March 29th 2013

I am still getting ready to spray. With everything together I checked the neck angle again and found it was angled back a bit more than I like. I was too high at the saddle and I had a gap at the end of the fret board. I had the body angle checked before I glued up the box. I was pleased to see that the gap to the body at fret board end corresponded to the extra height at the saddle.

I used a straight edge on the fret board and measured the gap at the bridge and decided I wanted to lower it by 1/8". So the heel is a about 3.5" and the 12 fret to the saddle distance is about 12.5" so I calculated that I wanted to remove about 1/32 of an inch of wood from the cheeks at the fret board end. (1/8*3.4/12.5).

I placed some tape to closely mark out what I wanted the neck angle to be placed the neck in my parrot vise, sharpened my chisel and very carefully remove the wood on the cheeks to the line I wanted. Cleaned it with a sharpened very small scrapper and tried it on the guitar.

I was very close with the angle but slightly off center. I used a scrapper to take a bit off of one cheek to bring the neck back to center, checked the neck on the guitar and breathed a sigh of relief.

April 7th 2013

I finished spraying the guitar with EM6000 water based lacquer, but I need to wait until next weekend to buff it out. I am really glad to go back to EM6000 after my Em7000 disaster. This water base lacquer is a lot easier to spay, it really levels well, basically really forgiving. Also it is not so blue. I did take the time set up the sprayer each and every time with a film thickness gauge, a little metal card you scrap on a test spray, to assure I was spraying around 3 mils. It is nice to get almost no orange peel and no drips.

April 13th 2013

I wet sanded the finish with 800p and buffed it out. I am quite happy with the way it looks, I need to glue on the bridge make a nut and saddle ... Still I am excited to show the progress.

April 15th 2013

It is done. I made this guitar for a 23 year old niece of mine who asked me for a guitar. It has a sinker redwood top, bubinga back and sides plus rosette and head stock veneer. It is styled after a Martin 00 guitar. Forward X brace. I made mine a little lite on the braces but I did follow a 00 Martin bracing pattern.