Mattia

What Rich said. Tape it down TIGHT, positioned PERFECTLY, and THEN apply glue. Just did a guitar with titebond today, because I didn't have packing tape and didn't feel like cleaning up superglue+masking tape gunk, and I'm sorta regretting it. the CA method is less stressful and leaves me with less gaps to fix. Fortunately these are easy enough to repair, but still, it's not ideal...

The comment, as Rich says, seems grounded in myth-speak rather than anything based on fact. Maple with no finish will turn very nasty looking right quick. Also, consider this: almost every single Fender guitar ever made has a flatsawn maple neck.

That's the one thing I don't do, listen to music. Well, rarely anyway. While I'm translating, sure. Cycling, definitely. In the car, of course, but while I'm building I'm too focused on the work at hand. It's sort of a Zen meditative state of its very own, no need to add additional sound. Besides, when making acoustics I like to hear the wood, feel and listen to how it responds to a rub, a tap, a stroke...

That's been me for the past 5 days. The house is a mess, the kitchen needs a good scrubbing, and I really should stop eating takeout because I'm too lazy to cook, but I've made good progress: two acoustics and one electric ready to spray, one electric almost ready to oil, two other electrics waiting for a pore fill and a finish, another waiting for a finish sanding, stain job, pore fill, inlay and finish, but they're all veeerrry close to the finish line.. Except it's not 'quiet' when I'm using the router. I likes my power tools. I'm guessing the neighbors must hate me now....

Uh, Life? Work? That sort of thing? ...it's the reason there were, um, 8 months between my posts in some of my build threads. When I have time, it goes quickly. Finding the time is a whole different problem.

Get an old Record (until the 70's) or an old Stanely (US made, until the 50's, preferably earlier) rather than buying a new Stanley. Really.

Superglue. Tightly strap the binding in place (after sealing the wood with shellac or whatever, to prevent the superglue from soaking into the end-grain) using packing tape (Clear stuff), then drip thin superglue along the exposed bits. It'll soak in through capillary action. Don't overdo it, one application per exposed area is enough. Then remove the tape, and run superglue around the entire edge one more time. Voila, done. Re: 4, if it's that fragile don't even THINK about power planing it. Sanding is the way to go here. You might be able to plane it by hand with perfect sharpening, setup and technique, but for burls that's still risky.

Have done it, wouldn't do it again with passives. Definitely would do it in lieu of a pickup selector switch. The taper isn't as smooth as I'd like, and the in between sounds are disappointing. Blending, say, piezos and magnetics, actively, is a different story, but in terms of live usefulness, the switch shows you what your pickup selection is, at a glance. Two independent volumes is also more useful than a blend, IMO. In terms of usefulness, I find phase switching overrated, did on my first, likely won't do it again. Parallel coils or coil tapping is of the good, though.

Seriously, while you can find all the info you're looking for on the 'net, buy the book. It presents everything in a clear, structured, logical manner, step by step, discusses design quite extensively (what to keep in mind when designing things), and gives you a solid foundation/framework for understanding all the stuff on the net, and a fighting chance of seperating the nonsense from the truth...

Thickness: 1/4"/5mm is perfectly safe for most woods. Don't know how strong/stable the redwood is. 6mm is about standard for Fender thinlines. I leave the sides between 12mm and 15mm (1/2" and 5/8") wide.

It's got very little to do with stiffness; in some woods there's a difference, some woods are stiffer in the flatsawn direction (which, incidentally, is the traditional grain orientation for violins and mandolins), some woods, it doesn't matter. What is difference is shrinkage and movement, although again, depends on the wood. With mahogany it doesn't matter much, for example. Basically, quartersawn is about stability more than anything else. Should stay flat and not warp. Figured stuff often is less stiff, less nice 'tap tone', often because its grain wiggles every which way. You get a lot of runout, few long, continuous fibres, so yes, material properties differ. But it's nowhere near as simple as 'quartersawn' or 'flatsawn' being better tonally, or stiffer, or more stable. Depends on the species, depends on the piece.

Yeah, Rick 'skins' the top of his braces. The thing I don't like about that (at this point in my building 'carreer') is that it means I can't shave the braces afterwards. May well give it a shot if I make myself a 'beater' guitar (tough, easy to travel around with, etc.). Erik: like Daniel said, it's a righty, and it's on its front.

Setch: took advantage of the Opportunity Grade stuff, I'm guessing? I very seriously considered it at the time, but I'd just spent stupid money on the 10 sets of Madagascan rosewood (bit pricier) from Madinter. Need more Indian, though. Gorgeous tonewood, fairly priced. Daniel: I've never played one either, but I can't see it as a problem, really; your arm registers what the plane of the strings is, and people tend to tilt guitars towards or away from them anyway while playing. Think strat belly cut for instance. 'Air guitar' playing it doesnt feel any different from playing a normal acoustic, it just doesn't feel quite so absurdly huge as it could - still feels big, mind you, but not stupid crazy big. Also, I'm not normally a big fan of purfling in abalone, but I think the warm colours (walnut, yellowish maple, cedar) really set off the greens and blues in a way spruce with bling rarely does.

psst...you're supposed to go build an acoustic one of these days real soon now, remember? Make some acoustic nifty of your very own! Daniel: not sure I understand the question. The back's wedged, not the top - the guitar's lying face-down, epoxy curing in that picture. Front and neck geometry are entirely unaffected. Essentially, you're tapering heel to tail and side to side. Easy enough with a dish.

It's significantly thicker on the treble side/thinner on the bass side - ie, a Wedge guitar a la Linda Manzer. Makes the bit that goes under your arm feel smaller.

Pics! Guitar, with abalone purfling. My first attempt, and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. Gratuitous close-up of rosette and purfling: And a shot of the end graft, with (if you squint) mitred purflings, but mostly showing off the wedge-ness:

supergrit.com is good.

Re: sandpaper, I'd rather spend four times as much on 3M or other decent paper, as it'll outlast the cheap stuff, give me a better finish, and quite literally be cheaper per piece of wood sanded. Used to buy the cheap stuff, then got some decent paper (3M frecut gold, stuff StewMac has), and I'm never, ever going back.

What Pariah said. Read the entire book through at least once, take notes, and if you think the order of steps desn't make sense, feel free to deviate (as long as you think everything through). I used Cumpiano as a rough guide for my first, but built using dishes, a bender, forms,a butt-jointed bolt on neck and reverse kerfed linings, among other things. Most of the additional info was gleaned from the MIMF.

Larry Davis at Gallery Hardwoods will do right by you. Great stuff, fair (not cheap) prices. Chuck Hatch (3dHardwoods.com) ditto, and Gilmer Woods has plenty of stuff to choose from as well.

I have 1/4-20 hardware from Lee Valley (honestly because the bolts were prettier than what I could find locally), but my first guitar used M6 bolts. Plenty strong enough for an acoustic. The wood will fail before the bolts do, most like.

I've also routed (with a fine dremel endmill) the cover out, added binding to make up the difference, and voila, done. Also an option. But the slicing off trick is easiest if you've got extra thickness.

Very definintely inspired by Rick Turner (buttresses), Mario Proulx (CF laminated braces in that orientation, Rick does it differently), Linda Manzer (wedge), and Mike Doolin and Rick for the adjustable neck joint/floating fingerboard extension. The X braces on the back help keep the dome in shape, and are easier to 'tune' because the back responds more like the top (because it's braced similarly). I don't think it's any heavier, and it sure looks cooler through the sound hole Chris: It's a Jumbo of my own design, sort of took a J-200 and a Ryan Grand Cathedral and made them make a baby. Ish. Just got done sanding/scraping all the bindings - not using masking tape next time, will get un-lazy and pick up some packing tape - scraping superglued tape gunk off is a major PITA. Will need to give the top a complete sand-down before final finishing, because the colour's a tough patchy. Off to apply the second (and final, judging by how well the pores are filled already) coat of filler. Pics tomorrow.

What hoogle said. If you've got a bandsaw and a 2-piece body blank (or a really, really huge bandsaw) you can 'simply' resaw a slice off the back.

The neck's laminated from maple, walnut and wenge, headstock face veneer is ebony, back is ebony (resawed an overly thick headplate blank, so they're actually bookmatched). The veneer is commercially bought (no point in making thin tickness veneer from common woods. Not worth the wear on the blade and the frustration of sanding to precise tiny thin thickness). The initial glue-down for the top binding is now sitting downstairs drying. Will check the fit for the back and glue that down later, and spend a bit of tomorrow morning fitting paua purfling. Then hopefully routing the neck pocket (after shaping the heel while the glue sets/dries), second and final coat of epoxy, and some spraying on Sunday. Work's been hellishly busy this week, so I haven't had more than 2 hours at home before really needing to collapse on the couch and stare at a TV screen like a zombie or something...