The sides were placed into the jig ready for me to plane down evenly so that the back can be put on. When we made the sides we left quite a bit of leeway in case of any measurement mishaps.
This was Tor’s amazing inlay work. He is sanding down the fretboard to get the correct radius – he went for a 12″ radius which is typical to Gibson guitars.
I first started by planing and spoke shaving the sides down. The back side is actually curved so we measured out how low they need to go with the bottom being more higher than the top. You can see there that it gets quite considerably low near the neck. We put on masking tape so that it was clearer to see than pencil line. It was my first time using a spoke shaver, so that’s another tick to my ever-increasing woodworking skills.
After I got the sides down it was time to sand it smooth. We used a radius board which is a massive sanding block with a curve to it so that it will sand down the edges to the right radius. This felt like a cross fit session to me, I definitely got my week’s share of triceps and shoulder workouts.
Voila! Ready for me to do the next step…. Kerfing. Kerfing is the little strip that goes right around the edge to add surface area for the back side to be glued onto. It’s basically for more support between the marriage of the side edges and back.
We then pegged all around the kerfing so that there are no opportunities for the glue to escape adhering properly. We then let that sit for a few hours as it dried.
While I was waiting for the sides to dry I got started on drawing out where my bracings would go on the top side. It was a lot easier working off a blueprint so that I basically just had to go back to high school geometry and maths to transfer the blueprint measurements onto my piece.
I was surprised at how much bracing actually goes on the top side. You never really get to see it when you hold a guitar as the soundhole only allows you to see the back bracing.
I also got to learn that the top bracing plays a huge role in creating the sound. The top side is also known as the soundboard and without the bracing it would sound quite dull. The bracing allows for the sound to break up into little pockets and for the appropriate frequencies to resonate in different parts of the top side to get the maximum quality sound. I was also surprised to see that the bracings were not all symmetrical, but it’s been tried and tested for many years and it just works. So I’m not going to be the one that questions it. Of course there are many different styles of bracing though, some more common with particular guitar styles. Another common style aside from the X bracing is the ladder style bracing.
I then moved on to inlaying my rosette. I went with this simple herringbone style that I thought would work great with my Queensland Blackwood. I used a Stewart-MacDonald jig that guided my Dremel around the centrepoint to create the perfect circle. This same jig was used to cut out my sound hole later on as well. It was important to go slow as I pivoted around to avoid hitting tough grains that would throw my Dremel and create an uneven channel.
I then cut my rosette to length, glued it and then clamped it.
I moved on to taking the pegs off my kerfing – it looked great. I sanded it down again using the radius board and then started measuring out the depth and width of the check out points for my bracing to slot in snuggly inside the kerfing. This allows for a bit more support rather than just checking out huge parts of the kerfing – it also makes for good, clean craftsmanship.
As the back is curved, the weight was used to make sure the back side was sitting properly as I measured out the check outs.
This underside might show it a little better. See the point between the bracing and kerfing? I needed to get rid of the excess bracing that went beyond the edges and also find out how much of the kerfing I needed to get rid of so that the bracing would just slot in nicely. I didn’t get around to actually chiseling it out but I ended my day by taking the clamps off my rosette and seeing it all nice and dry.
Tada! Obviously needs a bit of sanding… haha.
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