November 30th 2017

I made some progress. Since the last post I sprayed the guitar with post catalyzed Royal Lac a hardened shellac product.

While the finish was curing I laid up a Brazilian Rosewood bridge blank with two sheets of 5.7 OK 3k plain weave carbon fiber sheet. While I was at it a laid up a blank for my next classical as well. I used a template to drill the holes and to cut out the bridge shape on a bandsaw. I cleaned up the shape on a small drum sander in my drill press.











I used my luthier's friend [url]http://www.luthiersfriend.com/[/url] to make the wings of the bridge. I love this jig. I use it for bridges and to thickness saddles and nuts.

I did not slot it, The location is already set by the pin holes in the top. I first wanted to get the neck angle right so ultimately I will slot it on the guitar.

After the top finish cured I set the bridge and traced around it with a scalpel.



I used razor blades and chisels to clear the finish. I do the bulk using a straight edge razor blade as scraper. I clean the edges with a sharp chisel. With the chisel I work from the inside to the score line. If I am carefull the finish just clears right to the line scored in the finish.

At this point I also made sure the neck was centered and double checked that the bridge will be properly square to the neck. THe bridge was square but if it was not and not too fare off I would have made the neck square to the bridge.



I used a vacuum clamp to glue the bridge on once I was happy.



Starting to look like a guitar.



I use the stewmac jig to route the slot. I really like this tool. Once set routing on the guitar is a breeze.

For the fret markers I went back and forth on the fret markers deciding between pearl diamonds, MOB swallows and gold MOB swallows. My client liked the swallows, I thought the white worked the best. I laid out the gold but was never happy with the way they looked.



To route the pockets for the inlays, I glued them down with a dab of instrument makers glue and trace the out line with a .5 mm mechanical pencil.

I tape down a thin purfling strip on the sides of the fret board so the bottom of the routed pocket was flat. The swallows were lone enough that I could have cracked a feather trying to fit them to the radius.

messy with CA glue but they cleaned up





I thought I was golden until I tried to install the tuning machines and found out I thicknessed the steel string headstock for a classical guitar. About 4 mm too thick!

I pulled out the safety planer and thicknessed it properly to 15 mm and reworked the transition into the neck . Now it looks good but I need to refinish the back of the head stock.

December 30th 2017

I finished this guitar. Falcate braced western red cedar top

Cocobolo back and sides

Australian blackwood bindings

Brazilian Rosewood bridge and headstock veneer

Post Catalyzed Royal Lac finish











You can hear it, sorry about my playing.