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Here's guitar #10, a commision from a friend. More details will follow as time goes on.

This is my GA model, based off the Gibson J-185 with a little less "booty" in the lower bout





Shooting the edge and gluing up, tent method and using my Go-bar deck to keep the plate halves as level as possible.

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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

Glad to see you and Robbie joined me here. Was beginning to get lonely on this board..lol.

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Bobby Masten

Been meaning to try that combination. Have you done one before? How did it turn out? I've played a Taylor with that duo and didn't care for it, sounded muddy. Though the owner of that guitar didn't take good care of it.

Keep up the beautiful work,

JP

Thanks JP. Yes, I've built 4 guitars with EIR/cedar and they are a winner IMO. My guess is the Taylor was braced to their standard and the standard didn't cut it for that guitar in general.

OK, here's where I'm at.

Got the sides bent and all glued up together, the back joined, thicknessed, center strip in and the braces glued on. Next will be sand and clean the inside, linings, soundport graft/reinforcement, center graft on the back and fitting the back. Then it's onto the top.

Here's the pictures. Sorry that some of them are fuzzy.



















The back strip is 0.100" wide.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"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

Wow, haven't done much updating with this one. Had to do a second top as I made an error in "chasing a scratch" and sanded the top to thin.

Anyway, this one is about a week away from being delivered to its owner.

Here's a few shots of progress along the way.

Got the lining glued in



Trying the Olson solid lining around the cutaway. I sure like the look of this. Don’t think it does much for stiffening the rim as it’s already pretty stiff due to the radius of the bend.



Starting the rosette, this will be a 12 piece tiled rosette, simple but pretty I think.





All glued up and ready to cut the ring out.



Here it is installed in the top. Just needs to be cleaned up.



There we go





The rim is all ready to take the top and the back. I like to install the tail graft and cutaway tip binding before gluing the top or back on, I find it easier this way and I don’t have to worry about purfling lines not covering the tail graft this way (I’ve had that happen before made the tail graft to thick).



Tail graft



Tip of the cutaway



My new label. I’ve never been happy with what I’ve come up with for a label so I decided to get a branding iron.



Gluing up the top braces



And all finished ready to glue to the rims.



And here it is, the body done ready for binding.





Gluing headstock veneer on



Mock up of the neck on the body



Headstock shaped and neck rough shaped, checking fretboard alignment.



Compound (well close enough anyway) radius on the fretboard



Side dots, 16ga brass nails work great for this



And trimmed and sanded flush



Getting the curve at the end of the fretboard just right



Binding



Florentine tip, it's not perfect but getting better



"T" logo inlayed



Soundport



Rough shaping neck



Neck rough shaped, fretboard being glued on



Neck all done



Final check on the neck set and then it's ready for masking and finishing





Forgot about the feather inlay on the back of the heal





Made the bridge



A couple coats of lacquer on







Here's a shot of me fretting (frets didn't wan to seat in the middle so I had to clamp several of them).

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"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

Lookin' great Rod.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Rod, that's extremely nice. The whole documentation is very informative to me, but I especially like the little fixture you used to pre-glue the florentine corner block to the side and cutaway. I've thought about ways to do this, but your solution had not occurred to me.
Elegant little feather inlay, too. I'll bet that was a bit of a chore with the heel cap already on the instrument.

A favor, please, if you have time: If you have some progress shots showing how you taper your rosette tiles, I would really like to see them.

Congratulations on a fine looking guitar!
Patrick

Thanks Patrick.

As for the taper on the rosette tiles. I made a board that I clamp to my edge sander that has the correct taper relative to the sander face. I just cut rectangular pieces which are oversized and take it to the sander to set the taper. I draw a line on the Jig for how far to push the tile to get the right size (within 1/16" is fine).

The feather was actually not to bad. This is the first engraving I've ever done, that was a bit of a challenge as I don't have a graving tool, I just used an awl that I sharpened up.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"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

Rod, Thanks for the specific response. Re: The taper on the tiles, I think I've got it. Another simple fixture to get you in the neighborhood and then some trial fitting here and there. Simple and cool. Re: The improvised graver, no problem with that, either. If you want to make some graving tools for fun sometime when things are slow, old triangle files, industrial hack saw blades, broken chisels or broken jointer knives are all good sources of steel for this purpose. It's probably easier to make the tool than to do the engraving, but it's all fun. For what it's worth, I think your improvised engraving is very satisfying. I'd be extremely proud if I ever turned out a guitar like this one!

Patrick