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Well good things and bad things with this build, there was bound to be something going wrong and it finally happened. when i was trying to glue to back to the sides today. During the dry clamp i noticed that where the last brace the back isn't fully arched, but rather dips a bit. After a few hours I've thought of an unorthodox fix which will either repair or ruin this build. I put a 15 foot radius on the sides( the back is a 12 foot radius) and i removed the last brace and will re-arch it. Hopefully with the 15 foot radius on the sides it'll force more pressure on the back giving me more of a dome. I also found a pattern router bit for my dremel and i decided to test it on the soundboard for the sound hole and rosette!

Not going to meet the deadline for the competition, but oh well id rather get this guitar done right than finish it on time and it be a bad instrument. Unfortunately I've been so busy i haven't had a chance to really work on it. Some updates since April are the back which was re arched and re domed and now works, a slotted and bound fretboard, Soundhole rosette which i will be finishing tonight and the headstock!!

I apologize for not posting frequently, truthfully I've been incredibly busy with school and then the San Diego fires. anyways i haven't really done too much work other than add the end graft and a back strip to the guitar. feedback is greatly appreciated!

It's getting there!

Did you make that plexiglass template?

Ahaha thanks and no I actually purchased it from LMI.

Ok cool thanks. I'm really getting into building these once I'm operational again. They are so fun to build yeah?

They are an absolute blast. If I could give you any advice it would be to bend the sides by hand because the cutaway is extremely tight, if you use a wood that's very pliable you should be fine.

I think I'm going to stick to laminated sides as was the way most of the original ones were built. I've never done it yet so that could be proven more difficult then bending sides for me. For the one Selmer I built I purchased pre-laminated back and side. Anyway I enjoy seeing the pics.

Bad news ladies and gents the top which has been giving me issues since day one finally failed while I was bending the arch. Therefore I have to build a new top, man I was really hoping to finish soon. Anyways I'm thinking of either a French Polish or an oil finish, any advice?

When you say fail what do you mean? I used cedar for mine and when I was bending in the pliage it cracked but I just reglued the crack and carried on. What failed? Also I'm curious to know how you go about bending in the pliage? That had me scratching my head for weeks. In Michael Collins book he does it one half at a time and then joins the top. That seemed impossible to me so I joined the top first using LMI White and then bent the top as a whole. I kept the heat just under the flash point of the glue and it held together ok.

I French Polished mine since it's my own personal guitar but if I ever make one for a player I'll probably consider lacquer or that hard Shellac which I have not tried yet but plan too soon.

I prefer Tru-Oil as a finish. It's just a super good finishing product.


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