OK, patch glued, soundhole cut, X-brace glued, carved then the top glued to the sides.......




followed by the fret markers on the fingerboard.






the Les Paul now has the faceplate painted black to match the body,


and here's a mock up with the body & neck attached and the shiny bits arranged in place. Once the bindings are scraped I'll put on a couple of coats of clear acrylic on the outside for an extra depth of gloss. still have to stain the fingerboard, fit the fret markers (on the top edge) drill the tuner holes and then glue the whole lot together and spend a week swearing at the soldering!! stll have to decide on the pick-up rings too. Black (as here) chrome or cream to match the binding.

back on track with the mando, the sides aren't cracked this time, the linings are in and the back is glued on.

the soundhole support patch is glued on and the X brace is cut and curved, ready to glue on as soon as the sound hole is cut.
After a fair bit of wet & drying on the Les Paul we have a first coat of black on there.....

and a mock up with the shiny bits in place.

still have to get those frets on there.....

Good news or bad news first? well, I took the mando out of the mould todat and the edge is cracked. there was a little curve in the grain and the fibres just let go. I tried a fix with glue, but it was far from invisible, so it goes in the bin.


a new set of sides with straighter grain were duely bent, and a new back glued up. good news?

















well, l was able to salvage the old back to cut for the rosette.......











the top is cut out slightly too big. Here it is with the neck to give a sense of scale....

Using a tank cutter I cut a donut from what was to be the back.........

then a cut the same size on the top, adjust for the inner diameter and cut the top and the donut again.

then using a dremel in a router attachment, remove the wood on the top between the two circular cuts.

put the walnut donut in the resultant track

a little maple purlfing inside & outside fills in the thickness of the cutter and gives a better line of definition between the walnut & spruce.

finally once the glue has dried, plane it down nice & flat.

and the Les Paul? today I drilled the holes for the posts for the bridge & tailpiece & routed the slots for the pickups.

then they came out again for another coat of primer (after the filler was sanded out.)

bits & pieces on the mandonaught today......

the back braces carved and the back glued onto the sides.....

then the spruce top was glued and weighted under a pile of books to dry.......

and the neck.....

start with a big lump of walnut. cut the face angle for the headstock, the rout the trussrod slot and glue on the fingerboard

(with a thin veneer of mahogany, just for looks.....)


Then once that's dry on to the band sawto rough cut the profile.......



then a little carving and sanding and it starts to look like a neck!!

Tricia's guitar all done!!!, So summing up what's what.......Back & sides: Granadillo, Top: Cedar, Neck: Mahogany with Sycamore centre strip (and rosewood/mahogany wings on the headstock), maple binding, Rosewood fingerboard & bridge, Bone nut & saddle.

What can I say about granadillo? looks a bit like mahogany but as hard as hard stuff. You could sand it from now til christmas and not make a scratch in it. It's like sanding the pavement!! It SMELLS nice & spicy though but leaves a little peppery heat up the nostrils.......the segmented rosette was a first too, the pale lines are maple, the dark segments are offcuts of the granadillo.



















Other stuff was the braces glued onto the back of the latest Mandonaught and the first few coats of "look for what needs filled" primer on the Les Paul

busy day!! firstly The Americelt Mandonaught progresses..... the sides trimmed to length then the neck & tail blocks glued in place.....
and then the linings glued into one side. As it's not a cutaway I can wait til it comes out of the mould to decide which will be the top side depending on smoothness of the bend, colour, grain etc. I'll glue the other side's linings in tomorrow.

Ever wondered how to cut the kerfed linings so they bend round the sides? Well, if you DID, it's like this!!

The Les Paul has been sanded and left ready to paint. the bindings are scraped and all is ready for the first coat of primer.
there's the maple mando I started all those weeks ago when I broke the maple side of what I was hoping would be a guitar....... Here it is in all it's glory with back & sides joined. It now has the top linings in place too.....
And Tricia's guitar now has the bridge on. the nut is cut, the tuners are in place, but the screws aren't in yet. Looking forward to strings on by wednesday? Definitely Thursday!!!

well, last night after an exchange of emails, I got another commission for a mandonaught. The victim, Sorry CUSTOMER is a pro guitarist from Dundee so I'm obviously gonna do my best for him (as I do for everyone). The spec is stil a little in the air as far as electrics are concerned, but we're go on a walnut back & sides, spruce top and rosewood fingerboard.

today I got the chance to raid the wood pile, so here are the back & sides planed to thickness before joining the back or bending the sides.......

and here they are again 2 hours later (had to teach a class.....) with the sides bent and clamped in the mould and the back joined and cut to rough shape.

Once they've had a while to dry out the clamps come off and the neck and tail blocks go in, followed by the linings before the back is stuck on.

other work today was another three coats of varnish on Tricia's mini Jumbo.....

HOPEFULLY this is all it'll need. A week to dry hard then a few hours with wet and dry will leave it ready for the bridge to go on.

Yesterday I got 14 frets onto the les Paul.

Ah well, a week off now cos it's half term. back at it then, but for now, that's it!!