Acoustic Guitar Buildalong.

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Thanks. Got more done on the guitar in this one week than all other combined. Hope to have the back glued on by this time next week. Then it's a matter of having enough "spare" cash on hand to order a new fretboard blank and a tool or two I will need for the steps after this.
 
Thanks for the kind words Marcel. It's been a learning experience and I know of a few things I will do differently if I ever build another Accoustic or hollowbody style guitar.
Hope for another update this weekend sometime? Depends on the weather.
 
Got all four back ribs in place, next step is to glue on the five spruce center support strips between the ribs. To do this I made the wood guide shown here. It is notched to sit over the top of the ribs, then clamped into place (not glued down). This will aid in keeping all the support strips in a nice even line down the center of the back.
 

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Next picture shows the guide clamped into place and the first two center strips glued down at each end of the back. Only three more to trim and glue into place.
Last picture shows the completed back. End two center strips are trimmed down to fit in place between the neck and back blocks on the sides of the guitar. 4 rib ends are trimmed and sanded to fit into place on the sides.
Now I need to cut, fit, sand and glue 16 side re-inforcement strips. Then the Back gets glued into place. Hope to do that later in the week.
 

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A little progress this week. First 8 side reinforcement strips are in, second set of eight are glued and clamped in. If all goes as planned the back plate will be glued on tomorrow evening.
 

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Well, no progress on the guitar in the last few days. Had some minor water leakage into my basement workshop area Friday evening when I wanted to do some guitar work. Had to move a bunch of scrap lumber out of the way and clean up the mess.
Decided to take the weekend off and not do anything that required the use of my brain other than where the heck did I leave the bottle opener and who's getting me my next beer
 
Things haven't gone as planned the last couple weeks, but tought I'd post and let you know I am still working on the Guitar. Been a busy couple weeks and I just haven't had any spare time to get any work done on the guitar. Hope to resume next week and have the bottom plate in place by next weekend if all goes as planned.
 
Spring has sprung and I've found myself spending most of my free time outside wandering the woods and shooting my Longbow, so the guitar build has been suffering lately. Things will probably go a little slowly for a while.
Been reading up a little on bracing and heard several people say that the x-brace on the guitar top (shown in these two pictures) should have a nice tight joint otherwise there may be some buzzing to the guitar when it is played. So I will be filling in the gaps from my sloppy work with scrap wood and thin vaneers to get a nice tight fit. After that I will glue on a cloth patch (gun cleaning patch saturated in wood glue) to re-inforce the joint.
Second picture shows the first shim glued in place. It still needs to be shaped and sanded some.
 

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Been slacking lately. Between work, daily hikes, building arrows, and shooting my longbow have just not put in the time on the guitar. Work bench is getting to be cluttered again with arrow building stuff too. Going to clean that mess up tonight and get some work done this week on the guitar.
I guess I need someone on the board to come over and kick me in the backside and get me started on this project again.
 
Been a hectic Summer so far, I knew work on the Guitar would slow down a bit as summer came, but the Guitar build has come to a screeching halt. I WILL be working a little on the Guitar this weekend, between other projects. Bad Achilles has me down an out form my normal routine so going to get some work done. Still will be a slow process though.
Need to fill in those gaps in the X-braces yet and hopefully get the top in place this weekend, or at least fitted and ready to glue next week?
 
I know, I know. I find it hard to sit indoors come spring and summer so the indoor projects suffer. Will probably be slow going for a while, but hope to get some work done hear and there.
 
Well, believe it or not, I got some work done on the guitar this evening. Added some additional thin strips of wood to fill in the gaps I left in the x-bracing. Next guitar I biuld with have the x-braces done differently so there are no gaps where the braces meet.
First picture shows the thin strips of vaneer I superglued into place. I shaped them flush with an sharp hobby knife.
Next picture shows a cotton gun cleaning patch I glued into place to re-inforce the x-brace joint. Not sure this was needed, but probably won't hurt. I cleaned it up a bit after I took this picture.
Next up is to fine tune the back fit and glue it in place. Hope to have this done over the weekend, but have a lot of plans so hopefully I can fit it in.
 

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Stay tuned, weather is terrible today so instead of my evening hike I'm going to try to get the back glued into place tonight and if weather permits trim the soundboard and bottom of the guitar flush with the sides over the weekend after the glue hardens. I'd do this indoors, but it makes a huge mess and is a bit noisy.
 
Back is now glued and clamped into place. It took a little squeezing in on one of the sides but it is good to go. Going to let the glue dry for a good day and a half and will unclamp sometime on Sunday. Then get the trim router out and flush it up to the sides.
Going to work on building my new Longbow I will be taking to Colorado to hunt Elk while this dries up.
 

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