Sides, Neck, and Back

So I got alot done...

I cut the sides to length and glued on the endblock. The sides look pretty good, the shape is like the bastard child of a Dreadnought and a Grand Symphony

I tapered the neck, cut the headstock profile (the top has a sinusoidal profile....yeah I'm a nerd)

I finished bracing the back, and started scalloping the braces. Scalloping the braces on the top or back lightens the guitar and allows the top/back to resonate more readily and thus louder and brings out the midtones and the higher frequencies.

P.S. I decided that my next project is going to be a mandola. For a while in the 1920's, Mandolin orchestras were popular. The four instruments in the mandolin family are the mandolin (as we know it today), the mandola (tuned the same as a viola), the octave mandolin (tuned an octave below the mandolin) and the mandocello (tuned the same as a cello.) That build will have to wait until I finish this guitar, but it shouldn't be too difficult so I'm hoping sometime before the end of the school year...I'll probably rent an apartment and get an internship/job somewhere this summer (then its off to college...)

Bending the sides

I finally bent the sides. It was easier than I expected, just time consuming...It took me a while to get the hang of it, but after that it was pretty straight-forward. I soaked the wood for about 25 minutes, and then slowly bent the sides over a section of pipe with a 300 watt lightbulb inside (to heat up the pipe.)

It takes a while (about 30 seconds) for the wood to become pliable but then it bends pretty easily. There were a couple areas with grain tearout but nothing that won't get sanded off.

In other news, I started bracing the back

Pictures below....

Progress!

Well its been a while since I've posted...in this time...
I turned 18
We got a new president woohoo
I'm on break from school


Today, I made and installed the X-braces ...

I cut out the spruce pieces, radiused them the same way that I did for the back braces mentioned previously.

Instead of using a radiused workboard to glue the braces in, I clamped the braces down on a flat surface so that when unclamped, they will spring back, bending the top into a radius

UPDATE: I added a few more of the braces, and pictures

Braces and Neck

This weekend I put the radius on the braces, when clamped to the back, these braces will pull the guitar back into a domed shape. Its a slight radius (about 25') but it helps the back adjust to changes in seasonal humidity which might otherwise put alot of strain on the back/sides join.

I did this by making a curved template and then I used a plane with a spacer on the back end of a block plane to create a radius. The spacer angles the plane such that it makes the bottom of the block plane tangent to the curve of the braces. As more and more is taken off, the braces take on the radiused shape.

For the neck, having glued the scarf joint and the blocks that make up the heel of the neck I cut the truss rod channel. I'm using the LMII standard truss rod that requires a 3/16" by 3/8" channel. I cut this with the table saw. I messed up though, as the blade cleared the fretboard area, I partially rocked it up so it made a nasty little cut down the headstock. I managed to sand this out but it left the headstock on the thin side.