jaycee

Very nice Doug, keep the pics flowing

By drilling the two outer holes first the 2 "e's" you then draw a line joining the two, the other 4 holes are then drilled on that line this makes sure that the ferrules are straight. You could drill pilot holes first and sit the point of a brad bit into the pilot holes, drill half way from front and back

Heres the bracing completed and the top clamped to the body. I had some pine bed slats that I cut up and with 5 lengths of 1 metre threaded rod plus the nuts and washers cost me just over £5 and worked very well. I did a dry run as allways to see what type of problems I might face, and the main one was tightening the nuts up whilst keeping the ends sitting as square as possible until they took hold. When I did the gluing one of the clamps just wouldn't sit correctly but I got there in the end. I was literally sweating hopeing that the glue wouldn't start to set before I had "battoned down the hatches" Got a trim bit today so the next job is to route everything flush

There is a slight radius, but because it's a 12 string there is hardly any chance of the top sagging so arching the top is not required

I thought I had started a progress thread on this but it seems not, so here goes. Got a lot done on this over the last couple of weeks. All the bracing is done, and I glued the soundboard is to the body this morning I clamped the ends of the X braces down and put some weights on the middle, and that turned out very well, so I used the same with the rest of the bracing. When joining the 2 pieces of the soundboard together I clamped the SB to the workmate top, and on the other side clamped a piece of timber to the worktop then closed the bench which brought the two sides together, weighted them down and got a perfect joint.

I thought of installing ferrules into the backing plate, and as you say, install the strings through the sound hole. I have not seen this anywhere and have not looked into it at all, but in theory I can't see why it should not work, apart from the ferrule size being to large

Sorry about your probs P, I had a look athe the Taylor site and there are some great vids on there, fortunately here in the uk the humidity levels have never been an issue, not with my guitars anyway.

I have enough Ash and Sapele left over to make a backing plate out of. Will these woods do or should I get some Maple or rose wood. Has anyone ever used ferrules rather than bridge pins, I know it would mean no single string changes without slackening the strings but an intersting idea nonetheless.

Cheers guys , I did put some varnish on the middle piece after I finished sand ing the rosette/top and the Burr really popped out, I was suprised by the difference it made , so at the moment I am edging toward leaving it as it is

I finally got some motivation to get on with this, and fitted the Rosette over the weekend The inlay is two .6mm pices of Maple burr glued together. I am debating whether or not to put some MOP dots at various points around the Maple, or if it needs something extra.

This is what I use, a piece of mdf with two channels routered out, the sides are cut at 15 degrees. I cut the headstoch with a saw then clean them and true up with a router sliding alond the wedges I secure the wedges with screws from underneath, and I also use it to "plane" pieces with the router by replacing the wedges with two equal hieght rails, not my idea but it works well.

I like it because it reminds me of violin scrolls. I think the 4+2 idea with the machine heads is a good idea otherwise it may look a bit cluttered on the treble side

I'm looking at corian for nuts at he moment, if you go on ebay and look at "pen blanks" there are some sellers that sell 12mm x 120mm corian blanks, should make good nuts me thinks

Perry any chance of you doing a world tour with that? :D

Ebony is pretty hard wood, and I am suprised that happened. The board my have had a hairline crack in it and the pressure of the bit took it out., or as you were drilling perhaps there was to much upward pressure. I would use a sharp bit and drill using just enough pressure so that the bit is doing the cutting, or the weight of the drill and make sure that there is no lateral movement as you go in

Buffer A lot of people are saying it, not really sure what it means but I guess it's good. Those routes are nice and clean Perry, I di like it when there aren't any drill marks on the botton of routes

Yes, it looks really dark, or maybe the pic doesn't do it justice, although it is a matter of taste. If it were me I would have used a lighter colour, it's a continuity thing Just a question on the way you finish off you neck pockets to get the fit as tight as they are. Do you router them slightly smaller and finish off with a chisel, or do have templates that finishes them at the correct size. When I saw the pic of you doing the neck fit it made me cringe a bit, but I guess if you weren't 110% you wouldn't have done it. I think I would have at least a mattress under there.

Absolutley gorgeous, one question though which I have seen on many builds, with all the time and expense invovled in the builds why have you put a black cover plate on it? It just detracts from the whole thing.

Orgmorg...............................This had my vote as soon as I saw it, and it stayed there throught the month, a few ooh's and ahh's along the way but it beat off the other competition. This is a guitar I would have loved to build. The recycling of material and the "junkiness" of it is inspiring, It was only the other month I was wondering how a body would look if I were to dent it with a ball hammer, and low and behold you've done it. My favourite part must be the draw handle as the tail stop, my least fav' is the logo on the headstock, why? I just don't know fantastic build. Mikro...................... That's one sweet looking guitar. The dish looks great. Of the other entries again the quality as allways is exellent, but those that caught my eye were Avenger's Prototype very clean and uncluttered. SwedishLuthier the look and overall finish is impressive, and the binding contrasting with the maple top just struck me as being well done, (apart from the corners of the headstock) and the markers/dots is something I have allways found to be a nice touch . Rhoads56, Perry as allways a cracking example of a top guitar. Theres a saying that "a persons strength is also his weakness" and I think for you to get my vote your build would have to be something special by your standards. If anyone else had built it, it may well have got my vote, the grain matching was a nice touch.

Answer to the same question posted on the UK forum If Perry and Setch say no then thats good enough for me

I have noticed on some peoples builds thr fretboard is shaped first and slotted then stuck onto the square neck, which is then cut roughly to size and I prsume the fretboard will then act as a template for the neck using a template bit. In order to get the fretboard to the correct dimensions, rough cut with a saw and then plane the side to the edge lines

Nope. Thats the way I do it also

Does anyone know how Meranti / White Luan would hold up as a fret board

I cringed when I read this. NO

Thanks guys, the brace's I have drawn in are to illustrate the question, it seems the bracing system is from a Martin guitar, and I do have plans to copy from.