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I have built two steel string guitars already, and two 5-string banjo's. The last guitar made up of a redwood top, and rosewood sides, turned out to be unbelievable; the sound, sustain, and balance turned out to be more than I could ever imagine. Now if only I could play the thing!! I built everything from a pile of lumber, that I purchased from a local guitar builder. No sanding or anything was done for me; I did it all on my own with simple shop tools. I had never bent wood before, and made a side bending device from an old 3" X 7" aluminum pipe, with an aluminum plate attached to the bottom. It was placed on top of an old clothing iron, and turned all the way up; it worked great! I made four cam clamps, and used some old clamps I had in the shop for the set up. The project was far more physically demanding than I thought, and it caused me more troubles with my hands and arms than this 68 Yr. old guy could handle. I'm having difficulties now with playing the steel string, and have elected to take on playing and owning a nylon string guitar. I can still 'beat the tar' out of the 5-string banjo I made. As a result I have elected to build a serviced kit from LMI. The sides have already been formed and sanded, and the neck has been done too. I'm using O'Briens video, and reading Cumpiano/Natelson's book, to construct this instrument. I started with building up a mold as O'Brien described, made up of two layers of 3/4" plywood. I built a 'building board', with an outline of the guitar, and am going to set that board up like the one described in "Guitarmaking". Using the 1/8" cork as described in the outline of the guitar, I figure I can get the arch in the top of the guitar. I have started working on gluing the top and back together, and will set up my rosette, profile the top and back, and from that point, I'm not sure what I should do next. Setting up the neck to body assembly, looks a little intimidating, and I'm not sure how to approach that part. I'm going to need a little advice from you guys on this.
Also, I have access to some nice spruce (from assembeling a beautiful bi-plane at the San Diego Air & Space Museum, where I work as a volunteer), also western red cedar, and spanish cedar, that I can use for the fan bracing on this project. I'm using John Bogdanovch's plans and fan bracing assembly, and was wondering what should I use to get the best sound from this guitar?
Anyway, that gives you a little info on my background and my new project. I'm hoping for some assistance from you on this assembly.
Thanks, Greg Carter
P.S. I'm not to 'savy' on this computer forum, and I am having a little difficulty in setting up my forum. I hope I did it right??

Hi Greg, I just saw your post. That sounds like you've got an interesting build planned. Post some pictures when you get a chance!

I can't help at all, as I've only built one guitar and used Bogdanovich's plan. I followed John's recommended dimensions pretty closely and I am very happy with the sound.

The neck to body assembly was fairly easy.

BUT HERE IS WHERE YOU CAN SCREW UP: gluing the sides into the spanish heel slots ... when doing your dry run before glue-up, you want the sides to slip into the slots with only light pressure. Not too loose and not too tight. Mine were a bit tight; I had to use a bit of pressure to slide the side into the slot during the dry runs. During the actual glue-up one side got stuck - but I got lucky and managed to push the side home without damaging it. I used Titebond, which is pretty grabby. Next time I will use fish glue.

This is such a critical and almost irreversable step that you might even want to make a simple test slot and use a cutoff from your actual side to do a trial glueup to get a feel for how much tolerance to leave in the joint for your glueup.