provide. So Steve picked up a blank T-style guitar kit and got to work alongside the young man who inspired the whole project.

The result is one of the most striking DIY guitar builds we've seen at Guitar Kit World. A mahogany T-style body covered in hand-carved crosses and stained-glass-inspired patterns, built by a grandfather and grandson working side by side.

Why a Blank Kit Was the Right Starting Point

Steve chose the T-Style Blank Guitar Kit with Mahogany Body and Maple Neck. The "blank" part is what made this build possible. Unlike standard guitar kits that come with a pre-cut pickguard and routed pickup cavities, blank kits give you more freedom to customize. The body arrives with the shape already cut but without the usual routing, so you decide where everything goes.

For Steve's project, that freedom was essential. His grandson's design called for detailed carved imagery across the face of the guitar body. A standard pickguard would have covered most of it. So the pickguard had to go, and the entire top surface became a carving surface instead.

The Carving: Crosses, Stained Glass, and Symbolism

The centerpiece of the guitar is a large cross carved directly into the mahogany body. Surrounding it, Steve and his grandson added patterns inspired by stained glass windows you'd find in a church. The lines are clean and deliberate, with geometric shapes radiating outward from the cross in a design that catches light and shadow differently depending on the angle.

Images courtesy of Steve Martin

Mahogany is a good choice for this kind of carving work. It has a relatively straight grain and is forgiving enough to hold detail without splitting or chipping easily. That matters on a project like this, where the design called for both broad relief work and finer line detail across a large surface.

The finished carving gives the guitar a tactile quality that goes well beyond looks. You can feel the design under your hands while you play.

Solving the Pickup Problem

Removing the pickguard created a practical challenge. On a standard T-style guitar, the neck pickup mounts directly to the pickguard. No pickguard means no mounting point for that pickup.

Images courtesy of Steve Martin

Steve reached out to the Guitar Kit World support team, and together they worked through the solution: mounting the pickup directly to the body. The bridge pickup on a T-style guitar already mounts to the bridge plate, so that side required no changes. The end result is a fully functional two-pickup guitar with no pickguard, leaving the carved artwork completely visible.

More Than a Guitar Build

This was a project shared across generations. Steve built this guitar with his grandson, working together on the carving and assembly, and creating something that holds real meaning for both of them.

That's the part of DIY guitar building that doesn't always make it into the spec sheets and how-to guides. A guitar kit isn't a box of parts. It's hours spent together, problems solved as a team, and a finished instrument that carries a story. Steve's grandson now owns a guitar that no one else on earth has.

What You Can Build with a Blank Kit

Steve's faith-themed carving is one approach, but blank kits open the door to almost anything. Pyrography (wood burning) for detailed artwork, custom paint jobs without worrying about pre-drilled holes in the wrong spots, inlay work, or even reshaping the body contours entirely. The blank kit is for builders who already have a vision and need the raw materials to make it happen.

Guitar Kit World also carries standard kits with pre-routed bodies and all the hardware included. Those are a great starting point if you want to focus on finishing and setup rather than heavy modification. The step-by-step build guides cover everything from fretwork to final setup, no matter which kit you choose.

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A Guitar That Means Something

Steve gave his build a five-star review, but the real measure of this project can't fit into a star rating. It's a guitar that represents faith, family, and the kind of hands-on work that connects people to each other and to the things they make.

Images courtesy of Steve Martin

If you've built something you're proud of using a Guitar Kit World kit, we'd love to hear about it. Every build has a story, and the best ones are the ones that mean something to the person holding the guitar.

Meet the author

Nathan T.

As a longtime contributor at Guitar Kit World, Nathan has spent more than a decade helping guitar builders turn basic kits into stage-ready instruments...

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