David's Guitar Building: A productive weekend.......

Well I pretty much got to the point I wanted to be this weekend. All of the plates are joined, the rims are trimmed down to the body thickness and radiused to 30' on the top, and 15' on the back, the side braces are in, and the kerfed linings are glued on the back edges of the sides. I also was able to get the braces ripped for the tops and backs. I changed the dimensions on all of the braces with the exception of the transverse braces to taller and narrower. I want to really lighten up the bracing on these guitars to see how that affects the tone. I also am making a change to the top bracing. I am going to try and do an "A-frame" brace at the neck instead of using the standard Popsicle brace design. This design is supposed to strengthen the top under the fretboard extension significantly over the old design which will help lessen the need of a neck reset down the road. It doesn't look like it will be too difficult, but it will add a little work to the bracing as these braces need to be notched into the neck block, and the transverse brace.

I decided to go ahead and cut the two tops to remove the pin knots in the middle of the soundboard. I kind of liked the look of the knots, but I was concerned that it could possibly weaken the top right next to the glue line. I didn't want to risk that so I cut them out. I did cut right up to the knots however to keep the discoloration lines. Call me crazy, but I really like the look of the grain lines and natural discoloration in top woods. I am not all that excited in 'master grade' top wood because it just looks too dull to me. Give me some character in a top! After all, it is wood and I want it to look like wood, not a piece of tan poster board! One thing I figured out, after spending a lot of time with shooting boards, sanding boards, and planes trying to get tops and backs perfect for joining, the best tool I have for the job is my table saw. As long as the plates are relatively square I can get a dead straight edge on them that are ready for gluing straight off the saw. It does take a good saw that is set up perfectly and a good blade, but it is the easiest and surest way I have found to do this. The hardest part of the job is making sure the blade is perfectly square to the table and parallel to the fence. I cut both plates at the same time and it works wonderfully. I have been able to get the plates ready in less than 10 minutes this way and every joint is so clean and tight that there is no light that shows through when they are held together prior to gluing. One day I will make a sled that will hold odd shaped tops and backs so the joining edge is parallel to the blade. This will make joining plates that aren't parallel a simple job.

I ordered some different rosette blanks from Bob at RC Tonewoods this weekend. I have a couple of different blanks here, but I would like some different ones to pick from. I asked him to try and pick some colorful blanks to include in my order. Hopefully I will get some good options to choose from.

The last top glued and joined. You have probably noticed the green box and the tenoning jig sitting on the plates and wondered why they are there. They are there to hold down the centers of the two plate halves and keep them from buckling up under the pressure of the two clamps pulling the plates together. My first attempt at plate joining, I didn't do this and I found my top buckled at both sides. Fortunately it didn't break but it easily could have. Lesson learned!

Here is the first top. You can see the dark grain lines in the center. I know, a lot of people would hate this, but I really like it. You can see by what's left of the guitar outline, I had plenty of extra that I could cut out, but I really wanted the natural grain line look.