| The Back The back and sides are made from Paduak. Here I am laying out the template to cut out two back pieces. I edge jointed them on the power jointer to get two flat edges. |
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| Cut out the two pieces, leaving about 6mm excess material. |
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| Then its time to glue them together. I used PVA glue and a few well placed clamps to hold them tight - only a small amount of pressure is needed if the joint is well made. |
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| While the glue set I made a template for the bridge and chose some Rosewood. Transfer the template to the blank using a pin to mark the curves. |
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| With the back dry I gave it a quick levelling with the random orbit sander - this Paduak is not too friendly for planing, especially when 2.5mm thick! |
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| Then I started gluing on the braces..... |
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| And grafts to support the centre join. |
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| And that's the back ready! |
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| Next I prepared the fingerboard. I planed this down to 3mm thick. |
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| After trimming the board to final dimensions (51mm wide at the nut, 64mm wide at the soundhole) I marked out for the frets. Using a straightedge clamped in the correct positions I cut the slots with a backsaw. |
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| This guitar has no fret due to the strings being very high off the fingerboard to make playing with a slide easier. So I used maple veneer instead to give a visual guide when playing. This will be scraped flush when the glue dries. |
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