This American sycamore and red spruce guitar is coming right along. I’ve completed the woodworking and am deep into the finishing. The box sounds and looks wonderful–sycamore has almost unbelievable figure naturally and my previous sycamore guitars have given me some good practice on getting the most out of this wood. The adjustable neck joint front loads a lot of what is typically final setup work, so this guitar will be playable very soon!
The top and back plate are braced and ready for assembly.
The sycamore back is attached to the rim assembly first.
The channel for the back binding has been routed.
The binding and purfling need to be bent before attempting to install them.
I work the neck with a spokeshave, forming facets that echo the general profile to be refined later by rasp.
Binding and purfling have been installed and scraped flush. I’ve also cut the neck pocket.
The neck has been fretted–I love the all-black look on this guitar..
I’ve slotted the headstock and shaped and sanded the transtions and overall shape.
All profiled and ready for finishing!
With a porous wood like sycamore, the first finishing step is filling the pores.
Pore filled applied and mostly sanded back to wood.
Next, the body is dyed and then sealed with shellac. The figure comes to life!
