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Yeah, but it doesn't look like a flaw if it's on the centerline at the tail, all nice and symmetrical.

Yes I do that -- takes a little more planning but looks pretty good even with light color trim.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Charlie Hoffman does the same thing Ken and his Maple/light colored wood joints are among the best I've seen. I've seen few Maple butt joints that are decent.

One question, the joint at the end graft is easy but do you have any tricks for nailing the cut when you get to the heel and have only a short free segment of binding to work with?

Thanks

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Unfortunately I do not have any tricks -- I tape the bindings in place and sneak up on that last critical cut, I have thought about making a little tool with the proper angle that would clamp to the end of the binding then I could "shave" the cut for the final fit. Now I have to remove one side of the binding to make trim cuts in the miter box -- PITA. Years ago I had a miter cutter that had a knife edge kind of a guillotine design and could shave off paper thin sections to get perfect miters.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/