Finished

hopefully more pictures soon. really sounds great

Fitting The Saddle

slot and holes were milled and drilled on the drill press




positioned, glued and clamped




ready for the strings

Applying The Finish

the finish is a waterborne matt finish (KTM 9). applied with a foam pad. another big learning curve. foaming was a problem but these bubbles can be removed in the rubbing out stage

Setting The Frets

Setting and Gluing the Neck

solid steel truss rod inserted








the neck shaped and glued to the body

Edge Binding

the relief for the edge binding ready for the rosewood binding. the binding was bent to the shape of the sides over the bending iron




edge binding is applied with glue and taped to the body then wrapped with cord

Guitar Body

top and back glued to sides with recess carved out to take the edge binding, 10 minutes with a router or many long evenings with a 1/4" chisel.. the latter of course

A Fleeting Glimpse At Inner Beauty

sanding down the bridge to its shape



fitting the braces



shaping the braces so that the top keeps its arch






fixing the kerfing so that the top and back have a surface to rest and adhere to. some braces to prevent the sides splitting as well






top back and sides ready to be put together

Soundhole and Braces

the soundhole cut out. not sure how the rosette will look when it's all done. but it's worth a try






getting the braces ready for the top

Rosette

7 weeks later. took a while to figure out how to do it. eventually carved out the design and filled it with black milliput epoxy putty. not ideal but i got the effect i was after. now i can move on

still searching

Designing The Rosette

a series of photos of naked trees were taken in january. local inspiration for a different approach to the sound-hole motif

drawing the arches for the top and back braces. The back has a 15' radius and the top 25'. these arches will add strength and give greater volume to the guitar.. so they say!





the back almost fully braced




the pau ferro fingerboard blank




the fingerboard sanded, tapered and fret slots sawn. patience, patience, patience

Sides Set

sides turned out really well. once they were sanded down they looked great

Bending The Sides

the bending iron. don't run out of gas!




the wood starting to relax. at this point i ran out of gas..




first side bent and clamped in the mould, took quite a while as you only get one go, slow and careful..




the two sides bent and clamped, amazaque i would agree is not too easy to bend, but it's only the first try

Joined Back

the back was joined with a strip of maple down the middle. i couldn't see how to book match them

Channel For Truss & Joined Top

Starting The Neck

No short cuts. the neck of cedrela was cut on the temperamental band saw. The rough cut was sanded true. Important to get it right. lucky to have two lengths for the neck! cedrela tastes very bitter too