Hello!

I was thinking I should wait a while, let the shellac cure, and rub it out so it was shiny. But after asking around, I hear that it's a good idea to do that, say, about a month from now. Wait around for a month?!? So I just went ahead and strung it up tonight. It felt great to get away from the finishing stuff and get back into something that I have an easier time with: setup. I'll buff it shiny, later.

It has a light and balanced feel to it. And a warm voice. It definitely has that 30's Martin vibe, and some volume to it. And this is just the first day.

Good news, the truss rod works. It's a little tight, and I don't know why, but it works good.

I have more work to do, filing on the nut and saddle. But here it is.





































































































































































(The cloudiness you are seeing in the pictures above and below is actually bone dust from the nut.)

Gluing on the bridge

Back before I finished the guitar, I put a piece of 150 grit paper on the top and rubbed the bridge over it so that the underside of the bridge would have the same slight dome shape as the top.

Here's the top with the bridge mask removed.




















Check out what the wood used to look like, before I dyed it, pore filled it, and applied shellac.




































My bridge gluing jig, has a tiny bit of play in it, so I put this tape down to help me place the bridge, and also to catch glue squeeze out that will ooze outta there after I tighten the screws.















And here's the bridge gluing jig I made. I put a phillips screwdriver in those screwtops, and then reach inside the guitar and tighten the wingnuts inside of there as tight as I can get em.






























Wipe off the squeeze out, remove the tape, and wait a couple of days.

Bridge, saddle and pins

The bridge is Indian rosewood. The saddle and pins are bone.

The neck is on, and more finish

I glued the neck on today. This morning, I clamped it up, and I removed the clamp tonight. I thought it might be easier to complete the finish with the neck on.

This way, I can work on the front, hang it up, then work on the back while the guitar is hanging there, and then work on the neck, too.




















Things are really looking pretty good overall. Today I also drilled two holes for the bridge.






































I'll probably glue the bridge on later this week.

Tonight, I touched up the finish. The guitar looks good in pictures, but up close and in person there are tiny little rub marks and I'm making myself crazy trying to rub them out. I picked up some turtlewax swirl remover which works pretty well in tests. We'll see how that goes.

The camera's flash makes the guitar look a little lighter than it actually is.

Finish is near completion

I've lost track of how many shellac body applications I've applied to all of the surfaces. Nearly all of the little pores are gone and everything is pretty much level looking. I just need to get an even looking glossy appearance to everything with my next few body sessions and then glazing after that.

In these pics everything manages to look a little darker than it really is. The neck is just a little bit lighter than the body. But it's a different kind of mahogany than the body is. I tried to match them as well as I could.

































































































The peghead is pretty great looking, I'm very proud of that.






















The top is coming along nicely, I just have to do a little more leveling with sandpaper and/or spiriting.


I unmasked the neck, as I'm pretty much done with finishing it, and set it on the body along with the bridge, for looks.

The plan now, is after I get everything very clean looking, glossed, and buffed out, I'll then let it rest for a few weeks. Then I'll glue the bridge, glue the neck, install the tuners, and string it up. Probably early July?