The twins have begun......

Today I officially started work on the twin build. The first thing I did was to rip a 1/4" strip from the edge of each of the side pieces to use as future binding material. I figure that the sides are plenty wide for the guitar and this is a way to get some free EIR binding wood. Once that was done, I trimmed the side pieces to get a straight edge on each side, then thickness sanded all 4 pieces to .08" thick. I then dug out my OM bending mold, wiped the dust and spider webs off of it and got the bender ready for use. I bent all 4 sides easily using a misting of water and wrapping them in kraft paper. I cut the ends to fit in the molds and clamped them in. So, the twins are under way.

I won't be posting in as much detail on these builds as I have gone into a lot of detail in other build journals. I will be posting my daily progress pictures as well as anything that is different, unusual, or interesting along the way. This will be more a record of the method I use to build two mostly identical guitars at the same time, with the only differences being bracing methods, and some cosmetic differences. I also spoke with LMI on Monday about my neck blanks and they are sending me two new ones that are at least 3" wide. I sent the other ones back to them. They were great about it, and were very willing to do whatever was necessary to make me happy. I am quite pleased with the quality of their customer service.

Two sets of sides.

Number 1.....

...and number 2. You will notice there is a significant difference of color in these two sets of EIR. One is very dark like the normal EIR I have used, and the other is very light with a lot of wide stripes in it. With this being "opportunity grade' wood, it is not considered to be cosmetically high quality wood, but it is structurally sound and it has a very nice ring to it when tapped. I will be staining both guitars to try and get them similar in color.