Necks attached.....

I have to apologize for the lack of updates lately. Things have been crazy busy with the Thanksgiving holiday and hunting season being in full swing. I have been spending as much free time as possible in the woods so I haven't had much time in the shop. Today after work and in-between some other neglected chores around the house, I spent a couple of hours in the shop getting both necks glued to the bodies. I used hot hide glue on these necks as I did on the SJ. Other than having to work fast getting the bolts in and clamps on, the glue-ups went well. According to the weatherman, tomorrow is supposed to be a lousy rainy day so that will keep me out of the woods and in the shop after work so I can get the bridges glued on. Of course the weatherman has been known to be wrong before so I may just end up in the woods after all! I live for hunting season so pretty much everything comes to a grinding halt during the season. I spend as much time as I possibly can in the woods which usually is most nights after work, and all day Saturdays. I am really glad that I have the twins to this point in the building process so I don't have to rush the final setup and I also don't have to choose between hunting and building. As much as I love building guitars, it would have to take a second seat to hunting.

Unfortunately, winter has arrived in it's full glory so my shop is very cold. I had to drag the propane tank up there today so I can fire up the propane heater shortly. So far my electric heater has done a fairly good job of warming things up but I think we are at the limits of what that heater can do.

I did join up the back for the parlor guitar that I am going to build next. I have a small set of striped Honduran mahogany that was just barely enough for an 00 sized guitar. After joining and gluing, the top right now is EXACTLY the same width as the 00 size lower bout width. I do mean exactly too. The body is supposed to be 14 1/8" wide and the wood is 14 1/8" wide. So, I have made the decision to change to an 0 sized guitar. That gives me a little bit of extra wood around the lower bout, roughly 1/4" on each side which I am a lot more comfortable with. I really didn't have my heart set on the 00, I was just wanting to get the most out of the back set. I am just not comfortable using a back that has zero room for error. The back is a beautiful piece of wood and I am very excited to see how it will look when finished. I am still deciding what neck wood to use. Part of me wants to use spanish cedar again, but I really hate the resin that gets on my hands when working with it. I like how light weight it is however and it does work very nicely with tools. I am leaning towards using mahogany so it matches the back and sides. I still have some time to think about it.

I picked up a couple of "Kermodie" tops this last week. It is a trademarked name for Lutz spruce. I have to say, I am impressed with the stiffness of this wood. It is incredibly stiff and the ring count is too tight to actually count. I have a few more of these tops coming as well as a billet of it for re-sawing. My next build after the parlor will probably be using one of these tops.