KMG Ditson - Walnut and Sitka Spruce

[Kevin in California]

I was just teasing Daniel. The shavings look cool. Nothing like a super sharp hand plane

[Daniel P]

[Daniel P]

[Daniel P]

The Mega Mold is a great tool - in a matter of 15 minutes I had switched it from the 00-12 setup, to the Ditson 12 fret setup.

As suggested when using reverse rounded kerfing, I'm doing the pre-bending around the outside of the guitar. Lightly spray the cedar kerfing with water, wrap in foil or plastic wrap for a a few minutes, and then gently bend in place around the sides. The Ditson's gentle curves were easy for the cedar kerfing to conform to - the 00-12 required a little more coaxing.

I'm finding it easier to keep the neck and tail blocks centered and square if I glue in the back kerfing first, and then glue in the top kerfing. I haven't seen an problems with doing so yet. It allows me to seat the blocks square to the mold, and shim if necessary.

[Daniel P]

Ditson back brace spacing.

I'm getting ready to glue in the spruce back seam reinforcement and before doing so I mark the back brace center lines to be sure I seam the reinforcement at these braces.

From the neck block
4.5"
7.75"
10.375"
14.625"

While I have every reason to trust the numbers, the layout spacing looks unusual. I'm used to seeing more even intervals between back braces. Were the Ditson back braces set at uneven intervals for a specific reason?

Photo shows rough placement on measured center lines.

[Daniel P]

Someone must have some thoughts on back bracing to share?

Is there a reason the 2nd and 3rd back braces are spaced closer together?

[Dave Bagwill]

Dan - I'm not sure. I've built 2 of the KMG Ditsons and it seems to me that the spacing was very standard looking. Are those measurements from the stencil/template?