Progress on the Healdsburg Guitars

I started the top for one of the guitars that will be going with me to Healdsburg Guitar Festival in August. This is a very colorful Carpathian top, the guitar is for MarkC, it will have a Flamed Mahogany back and sides that will be sunburst, and a very special headstock inlay.

Here is a nice start on a set of Malaysian Blackwood sides, the back to this guitar can be seen on my main site. This will also be headed west in August.

Good weekend

This past weekend my family and I went to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Mi, just outside Detroit. I have not been there since I was in elementary school. Needless today I was MORE impressed this time :-) Here are a few images from our trip.

Close-up of the side reinforcements.

Here you can see the adirondack side reinforcements I use. Thought this was a cool shot..

Top bracing

Greetings all! Here are a few photos showing how I go about bracing an OMFS top. I will document the voicing sequence as well. The following images show the top with the X brace glued up, then the Rock Maple Bridge plate, which I have thinned to .070, followed by the finger braces. All of the braces are full size and will be paired down in the voicing process.

Sound hole and rosette tooling

I thought it might be interesting to post a few pictures of how I did this rosette and the tool that I use. This is a Bishop Cochran plunge router base with a Porter Cable 310 laminate trimmer. The 310 is the smoothest running trimmer I have ever used. Here you can see the channels that were cut to accept the Brazilian rosewood ring, as well as the outer purflings. After the rosette is has been fit, glued and leveled (as seen in my earlier blog entries, I return with the router and cut out the sound hole. Here you see placement of the bit, and after the cut. Enjoy!

Rosette Update

Same Rosette, different day :)
Today I leveled the rosette for this top, reveling what it will actually look like. I am pleased. The lines are sharp and the Brazilian is a nice contrast to the LS Redwood top.

Brazilian Rosewood Rosette

This is a Brazilian Rosewood rosette inlaid into an Master Grade LS Redwood top. This guitar will feature a Rosette, bridge and headstock overlay, all cut from the same piece of Brazilian rosewood and all having a very classy sapwood feature. I cant wait to see them all together!
This rosette of course has not been leveled yet, that will come later today.