The Build Process - Photo Gallery
Matching quartersawn top halves
Edge jointing top plates
Checking the joint for gaps
Sawing out plate profiles
Fitting rosette tiles into a routed channel
Rosette tiles glued and sanded flat
Routed rosette purfling ring channels
Fitting rosette purfling rings
Leveling rosette purfling rings
Cutting out the soundhole
Resawing brace stock
Splitting brace stock
Fitted X-brace lap joint
Cutting glued braces to length
Paring braces to shape
Roughed-in bracing
Finished Bracing
Inlay cutting
Routing inlay cavity
Bending sides
Marking side profiles
Trimming sides
Gluing kerfed linings
Completing side linings
Trimming tail block to shape
Shaping side braces
Gluing soundbox closed
Laminating binding and purfling
Bending binding to fit side rabbet channels
Trimming purfling miter joints
Fitting binding
Laminated neck stack
Neck laminations undergoing clamping
Neck channels routed
Rough neck shaping with an angle grinder
Neck shape refinig with a Microplane rasp
Final neck shaping with a tapered half-round rasp
Final neck contour
Fingerboard binding
Radius sanding the fingerboard
Cut frets on leveled, polished, and oiled fingerboard
Trimming fret ends to fit the binding with an undercutting nibbler
Pressing frets into place
Trimming fret ends
Beveling fret ends
Masking off the fingerboard and marking the fret tops prior to leveling
Crowning frets after leveling
Rounding fret ends
Polishing frets with MicroMesh abrasives
Stages of bridge fabrication
Bridge layout
Sawing the bridge to shape
Belt sanding the rough bridge contours
Final bridge shaping on the spindle sander
Final wood prep sanding
Body after final spray coats
Level sanding the finish
Buffing the finish
Body after buffing
Gluing the bridge
Clearing jelled excess hide glue
Fitting tapered bridge pins
Fitting the nut blank
Nut layout
Nut slotting
Starting a P90 pickup wind
Hand-winding the pickup