Mattia

A bunch has been written about this, and lots and lots of builders use various variations on X-bracing for backs. Search the MIMF.com archives and Luthiersforum.com for starters. Al Carruth has written about it, Rick Turner, Ervin Somogyi, to name but a few. I'm guessing Trevor Gore addresses it in his new book as well. There are two basic schools of thought with regard to tuning backs: the 'reflective' or stiff back, which acts as a reflector for sound, or the 'active' back which is tuned to within a tone or semitone of the top (main tap), and should create a kind of 'bass reflex' type effect - standard sized guitars only really support notes down to low A or low G based on Helmholtz resonance, so the 'reflex' in an active back can provide extra support to the lower registers. I've used single and double X brace patterns on my backs, mostly because they help hold the back in shape on my larger jumbo sizes, and my feeling is they make for relatively easy to tune backs. Although given my minimal experience I'd take anything I say on that subject with a healthy tablespoon of salt

That guitar is a mass-produced, very likely cheap, plywood instrument. Not a finely crafted vintage classical. I would not hesitate to use titebond or epoxy. Or even superglue.

Redwood = brittle and fairly soft. And will dent relatively easily. Just a fact of life if you're using a softwood.

Personally I'd simply pore fill, seal, shoot tinted topcoats for trans black. But try various schedules on scrap to see what actually works.

Lesson is to use epoxy if you want to fill the pores with glue. Z-poxy Finishing Resin. Works great. Or a West Systems if you don't want it too amber.

If you're in Ireland, check out the Spaniards. Particularly if you're not in a huge rush to use the boards immediately. Almost all of my stash comes from Madinter - 30 euros shipping to anywhere in Europe, although they're doing free shipping this month I think. The indian rosewood tends to be dry (and is cheap, 6 euros and change for 'special', and even the first quality stuff is very good indeed), FSC certified pau ferro boards (also cheap...3.50 euros if you buy 16 or more, bass size is same price as guitar), ebony in various grades (all good, most nowhere near dry enough to use in the first year; prices are right), and my favorite is the Madagascan, although the prices on that have gone up quite a bit. Maderas Barber also has a pretty good selection of materials, some are cheaper at one vs. the other. They also have stuff like cocobolo in lumber format in sizes suitable for resawing (or necks, as the case may be), and occasionally have neck blanks of EIR.

Mask the guitar top with cardboard wrapped in tin foil, and apply the iron directly to the bridge. Scrape using a scraping device of some sort - I like cabinet scrapers for this, a single edged razor blade will do, you can sand if you want to. 220 grit is as far as I go for glue-ups in the rare event I glue a sanded joint (usually scrape or plane)

If you don't mind the dust, learn to love your angle grinder. Seriously, with a flap disk, I have insane amounts of control over shaping a carved top, and it's very, very fast. Light touch, let the speed do the work. I finish recarving and any fine detailed work with a hand plane (Ibex violin plane, big size) and french curve scraper.

I love the idea - F-style Guitar, with a Kahler and a MIDI pickup no-less! Colour also really working for me, although I think the shape could have done with a little more refinement - slightly smoother curves/transitions for the body outline and I really think a nice, sharp carved scroll would've completed the visuals perfectly!

Is there a reason you elevated the fingerboard so high off the top (with the resulting need to have the pickup and the bridge about a 1/2" higher than they should be) ? I quite like LP juniors, but this one's a little too 'chunky' for me in various places, lacks the finesse that can make these simple rock machines such awesome instruments. Might also want a reflector of some sort off to the right to get rid of the shadows caused by the knobs.

I love my drum sander. It's not very good, changing paper is a pain, but I wouldn't be without it. I enjoy using my hand planes more (less dust, kind of zen), but the only one I use a lot would have to be the Lie Nielsen block plane. The size 5 (and old Record) and the Jointer plane occasionally come out to play, but chiefly in wood prep. I do like thinning acoustic tops (spruce) with a nice, sharp hand plane from time to time, but the thickness sander is a godsend.

Nitro will eventually sink in a little anyway, just FYI; 'dipped in glass' PRS style finishes kinda require modern style finishes. Only real option is to sand back, fill properly, and re-do. Or keep on spraying until the grain is filled, but that likely won't last (nitro shrinks for a long time).

1: A clothes iron and a palette knife (thin, blunt edged spatula shaped thing) will get that back off very, very quickly. 2: Couple of cam clamps for the bridge (say 3), and cheapest option for doing the back will probably be roping or making spool clamps. I like go-bars, but that might be too fussy for this. 3: Scrape the gluing surfaces clean and use titebond. Most importantly, don't install the bridge backwards (which is how you've placed it in the pics) For glue, use Titebond original. This isn't a high-value classical, so no need to worry about 'vintage correct' anything.

Most 'decent' scales for weighing people have a margin of error of about plus/minus 100 grams, so you can be off true weight by 200 grams in the worst case (margin of error being two-sided). Just get a kitchen scale that will weigh up to 5 kg for guitar bodies and the like. I have one for that, and a smaller more accurate scale for mixing epoxies and such.

I would simply fill it and re-route, to be honest. I make all my necks with CF reinforcement (not sure if you're going that direction), so we're looking at a tiny little amount of 'gap' that would otherwise remain present after routing the slot in the correct position. Fill with a piece of wood (might be easiest to do after routing the truss rod slot in the proper position, and then re-route. Depends how you're jigged up) and go with it. No structural or strength or aesthetic disadvantage for the finished instrument, and while I understand the 'it needs to be perfect' mentality all too well, scrapping a neck over something like this is ridiculous. Particularly since you will never, ever, ever see it in the finished instrument (which is not the case for some other kinds of repairs)

I quite enjoy jointing by hand, but I'm glad I've finally purchased a jointer. I'll still use one of my hand planes and a shooting board for the thinner stuff or figured stuff the jointer may not like (i.e. acoustic plates and potentially electric guitar tops), but I do like me some power tools from time to time...

2.1kg !!!!!! Nice...I think my lightest build to date is a left Kelly-like explorer, and that already weighs 2.15 kg without the floyd, tuning machines and pickups!

It's German, not Danish...

At least a 14" saw is worth the charge, though. Bigger saws have a more stable cut and are all-round much more capable machines. I'm not a full-time builder, but I do take this hobby pretty seriously As for the table saw, I agree there's no strict need for one in guitar building. It's very much on my 'would like to have one' tool list, but there are very, very few things I feel I can't do with other tooling already in my possession.

Splurge on the big saw. You will not regret it for a moment

I've no direct experience (yet, soon!), but I used to see very similar problems with my first router, which could only take small bits. More power and larger bits that don't flex allow the cutting edges to just do their work without introducing additional friction; the finish you get with a 2.5HP router and a 1/2" bit is significantly better than what you can achieve with the same router and a 1/4" straight bit. Upgrading one or both will certainly help quality of cut. It's easier to adjust when you're working handheld, because you can 'feel' when the bit's getting bogged down and back off a little. The CNC can't.

Nice, dude! Seeing this I think I've finally found a purpose for the nice bits of zebrano I've got, since I'm not all that interested in turning them into guitar tops or acoustic back/side sets (faux zebrano veneer is getting a little ubiquitous in cheap restaurants here, kind of a 70's throwback chique, so not working for me visually). Will need to get at least a micro table saw or zero clearance insert for the bandsaw, huh? Where's the tutorial?

What the others said. Billets for small stock such as fingerboards or purling, no problems. Just think of a piece with a split as being sized slightly smaller than the chunks after breaking it up. Or you need to be able to cut off the split section. I'll buy rosewoods or ebonies that are priced right and have checks or splits if I think I can get sound chunks out of them for binding, bridges, head plates and other decorative trim, but won't use them for large structural sections or the like. Small checks can sometimes be repaired and are almost unavoidable in some woods (such as Ziricote, and to a lesser degree macassar ebony), in which case I'll stabilize with superglue, suck it up and keep on moving. But that's certainly a minority position, and pricing has to reflect these kinds of flaws. Quilt maple should be easy enough to find in un-cracked pieces.

What Wez said. It'll be fine.

My cheap chinese drill press and thickness sander are jealous. My Italian bandsaw of the same rough age is OK with it though, but only because he's heavier and has a bigger motor...