rosette work today.

00 zouk first...

marked out on a piece of scrap.... and the segments marked cut and glued down



then cut out to make a donut shape with a fly cutter....





cutaway jumbo marked out.....



segments cut and stuck down with superglue (CA)



cut round with a fly cutter....



same slots cut in top....



and track cut out with dremel.

I was then ejected from the building by the caretaker (janitor to the Americans)so assembly can continue tomorrow!

cutaway mando bridge pin holes reamed & pins fitted.



there are strings on it!!!



getting the wire for th pick-up out through that little hole to join onto the strap-jack is a LITTLE tricky, but with a little ingenuity and a crocodile clip on a cable........





the OM is pretty much done except for a little setting up.

I'll leave the mando & OM for a week or two to let them settle under the string tension before tidying up the last few wee tweeks and getting them off to thier new owners.

I MAY have to record a little something with them before they go.......







and the cutaway Jumbo is properly under way. the ends of the bent sides are trimmed and this is the back view, the biggest of the offcuts in the middle will become the cutaway



the tail block is glued in.

OM pickup.

hole drilled for strap jack......



then after the cable cut to length & soldered......



the 00 zouk is out of the mould & the back trimmed......



and the cutaway jumbo sides are bent.

yes, I KNOW that the cutaway isn't.... well..... cutaway yet, but it will be!!

so, bridge onto the mando.

work out the correct place by using my bridge placement jig. this uses the strings to hold the bridge in place while it's slid into place.



then it's cut around with a very sharp blade....



the finish is removed from inside the cut



and then the bridge is glued in place



meanwhile the OM has the pickup fitted inside the bridge and a hole through the top. the hole is small enough to be invisible under the bridge, and still allow about 5mm movement for intonation adjustment



truss rod covers for both the OM and the mando.....



and the back is glued onto the 00 zouk

lots of little bits here & there.....

back bracing on the 00 zouk...



bridges of the OM & cutaway mando. the OM bridge is hollowed out to make it lighter and this is them after a first coar of varnish.



the tops of the jumbo & zouk...



after a couple of passes through the planer the rosewood for the jumbo is awful perty!!



here's the back joined.



and heres roughly what it might look like. I'll make the body mould from this template

modifying the piezo pickups for 4 courses of strings today.

I've discovered that you can get 4 + 2 piezo strips for guitars that heave a split saddle like a Lowden for 1/3 the price of a 4 course strip.

even though it's EXACTLY the same except it has the extra 2 course strip joined on.

scale of market drives the price I guess....

anyway, I can get these here in the UK were as the same brand of piezos for a mando can only be had from the US or the Far East with the associated postage costs.

so, after some deft work with a set of pliers, a soldering iron and a heat shrink gun, we have this......

a custom made 4 course piezo strip ready for the OM or mando.

I made two.



then I did a little work on the bridge of the OM, re cutting the string slots and setting the intonation.



If I get the chance to work at it, this will be finished by the end of next week.

so far it's sounding very nice, soft and gentle with the short scale, but if the new owner wants more punch, then a heavier gauge of strings will sort that with very little aggro.

also today the madagascar Rosewood arrived for the cutaway jumbo.

very pretty, but as I know the price, I'm nearly scared to even look at it let alone start to cut it!!

the bearclaw sitka top for the jumbo is too wavy with the grain to take anywhere near the planer, so it'll have to be thicknessed with a handheld sander.....



but the bearclaw is gonna be gorgeous under finish!!



spent a little time with the cutaway mando. Levelled the frets & tidied the fret ends, and rough cut the nut



and then started work on the bridge.

We had talked about maybe a pinless bridge, but I'm just too paranoid about it pulling off the top of the instrument with all that mando tension on there.



the piezos for this and the OM arrived in the post today, so all the bits are here to get them done soon.

OM, the rest of the strings on.

it starts to look like something!!

the bridge is heavy because it will have a piezo inside it, so once I have that sorted I'll hollow it out to reduce weight & allow the top to vibrate that little more freely.

the pickup for this and the cutaway mando are in the post, so when they get here I'll get these both finished & set up.

finished for Christmas?

looking VERY likely!!



00 zouk, neck block fitted.....



linings glued in



started on a cutaway jumbo

the top is bearclaw sitka spruce from Alaska.



top joined.

yay, new camera!!!

so some work on the OM.

frets levelled & dressed



then after tidying off any finish that crept onto the fretboard, it is oiled, and work on the bridge starts



then a slot cut for the bone saddle & piezo, and a couple of strings to get an idea of how things are laying.....

so after two weeks to let the finish harden nicely, the tuner holes on the mando and OM were reamed out to clear any varnish and the tuners go on. I haven't got them tightened or the screws in yet, but at least they're in place!!