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So I've been trying to get things rolling again...

Here I've glued in the centre strip.



Top braces glued in. Note: a few pieces missing here and there...



The back glued on. I tried fish glue for the first time. I'm very very impressed with the stuff. Huge open time (1 hour+) and it dries glass hard. The one downside is that it's extremelly tacky and sticky and not the easiest glue to clean up, even when wet...



A little message inside...



Finally, the box being closed, hopefully for ever...



Thanks for looking!

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Nice message!

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Brad
Avon, OH

Nice job on the guitar too!

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Brad
Avon, OH

Very nice Alain. That's going to be something special.

Did you use the fish glue for all aspects or just gluing the plates on?

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

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Looks cool buddy. Super clean looking. I like your center strip jig. I have been gluing in my center strip then chiseling it out to fit my braces. Your way of doing it looks like a good idea to me.
I also like your shape. The cutaway is very cool. Put up more pics when she is all together.

Homeboy

Very Nice and clean.
Show us more!!!!!

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Thanks for all your kind words folks!

Rod, I've tried it just to glue on the plates. I use HHG for most everything else. Well, the blocks still get titebond... I figured that I wanted the glass hard cured glue but I'm not quick enough with HHG (don't ask me how I know this... )


Homeboy, that's how I did it before but from now on, it's going to be braces first for me. You have full access to the braces while shaping them and if you take your time, you can get a compression fit with the back strip pieces. I used that caul (which has a bottom radius of 15') to align the strip while gluing it. I used HHG so I just held them in place for a minute or so by hand, then I placed the caul on top.

Hesh, parabolii indeed! Pretty much the same as I used on no.2. You can't tell from that picture, but those are very skinny braces.

I was going to cut off the excess at the cutaway before gluing the top on, but I decided to use a bunch of cam clamps in a 'dry' run (as opposed to just clamping at the blocks and roping the rest) and I figured I didn't need to... Now that I think of it... cutting that off with a jig-saw on the guitar is probably asking for trouble... hmmm...

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Lookin' good Alain. It's going to be another beauty from you!

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Alain, you just joined the NEAT FREAK CLUB! AAAAAAAAAHH!

I think i'll echo what has been said here and say WOW!   

Nice job pal! That one sure will be a keeper huh? unless i stumble upon a few thousand bucks right?

Cheers man!Serge Poirier39034.992962963

Beautiful workmanship, Bro. I love the shape and cutaway. Looking forward to see more as you progress.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Alain, what I've done on all of my guitars is use a hand held coping saw to get the cutaway area out, than just route flush. Actually on the last one, I just routed it out with the flush cutting bit.

The reason that I leave the excess on (both back and top) is that I have a friend who I'm helping build a guitar (blind leading the blind ) and after he finished installing a really nice back strip, he cut the plate out to shape, but cut it out backwards and now the cutaway was on the wrong side of the guitar. Needless to say, the world will never see his nice back strip, thankfully the EIR was a nice book match and looks great all on it's own. Another hard leason learned, but I still don't trust myself to cut it out before it's on the body

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Thanks guys!

Rod, I feel a bit better about it now! Thanks!
I'll try just going slowly, taking off just a bit at a time with the flush-cut...

Now comes the step of which I am most aprehensive in all building, routing out the binding channels...

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Very nice work Alain. Your pictures are great also. They let a new guy see the process up close. Keep the pic's coming.
Doug

Gonna be another dandy, Alain. Very neat.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Thanks guys!

Doug, that's exactly what I have in mind. I know these pics must be very mundane for an experienced builder. But I'm just hoping they can help somebody, anybody. By the same token, maybe someone will spot something I'm doing and recommend a different technique. I'm not set in my ways. I'm just a newbie with 2 completed!...


Hesh, I have the Stew-Mac and the LMI rabbet sets... I route free-hand.

On my last, I cleaned up with a Gramil and the results were good... You know, as you mention, once you get going, you forget about the apprehension and you just concentrate on the task at hand.

That Williams jig sound interesting. Which one is that exactly? I was thinking I'd like to get something like you have that registers from the sides...

Thanks again folks!

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Alain, if you have the rabbet bits already, than the Williams binding jig or the Ribbecke style which John Mayes uses I think would be the way to go.

Ribbecke binding jig.

Rod True39035.9737962963

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Alain, awesome looking guitar and very clean work! Love seeing your progress pictures!

I haven't been around much of late as you know and confused as to whether it is your build or Hesh's that's going to have the black top?

If Hesh goes with the William's Jig see if you can purchase his

Nice clean work Alain,

Everything is looking very sharp and tidy, keep up the good work.

Cheers

Kim

Thanks guys!

Rod, thanks for the info bud. I actually made a jig like that one a little while back. It's nice and solid, I just can't bring myself to use it!

Anthony, it the Heshmeister's guitar that gets the black paint... And I will try to snag his old binding jig if he goes the 'Williams' route!

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Alain,

Very nice work. You may have mentioned it before, but could you tell me what your B&S wood is? The figure and color is especially appealing.

Carlton, thanks man!

That is EIR. My first leap of faith buying zoot off e-bay. 35$! I think it was graded as AAA.

BobC and JJ thought it was a very nice set.

It's too bad I didn't know much about re-sawing back then. The set was huge (Jumbo) and I could of gotten some very nice bindings from it...(the sides were nearly 6 inches wide) Oh well, live and learn...

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

[QUOTE=Alain Desforges] Carlton, thanks man!

That is EIR. My first leap of faith buying zoot off e-bay. 35$! I think it was graded as AAA.[/QUOTE]
Well, that would have been my guess, but I've never seen EIR quite like that before. Those lengthwise grain/color striations are nice!

Very Nice Alain!

Mike