The assembly of the guitar body is presented here. Unfortunately some pictures were lost showing the gluing of the sides to the soundboard. That process involves gluing a thin strip of wood with slots in it for flexibility (kerfing) to the edge of the sides. This creates a thicker surface to glue between the sides and the soundboard, and it becomes apparant later on why this is structurally necessary.

The first picture shows a thin strip of wood glued to the sides in preparation for the back. This strip, called lining, is not slotted like it is with the soundboard. That means that the lining had to be bent like the sides using the bending pipe. I am not sure why this is done, but it may affect the rigidity of the joint.

I thought I had plenty of spring clamps, but had to run to Home-Depot to buy more just to glue one binding to the side.


After the binding are glued to the sides, they are slotted to fit the bracings of the back snuggly.


This is a painstaking process where each slot is carefully measured and then carved to perfectly fit the brace like a glove.


The last time we see the guitar open.



The back is glued onto the body, then tied down firmly to dry over-night. I learned my lesson using cheap twine. It broke 5 or 6 times while I was wrapping it around the guitar. I had to use some interesting manuevering to hold the broken end with my mouth while tying it so that the tension won't be lost.


She looks nice!


Next: Ornaments

Construction