Sycamore pair of guitars

 A pair of sycamore wood guitars in the style of a 19th Century Martin.

1858 Martin

waxwing

mahogany

Flaws

Finishing

Moby guitar Inlay

Working on the headstock inlay for the Moby guitar.


This is cheater MOP, so thin you can cut it with a knife or scissors, but so thin it needs a backer so the background color does not show through.

French polish

 The covered pad used to apply shellac.




Inside the pad is a square of wool sewn up with cotton balls stuffed inside.



To apply, drops of shellac are injected inside the wool pad until it is slightly moist on the bottom.  The cotton cover is wrapped around it.  The shellac is applied by wiping the surface to be finished with long, fast strokes.

Terrawhistle Kermodie left handed cutaway on Ebay

Sycamore

A couple of classical guitars to be built from sycamore for the backs and sides.  The sycamore lumber was part sapwood and part heartwood.  I sawed the planks to make one set of sapwood and one set of heartwood.
The light colored set will have an Englemann spruce top and the dark colored set will have an Alpine Western red cedar top from Mario DaCosta. 
From left to right, spruce brace wood, Spanish cedar for necks, Englemann, sycamore sapwood, sycamore heartwood, red cedar top.
I have a mahogany guitar in the works, but I can go ahead and resaw and thickness the sycamore and sticker it up so it has time to settle while the mahogany guitar is being finished up.
I also have a half dozen guitars to inlay and put a finish on.


 

Frets on

truss rod

Clamping down on the truss rod to make sure it bends.

truss rods

Truss rods for acoustic guitar necks

Acoustic guitar bridge

 The rough shaped bridge



And its placement on the body.

Neck and fretboard fitting and fretting

A lot goes on that's not in the picture.  The sides of the neck were straightened and the fretboard was sized down to fit the neck.  Then the neck was attached to the body to make sure the fretboard is on the same plane as the body and aligned along the centerline of the top.
Frets are now being cut.

Fret slots

Next to do is glue the fretboard to the neck.
There are index pins at the 1st & 12th fret slots to keep the fretboard from slipping when the clamps are applied.

Fretboard

 This fretboard is a piece of very old rosewood.  Very dark, with a ring tone like a marimba key.

It has been trimmed and has a radius applied to it. 
It's ready for fretting.

Working the neck