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I think you are right about the multi-wood rosette. It may have looked pretty cool if it had maple or some light colored wood slices between the wedges.

Now that is pretty cool. I would not have thought of binding the soundhole with a rosette cutoff. Slick.

I trimmed and rounded the back braces.
Then cut the lining pieces to fit the back.


And now it's time to start put the linings in.

Now the top lining is going in.

I have tried a bunch of methods and have settled on putting sections in and working my way around the braces rather than putting in a whole long segment and then trying to cut out the sections where the braces go. At least for now.....

Gluing in one big strip is about the only way you can do it with solid linings - but the standard kerf linings don't look too bad when you work around the bracing.

It's all good and I don't think it will matter but it's not too hard to cut out the linings for the braces if you decide you would like to on a future build. I put em in then mark where the braces go. After that I cut notches with my inlay router. I've also cut the notches with a razor saw and chisel.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

So I made some more progress.

I went ahead and finished up all the lining and got going on closing up the box



The back is all glued on now.



I went ahead and trimmed off the overhang.


And the top going on. Looks like I missed a pic of the top itself in there somewhere.... Gotta wait till its out of the mold now....



Feels like I am making good progress.

Here's the body cleaned up.





Opinion time guys....
What binding material do I go with?
Choices are curly oak, maple, walnut, cherry, and leopard wood if I can find a piece in the wood stash.

I wet the side and the binding a bit to try and show the color better.

Oak


Maple


Cherry


Walnut

Are you planning to have side purfling? If no side purfling, then the cherry is my least favorite because it looks so much like the sides.

It would be cool if you find the leopard wood to match the rosette.

If no leopard wood, I like the oak because it's intermediate in color between the top and sides and has that nice curl to set it off.

The walnut would be my next choice because of the strong contrast with the sides, top, and rosette woods.

_________________
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I have thought about side purflings. I am going to do some top and back purflings.

My piece of leopard wood is horribly buried in the wood stack. The stuff I used for the rosette was scrap from a resawing catastrophe that I have almost thrown out 6 different times.... And it's way too thin for using as a back, but too short for bindings unless I glue slices end to end.... Which would probably look ugly....

*Sigh*

Walnut it is.


I went ahead and got the binding pieces ready and in the bender. Next task is to inlet the tail graft.

I went ahead and inlaid the butt wedge. This was the 2nd try.... The 1st try used black epoxy and it soaked up into the grain I had to do a new one that was about 1/4" wider to get rid of the soak in.

I had painted the inside with super glue... I should have used a good coat of clear epoxy.

I gave up on that and used Titebond on this one... I am not really in the mood for another round of black soaked up into the grain.

The moral... Don't listen to people who say "Epoxy doesn't soak into wood...."

Binding time.

I leveled the butt wedge and then sanded the sides down. I went ahead and routed out the channel for the top binding and purflings. And in they went.

Feels like I am making progress...

And here goes the back bindings and purflings.

A little super glue and the purflings stay put in their groove.


And now the binding is all glued in.

I started brushing the varnish last night.

Here's a tease for what it will look like with the finish on. The color on the photo of the back isn't quite right. It's more red-brown than the picture shows.





I plan to start the neck tonight.

Time for the neck. The original plan was to use a neck I had already made.... Then I decided to use a different scale length so off we go. This cherry was local at my last house.

Let's lay out stuff


Rip down the neck. Once it's cleaned up - I saw out the headstock scarf.




Get the surfaces all cleaned up


Then get it glued together.

Then I glued on the heel....


And here's the neck blank.


Next will be the truss Rod slot and then cutting it out to shape.

Box looks good. Nice progress. I'm still in limbo trying to get my shop put back together.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

That's one heck of a shop project you got there Steve... Sounds like it's time for a guitar building excuse. I tell you... Even taking a 15 minute break to get some guitar work in feels great.

I made some progress on the neck. The shape is getting roughed out.... And then the body gets another coat of finish. I am up to coat 4.

Trussrod slot.


Starting to rough out the heel.

It's time to start carving the neck. I started roughing out the heel and shaft. I am going to try to get the headstock cut out tomorrow.

My tools of choices... Rasps. I did saw cut some of the facets on the heel for bulk stock removal. Ye olde Nicholson 49 is my weapon of choice here.... Though I do love my big honkin Auriou#12... I also really like the fabric backed sandpaper for clean up work.

This side first


Now start roughing out the other side...

Some more neck work. I got the inserts in and the basic neck set on the way. I am going to temporarily pin the fretboard and finish getting the neck set squared away. I gotta say that it's a lot easier to get a good clean neck joint without the fretboard glued down.

Yep, I like to get the neck set close to final before I put the fretboard on - sure is a lot easier.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

And some more neck work. It takes a while to get everything just so.... Taper the fretboard. Flatten the top of the neck. Glue in the trussrod with tub caulk (yes... Really)

Then I glue on the fretboard with 2 part 24 hour epoxy. I use "The Good Stuff" here - West Systems rather than standard Hardware store stuff. Epoxy is nice here because it doesn't cause the wood to swell and warp like water base glues...

10 million clamps and we are on the way.



Then - once it has sat overnight, I heat it up with the wife's hair dryer (Shhhhh. Don't tell her) and let it sit another day so I don't end up with gummy epoxy...



And now it sits. I will put another coat of varnish on the body while I finish up shaping and sanding the neck.

Thanks

The side marker dots are in and I finished shaping the neck. Gave it a final sanding and the first coat of varnish went on.







Unfortunately - it's a bit sticky on the rosewood. So... Time for some UV light. It's going to get to sit outside in the sun for a few days to help that varnish harden up. I will hang it up in a bright window after that to let it sit. Hopefully, it sets up in time to finish this challenge.



Next time - I will wipe on the first coat over the rosewood... Wipe it on, rub well, and wipe off all the excess. Very thin on the first coat so it can cure.

In the mean time - I will get going on the headplate veneer, heel cap, and the nut.

A day of "Specialized UV Treatment Protocol" aka sitting on the roof of the car worked out dandy - so I gave it a second day to make sure. No more tacky varnish on rosewood. Ka-Ching!

Now - it's probably safe to proceed with varnishing the neck while I get the head plate and heel cap sorted out.

On to the heel cap and head plate.

The heel cap is a cutoff from the back set. It's a shame it's not a little darker.. But maybe it will darken up a little more with time.


Then trimming it with the chisel.


And on to gluing the maple/walnut/maple veneers to the back of the Leopardwood plate. I am going for some bling here to match the rosette.


And there we go. We may yet have a guitar one of these days!

Here's the untrimmed headstock veneer. I am checking the nut for a good fit.


Here's a teaser of the headstock with a quick coat of varnish to help protect from dings.


It's time to cut the slots for the slot head.

Cutting slots - not my fav thing to do but nice to be at that point in the build. Enjoy

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"