So Roger Siminoff is pretty close to you, he has been building for quite a while, had a lot to do with Gibson stepping up it's game in recent years (relatively speaking). I think he still owns Lloyd Loar's personal F5 and has studied it carefully to devise his plans and techniques. If you are able to come on Father's Day weekend there is a Bluegrass festival in Grass Valley (near Tahoe) and Roger and several other builders are going to be there with examples of their work. You could talk to the man himself. I think another builder, Steve Sorensen is going to be there too.
http://siminoff.net/luthierie-camp/
The camp might seem short because I believe you start with a rough kit and work through the graduation of the plates and construction. You don't start with a hunk of wood. I've thought a kit would be a good place to start for a first build...
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