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Building Process
Selecting top and back sets
Joining the two halves of a top set
Top and back sets joined, ready for machine carving
Carving template and back secured to carving machine, set up for carving outer face contour
This manually operated dupli-carving machine uses an aggressive dado type cutter, allowing full depth cut in a single pass
Close-up, cutting outer face of a back plate
Close-up, cutting inner face of a top plate
Top plates after machine carving and perimeter cut
Milling plate perimeter to uniform thickness
Hand carving the inside of a top plate
Set-up for cutting f-holes
Binding f-holes
F-hole binding completed
Gluing the top braces
Completed plates, with top bracing, center seam strips and cutaway filler ramps installed
Rim stock, sanded to thickness and ready for bending
The bending machine, set up for cutaway rims
Rim stock is sandwiched between spring steel slats with a silicone-rubber heater element attached underneath
Bending a pair of cutaway sides
Non-cutaway sides are bent on the same form using a filler piece in the cutaway area
A set of bent rims
Joining rims to neck and end blocks
Gluing cutaway rim to neck block
Rims joined to blocks
Attaching kerfing strips to rims
Milling the kerfing flat
Completed rims in body mold, ready for attaching back plate
Gluing the back plate to rims
Rims with back attached
Gluing top to rims
Top and back attached and trimmed flush to rims
Binding rabbets cut
Body bindings secured with tape while glue dries
Body binding completed
Routing the body dovetail
Tracing a template to lay out neck blanks on Birdseye Maple neck stock
Gluing up a 3-piece neck blank
Rough cut neck blank, inlaid fingerboard and peghead faceplate
Bindings are glued onto the peghead faceplate using a jig made specifically for this purpose
Completed fingerboard and peghead faceplate
Gluing peghead ears to neck blank
Neck blank with dovetail cut, fingerboard extension added and truss rod installed
Gluing on the rear peghead veneer
Fingerboard and peghead faceplate attached to neck blank
Rough shaping neck with quarter round cutter
Final hand shaping of neck
Trimming neck joint to fit to body
Gluing neck to body
Neck/body joint completed
Completed guitar, "in the white", ready for finish application
First lacquer coats applied, intensifying the figure of the maple
Scraping bindings after sunburst color application
Completed application of a "Vintage Sunburst" with bindings scraped clean, ready for build-up clear coats
A run of six guitars with spray work completed
Set up for hardware installation
A graduated thickness gap gauge aids in cutting final nut slot depths
A five instrument run, completed and ready for packing and delivery
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Building Process
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