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So seasons greetings guys. Well, I've been a bit quite for a while. Real life always intervenes, but contrary to expectations, the last two acoustics I was working on got finished and have been farmed out to mates to test drive. For some reason I lost the appetite to continue taking pics along the way. Something that I guess I'm now regretting a bit because more than anything else they help me remember lessons learned. Here are a couple of pics of the latest 6 string I'm building. No wonky frets this time, this ones going to be fairly regular, though I am playing around with different a couple of different ways of doing things. .... 1st - using a bending machine. Effortless and totally scorch free. Given the lack of a fancy drum sander, I also tried thicknessing with a router on a sled. got down to about 2.1mm then finished off with the sandy sandy machine. Thumbs up here on both counts. 2nd - floating braces on the back with ladder bracing and a mix of x and fan bracing on the top. The logic with the floating braces ia that they will stop any movement or twisting to the ladder braces over time and I think allow them to go thinner. Which is good. I think. The fan bracing is a total shot in the dark. These pics were taken before the box was closed up. Since getting the top on, it makes all the right noises, so I'm hopeful. Again, this bracing is lighter than martin style bracing. All bracing was added to the sides before the top and back were glued. The only thing I would change to the way I did it here would be to glue top first - extra opportunity to voice and simpler to clamp down. 3rd - shellac the inside before closing. What a revelation. nice and shiney, plus the dust doesn't grab into the back. We'll see how this one turns out.

Well strike when the will is there I suppose (and when the humidity is good). What I'm trying to do there is brace more heavily on the treble side. After trimming the braces gradually increase in size and width. The two on the ends carry on under the brace already glued to the sides. I left the top a little thick so it copes with a stiff sand once the box is together. Speaking of which. A forest of clamps. No gaps. Small bit of squeeze out. Followed by a stern talking to from a rasp. Ill be glad when this ones done.

Thunder and lightning here. Enough to rejuvenate the mojo on this one - who knows. Anyway I got sick of the sides flopping around last night and wasn't too confident in the molds ability to hold them so on went the back. It was fairly gratifying that it was still where I left it in terms of dome. No drama with the gluing. No gaps around the rim and no excessive squeeze out. The diy spool clamps seemed nicely usable. Here's a nice blurry photo for you. There's no light in here today. And another one As you can see I got hungry and took a bite out of it. The bevel is going to carry on right through the heel, Hence the off set inlay o the back. Don't know if itll look 'right', but we'll see. Thank for reading chaps.

It feels like a while since I've fiddled with this. Slow nervous progress with this - definitely out of the comfort zone thing. Anyho the neck heels been roughed out and sides glued in. This is the wedged side. Bit of sanding to do here. I like this method as it negates both neck fitting and having to cut a tightly fitting slot for the side. For a first attempt its left quite a nice fit. As a whole though, I still think I prefer building the neck and body separately as I think body construction is much easier this way. This doesn't really show it well, but I've tried a 20mm manzer style wedge (treble side large bout +10mm, bass -10)- just to make things that bit more fiddly. Looks comfy though. This is where we end the day. The support for the cutaway bevel is in - not pleased with the fit but hey, its an experiment so I'll take any win. The angled cutaway at the heel looks ok, but I'm not sure how much it adds to the whole general mish mash. It was head work to bend to the right slant and clamp. Not on the repeat list....

Black Limba. This piece was half of a neck blank that was full of holes when I received it.

OK. I've made quite a lot of noise and a hell of a lot of dust. These are the two bevel supports, the larger one for the top. It'[s nice wood but far too wormy to use for a neck and a bit soft to use for anything else. Yesterday I glued on the one for the top. After a bit of clean up it was a surprisingly good fit, though it took a lot of swearing and clamping to get to that point. Today Ive been investigating whats going on at the neck joint. This is a view looking from the top down. I've wetted the cutaway second and am persuading it into the curve to fit the neck block. Brown shorts time. Thankfully no cracks. but it is quite springy so I may thin a bit and possibly get the iron out. Ill leave it trussed up like this overnight and see where we are in the morning. I'll be surprised if this box goes together as painlessly as the last one.

Drawing things out has certainly saved me a bit of timber over the last couple of weeks. There are also a few things that i really can't visualise without having it on paper infront of me, the bevels being one of them. Neck angle vis a vis top doming being another.

The sander would have to be second hand, I couldn't justify dropping 1500 on a machine, much as it would make life easier. used ones seem to go for around 600 ish. Still a bit of an investment, but I think going diy wouldn't save much on this and would probably not be as useable. This went quite well, though the saw was screaming through it. Fillet for under the backs bevel (sitting on plans just to show that sometimes there is a bit of fore though).

Who ordered the hot weather again? it's 26 degrees in the house of dust. Today I've glued the cutaway piece to the sides and trimmed down to 120mm wide. This is what I was ham fisted trying to describe above. . The one edge has been left square for the bevel insert to butt against, though I've a feeling I'm going to have to cut out a section and drop in a bigger block - my thinking on the bevel has changed a bit...... We'll see.

Well bugger. I said I wasn't going to do this but it seems to have happened anyway. I went and bent sides for the cutaway. Bent by hand again as last time, but a whole lot less cup and scorching. With this set I soaked the sides first and bent at around 180. They were also a bit thinner, though having measured the thickness again, a drum sander is now definitely on the to buy list. Thinking Jet 16-32? I was a bit foolhardy with the cutaway. Not 100% sure how its usually done so Ive approached this how I think violin sides are put together. The blocks are big, but will be taken down a lot. The plan for this one is to do away with the bolts and use a romanillos style wedge joint at the bass side of the neck. the treble cutaway will be glued to the side of the neck block but sunk in 2 mm to keep it flush with the heel. Not sure if that makes sense.

Clamps off. I'll take that. It's looking a bit like a guitar now.

RIghtho, no point in delaying the inevitable so glued on the bridge. Firstly I had to make a caul to fit over the ribs on the inside and one for the top of the bridge. Thickness was a bit of an issue due to the delicate little clamps I've got. After that it was measure, mask, measure, scrape off finish, measure, pin the bridge, measure, glue, panic, measure, clamp. Once all's in place clean up any squeeze out - hence the glass of water. As discussed just enough glue for the job so minimal squeeze out and zero movement due to the pins (which went through the saddle slot). It's curing at the moment. Fingers crossed, though I don't know why - the fit was good, and there's an acceptable amount of pressure on there.

That's a classier set up than mine Andy - I'll check out those rods. I think the mistake I made was to look specifically for go bars and therefore all the prices I found were inclusive of the 'luthier' surcharge (which seems to be randomly added to some things).

You know I haven't had any creep issues, though I did spend a lot of time working out (read as trial and error) the right length and thickness/flex needed in the bars. I've found if you're diligent with the amount of glue you're using and hold your gluee to your glueor together with the bar in one hand and nudge it into tension with the other then no slip. If you flood with glue and throw the bars in, yeah, different story.

Hi Andy Progress seems to be slow and mostly dent making at the moment. I've noticed that I get a bit impatient at the end of a build and need to force myself to take things easy. The go bars come from the slats of an old bed that we were throwing out. Most are 5mm thick or thereabouts. I think the width makes them a bit easier to place than round bars would be, though ironically I was thinking of trying out fibreglass. I've ended up being too tight to buy a set.......

Righty ho, bridge mostly done. Just a bit of fiddling and fettling to do. The top has quite a subtle dome at 25' so fitting was easier than anticipated. Annoyingly having finished up for the day yesterday I dropped the perishing thing and chipped one of the corners so we now have rounded corners. All told, we ended up at 20g which I'm a bit surprised at considering the length of the tie block and saddle housing. That being done I'm paying attention to one of the fret ends which was a bit reluctant to sit flat. Glue, clamp and we're done. I think I'm going to use the epoxy to finish the whole neck, knocking back the gloss on the back to a satiny finish. The next few days will be polish, polish and polish.

.....and ive got shellac sticks on order to try for future gap type faux pas. Nuts to filling with ca. Next ill be gluing up with melted cow

my fault entirely. Id left a few patches of epoxy sitting on the surface. Didnt think it would be as visible as it was - totally differnt colour under shellac, not bad in itself, but totally distinguishable from the areas that had been sanded back. There are also a couple of scratches left on the top which im leaving there. My eyesight cleaely aint what it used to be. cruel it may be, but its real purdy and i found a joy to apply. cant see me ever trying to spray acoustics.

I've put the bridge aside for now and have started French polishing and am really enjoying the process. Slow yes, but zen, very zen. I'm using blonde shellac which even though is fairly neutral in colour, seems to tie everything together nicely. I'm sold, but it does highlight every bit of sloppy finish sanding - had to resand the back after the first session due to blotchiness caused by not knocking back all the grain filling equally. This is after a couple of sessions on the body, yet to do the neck.

my thinking exactly. Thankfully I've just done the last of the routing on the bridge. White knuckle ride over, the rest is all hand tool work. The next difficult job on is to find someone willing to sell me a cow bone. The plan is to cook, degrease and cut my own unless I can find a source of cheap large blanks. The postie just dropped off a bag of shellac, so I'll be looking at that too Provided there aren't any further screw ups, this is what we'll end up with.

oh, you know, around 2-3mm . Actually quite pleased with how it went, especially given that the holes are all on quite an angle to the edge and that my drill press has a touch of wobble about it.

So I started on the bridge. Nerves thoroughly wracked and yes, the ghetto jig is screwed to the worktop. Not taking any chances with this blank. Here are the nut slot and rebates on the tie block for the bone inlay. I've also thinned down the wings a bit here. Everything is nicely on the slant due to the multiscales....and here is me marking out the holes on the tie block. Each precisely 12.357142mm apart give or take a mm.

They are a bit heavy. For some reason I glued together the offcuts from making the mould, I think to as a form, but having looked at it the shape was all over the place. Recycled. Being thick though it does mean that all the bolts and things are nicely hidden and out of the way.

Howdy. Finally getting some bench time in in a relaxed kind of way. I'm making me a bending jig - not a full fox style bender. Here are the sides The sides will be spaced by about 150mm to accept forms. Threaded rods will come out of the holes on the outside edge so enable a waist caul to be screwed down. I've also added holes at the from so that cutaways can be bend with a second caul. I'm also making a fretboard radiusing jig for my laminate trimmer (design shamelessly pinched from a build here I think). I like to think that I've radiused my last board fully by hand. This will give a 20 inch radius and I may make one for a 10 inch board. Ive yet to build the base and sled. Seeing as it is a bit cooler in the pit today (29 degrees.....) I thought I'd get round to fretting the first acoustic. I'm done grain filling and have knocked back the resin somewhat so this seemed like the last brute force thing left to do ignoring the bridge. I've gone big n chunky up to the body, then tall and thinner on the extension - not that anyone should be silly enough to go up there. Fretting this was a joy. I think Ive learned a few lessons - 1) cut your slots deep enough and prep you board well 2) there is only room for a fret in a fret slot. no dust or glue, none of last nights biryani or jungle soldiers still fighting the war 3) file off the remains of the trimmed fret tangs and do it well. This all may be basic, but this is the first time I haven't scimped on these things and the first time that everything's glided into place. Should have realised earlier that there's a reason that fret hammers aren't 5kg.

thanks. Number 2 is going together a lot easier than number 1, but i guess thats how it should be. The dish is bought in. At the time it seemed like less hassle, but as time goes on, I like the idea of being about to make my own - especially as id like a pair of dished gluing fails.