Bindings ......

Yesterday I got the bindings and perflings on the two guitars all glued up and the bodies looking like mummy's. The binding went pretty well. The hardest part is trying to keep the three perfling strips lined up along with the binding while trying to glue and tape it down using only two hands!

Today I removed all 29 pounds of tape on the guitars to see how the binding job looked. On the red guitar it looks great. Only a couple of very small gaps to deal with but on the green guitar, there is a section about 4" long where for some reason the binding didn't push all the way down in the binding channel leaving a gap along one edge that is fairly large. I debated on removing the binding and trying to re-glue it, but instead I decided to try and fill the gap using a long sliver of binding material. Once it drys I will sand it down and then try and fill any additional gaps with glue and sanding dust. All in all though, the bindings and perflings turned out great. I really love the color of Koa against other woods. It has a nice brown color but it kind of has a metallic platinum look to it. It is hard to describe, but I love the color. I spent a long time scraping and sanding the bindings to clean them up. Next up, neck work and the time is drawing near when I will get started on the neck sets. I am starting to feel like I am getting close to the home stretch on these two.

I am including a short video of me tapping the two bodies. Unfortunately my camera doesn't do a good job of sound recording as the automatic volume control distorts the initial tap sound. I am going ahead and posting it so you can get an idea of the differences in sounds between the two. Please realize that the sound in the video is pretty crummy, but it at least gives a taste of the sounds. The initial rattle sounds you hear are not in the guitar, they are in the recording.

Here are the two bodies all wrapped up in tape looking like mummy's. Actually under all that tape are glued up bindings and perflings.

The top of #1

The top of #2

Sides showing the binding color.

The backs. Note the tap on the right one is where I have the sliver glued in the binding gap.

The two heel grafts. The bodies are facing top to top. The grafts are a new design which has a tighter arc on the top and a more open curve at the back. These are wet with naphtha.